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History
of Electric Generator |
1831 |
Michael Faraday (1791-1867) builds the first electric generator,
the "Faraday disk", proving that rotary mechanical power
can be converted into electric power. The race for a practical
generator begins. |
|
1832-1860 |
Various generator schemes are tried, mostly employing permanent
magnets to create the necessary magnetic field. Ampère and Pixii
make the first hand-cranked version (1832); C.G. Page proposed a
reciprocating analogue of the steam engine (1850); and H. Wilde
made the commercially successful Alliance generator (1866) for
powering arc lamps in lighthouses. (An interesting side note: much
of the clever work to improve generators was done by instrument
makers, such as E.M. Clarke of London, who used galvanic current
to "cure" illnesses.) All of these generators employed
permanent magnets. |
|
1866 |
Werner Siemens (1816-1892) perfects the dynamo, a generator in
which part of the generator's working current is used to power the
field windings, eliminating both the need for permanent magnets
and one of the basic limits to generating electric power. Several
other inventors, including Wheatstone and Wilde, reached almost
the same design at almost the same time, but there is no doubt
that Siemens had priority. |
|
1880-1890 |
Arc lamps were common by 1880, but were difficult
to maintain. Thomas Edison (1847-1931) found a simpler solution:
in 1879, he perfected a practical incandescent light. More
importantly, he subsequently developed and marketed all the bits
and pieces for a complete distribution system: underground cables,
electric meters, wiring, fuses, switches, and sockets. Although
Edison initially was a proponent of DC, when Westinghouse and
Tesla promoted more efficient AC, he eventually switched. By 1882,
Edison had installed three 125-horsepower "Jumbo"
generators at the Pearl Street Station in New York, which fed
power to 5,000 lamps in 225 houses. By 1895, electricity was
widely available in commercial sections of large cities. |
Useful general references:
- Sigvard Strandh, A History of the Machine, 1979. ISBN
0-89479-025-0. New York: A&W Publishers.
- S.S. Hall, Inventors and Discoveries: the Age of Electricity,
1988. New York: National Geographic Society
http://www.pixii.com/apparatus.htm
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List of metals for science experiments
Electric Generator
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