Electric generator and self-excited dynamo
Generador eléctrico y dinamo autoexcitada
- Date
- 1832-1867 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France (Pixii); Berlin, Germany (Siemens); London (Wheatstone)
- Credited to
- Hippolyte Pixii (1832); Werner von Siemens, Charles Wheatstone and S. A. Varley (self-excited dynamo, 1866-1867)
- People
- 👤 Charles Wheatstone1802–1875👤 Hippolyte Pixii1808–1835👤 Werner von Siemens1816–1892
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A machine converting motion into electricity through induction; Pixii built the first hand-cranked version, and Siemens/Wheatstone discovered in 1866-67 that the machine's own residual field could self-excite it without permanent magnets. This opened the way to large-scale electricity generation.
Siemens, Wheatstone and Varley announced the dynamo-electric principle almost simultaneously (1866-67); Ányos Jedlik had described it in Hungary in 1856-61 without it becoming known.
What it led to
- Electric arc lighting in lighthouses and factories (1870s)
- Power stations and distribution networks (1880s)
- Industrial electroplating
- Electrometallurgy (aluminium, 1886)
Built on
- Electric motor1821-1834
- Electromagnet1824-1825
- Electromagnetic induction1831
- Steam engine (as prime mover)
Made possible
- Electrically lit lighthouse (South Foreland)1858
- Lead-acid rechargeable battery1859
- First house lit by hydroelectricity (Cragside)1878
- Cragside, first house lit by hydroelectricity1878
- Practical incandescent light bulb1879
- Brush arc lamp and public lighting1876-1879
- Siemens electric locomotive at the Berlin Trade Fair1879
- Electric elevator1880–1889
- Electric tram (streetcar)1881–1888
- Godalming public electricity supply1881
- Pearl Street power station1882
- Steam turbine1884
- Hall-Héroult aluminium process1886
- First electricity-generating wind turbine (Blyth)1887
- AC induction motor1888
- Electric chair1890
- Arc welding1881–1890
- First geothermal electricity (Larderello)1904 (planta de 1913)
- Thury high-voltage direct-current system1889-1906
- Incandescent lamp
- Industrial electrolysis