US Patent: 120,057
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| Improvement in magneto-electric machines
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Patentees:
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| Eardley Louis Charles d'Ivernois (exact or similar names) - Paris, France |
| Zénobe-Théophile Gramme (exact or similar names) - Paris, France |
| Manufacturer: |
| Not known to have been produced |
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Patent Dates:
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| Granted: |
Oct. 17, 1871 |
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Jeff Joslin
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Description: |
| Zénobe Gramme was a Belgian-born electrical experimenter; The comte d'Ivernois (Count of Ivernois) was his financial backer. Gramme was reportedly repelled by the mess of conventional electric batteries and set out to design and build a dynamo, i.e., a DC generator, for converting rotary physical movement to electrical energy, and in 1869 he succeeded. In 1871 he developed a generator for AC power. This patent describes both, and while generators were not a new idea, Gramme's generators could create much higher voltages which had lower transmission losses compared to lower-voltage systems of similar power output.In that same year of 1871 Gramme and the comte d'Ivernois established a company, la Société des Machines magnéto-électriques Gramme. Another electrical experimenter, Hippolyte Fontaine of France, was the director of this new firm. In 1873 Fontaine discovered that Gramme's generator, if connected to an electrical power source, could act as an electric motor. This was a key insight that contributed to the ensuing adoption of electricity: generators were driven by an energy source such as a water wheel or a steam engine, and supplied electricity across a distribution network to electric lights and motors. AC system would prove superior to DC systems because they allowed the use of high-voltage transmission lines to improve efficiency, then step-down transformers reduced voltage for safer use in homes and factories.In 1875 Nikola Tesla first saw a Gramme dynamo and became intrigued with the potential of AC electrical systems. It took several years before he made serious progress but he would eventually make significant improvements to AC motors: see, e.g., patent 381,968. |
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