Thury high-voltage direct-current system
Sistema Thury de transporte en corriente continua de alta tensión
- Date
- 1889-1906 · confidence medium
- Place
- Moûtiers, Savoy, France
- Credited to
- René Thury
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Thury connected DC dynamos in series and motors at the other end, with regulated constant current, to carry power at tens of kilovolts. The Moûtiers-Lyon line (1906) reached about 180 km.
The earliest sections date from 1889 (Italy) and the Moûtiers-Lyon line worked until 1937. It was a series system, more complex and lossier than AC.
What it led to
- first high-voltage direct-current power transmission
- mercury-arc valves and modern HVDC (Gotland, 1954)
- evidence that DC can compete over long distances