The Invention of Electric Generator

Electric Generator

The electric generator is also known as Dynamo. An electronic generator is an instrument that converts mechanical energy into Electrical energy. the source of mechanical energy is different for different types of electricity generators, it includes water turbines, gas turbines, and wind turbines.  Today Electronic generators are in common use in our life. Many companies are manufacturing different types of generators. Based on the type of power generated, there are 2 types of generators- 1. AC generator 2. DC generator.

Beginning of Electric Generators 

The early 1700s was a period of steam engines which are later referred to as Electric generators. In the mid-1700s, James watt named person had upgraded the steam engine's configuration. he had found massive energy loss in operation. it also required a lot of heat in starting. so James watt developed a net steam engine known as WATT STEAM ENGINE. 

After Watt's invention, the era of the industrial invention has begun. many people were trying to find any new developments in this industry. Development of the Engine was begun. all this led to the starting of the Electric generator invention.

Development of  Electric Generator 

The 1800s was the era for the development of electric generators. two scientists Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry have given their major contributions to the invention of the Electric Generator. Michael Faraday has also given a great contribution to the invention of Electricity.

The first generator made by Michael was dependent on the magnetic Principle. This generator worked by rotating two magnets within the poles around it. This old generator produced a high current of electricity with a low voltage.

Faraday also built the first electromagnetic generator which was called the Faraday disk. this Electric Generator uses a copper disk rotating between the horseshoes shaped magnet. 

Subsequent Development of Generators 

The Electric Generators produced by  Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry in the 1830s were little more than laboratory curiosities. It was a Belgian industrialist and electrical engineer, Zénobe Théophile Gramme (1826- 1901), who developed, in 1869, the first high-voltage, smooth, direct-current generator. 

In 1871 Gramme and the French engineer Hippolyte Fontaine entered a manufacturing partnership. In 1873 the pair discovered that their dynamo machine was reversible and could thus be converted into an electric motor. Their 1873 exhibit at the Vienna Exposition convinced the world of the ease of generating electricity and conversely that electricity could be reliably utilized to do heavy work.

 By 1880 Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti had patented the Ferranti dynamo, a machine that he developed with the help of William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin).

The efficiency of the Ferranti System was favored by Thomas Edison and Westinghouse company. The social and commercial implications of Faraday's revolutionary electric Generator invention were hue. so that no it becomes possible to create energy efficient and distribute it on large scale.