Electrical commutator (Pixii dynamo)
Conmutador eléctrico (dinamo de Pixii)
- Date
- 1832 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Hippolyte Pixii, following a suggestion by André-Marie Ampère
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Parisian instrument-maker Pixii built the first dynamo with a commutator, a rotating contact that periodically reverses the connections to turn the alternating current generated by a coil into usable direct current. The device underlies the direct-current motors and generators developed later.
Wikidata sometimes attributes the commutator to Moritz von Jacobi, a later pioneer of the electric motor; the first documented commutator is that of Pixii's 1832 dynamo.
What it led to
- Direct-current electric motors
- 19th-century industrial generators
Built on
- Ampère and Arago's electromagnet
Made possible
- Pacinotti ring armature1860
- Direct-current electric motor