Since the word “electricity” has several contradictory meanings, there is no answer. Which “electricity” are you asking about? (Alternatively, we can say that there’s no single thing called “electricity,” so the original question has no meaning.)
Here are some sensible answers.
HOW ARE ELECTRONS MADE?
They’re not. All metals contain a ‘sea’ of movable electrons. In metals, the outer electrons of the metal atoms are orbiting among all the atoms as a whole. It’s as if copper wires are full of ‘electrical liquid.’
HOW IS ELECTRIC CURRENT MADE?
Electric current isn’t a stuff, it cannot be “made.” Remember that there’s a big difference between the water in a river and the current in a river. During an electric current, WHAT IS IT THAT MOVES? Current? No, current is the motion. Electric current is caused. What is the stuff that moves? Easy: all metals are full of movable electrons, so if you have a circle of wire, you have a sort of movable ‘conveyor belt’ inside that wire. The ‘belt’ is made of the metal’s movable electrons. (If electrons are particles of ‘electricity’, then we must admit that all metals are full of ‘electricity.’ But so is everything else.) If you can force that ‘conveyor belt’ within the circle of wire to start moving, then you’ve caused an electric current within the metal circle. If our belt of electrons stops moving, then the electric current has vanished. Current can appear and vanish as the metal’s electrons flow forwards or halt. But remember that the electrons are always there even when the current is zero. The movable “liquid” of electrons was always there in the metal even before it was mined and beaten into wires. If electrons in wires are like water in a pipe, then all wires come pre-filled with liquid, and no bubbles are allowed.
HOW IS ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY MADE?
Analogy: an electric generator is like a pulley. Your washing machine is like another distant pulley, and the electrons inside the long wires between the two form a circular “drive belt” which wraps around both pulleys. Turn the first pulley and the distant pulley turns too. By turning the first pulley we inject energy, and if the distant pulley turns, then energy must have moved from the first pulley to the second. It works this way with pulleys and rope, and it also works this way with motors and generators connected by wires. It LOOKS like two wires connect the generator to the distant washing machine. But really it’s just one long circular “conveyor belt”, a circle of wire. In other words, our entire civilization is run by greasy leather drive belts, just as it was with factory steam engines during the industrial revolution. It’s just that today the drive belts are silent, and they’re hidden inside very long narrow metal rods.
HOW DOES AN ELECTRIC GENERATOR WORK?
A generator is an electron pump. It sucks in electrons through the “inlet” wire, and it pumps them out through the “outlet” wire. All metals come pre-filled with movable electron-matter, so if you hook a wire between the generator’s “inlet” and its “outlet”, and if you crank the generator shaft, the electron-stuff within the wire will start moving like a drive belt.
HOW CAN A GENERATOR PUMP ELECTRONS?
If you wave a bar magnet near a metal ring, electrons in the ring will start flowing very slowly around the ring. It’s called “induction”; where the magnet’s invisible field “induces” an electron flow. The changing magnetic field “pumps” the metal’s movable electron-stuff into motion, and the motion inside the circle of metal is like the motion of a circular drive belt. Make a very long stretched-out metal ring, wave a magnet near one end, and all the electron-stuff inside the entire ring will move briefly along like a drive belt. Put another bar magnet near the far end of the ring and the moving electrons will create a magnetic field which causes that second magnet to move. You’ve just used a “generator” to drive a distant “motor!” Now put your two magnets on shafts so they can flip end over end. Flip one magnet, and the distant magnet starts flipping too. Stretch out the metal ring so it’s 100 miles long, and it still works. That’s the basic principle behind “motor”, “generator”, “electric circuit”, and “conductor.” Wasn’t too painful was it?
Most grade school textbooks get this stuff wrong, and the problem never is fixed in higher grades, and even many science teachers have heads full of misconceptions about this stuff. (After all, they were educated by the erroneous books.)
In truth, it’s very easy to explain “electricity.” All you have to do is first to understand it yourself. But if the books are full of misconceptions, how can anyone get a clear understanding? The answer: just act like a scientist. Ignore the books, distrust your teachers, and go find things out on your own. Buy a bunch of parts from Radio Shack and spend a few years futzing with them and figuring out your own explanations. In science, the combined authority of a thousand experts is nothing when it’s compared to a simple experiment. In some situations “amateur science” is just wasting time covering well-trod paths. But where beginners’ electricity is concerned, “amateur science” is the only way to learn the subject without aquiring a mass of twisted concepts that you’ll probably never be able to loose yourself from.
See:
Electricity articles
http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html
Misconceptions taught by grade school textbooks
http://amasci.com/miscon/miscon.html
Amateur Science
http://amasci.com/amasci.html