Marathon motor

Electric Motors

By Manney

  • 1800

    Alessandro Volta invents the first electric battery and he proved that electicity could travel over wires.

  • 1816

    First energy utility is US founded

  • 1820

    Hans Christian Oersted observed that electrical currents affect the needle on a compass.

  • 1820

    Marie Ampere discovered that a coil of wires acted like a magnet when a current passed through it.

  • 1820

    D.F. Arago invented the electromagnet.

  • 1821

    Michael Faraday invents the first electric motor

  • 1831

    Faraday discovers the principles of electromagnetism induction, generation, and transmission.

  • 1835

    Hippolyte Pixii builts the first alternator. Pixii builds a device with a rotating magnet.

  • 1837

    First industrial electric motors

  • 1839

    First fuel cell invented by Sir William Robert Grove

  • 1841

    J.P. Joule's law of electrical heating published

  • 1873

    James Clerk Maxwell wrote equations that described the electromagnetic field, and predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves traveling with the speed of light.

  • 1878

    Edison Electric Light Co. (US) and American Electric and Illuminating (Canada) founded.

  • 1879

    London: Walter Baily makes a copper disc rotate using alternating current.

  • 1879

    First commercial power station opens in San Francisco, uses Charles Brush generator and arc lights. First commercial arc lighting system installed, Cleveland, Ohio.

  • 1879

    Thomas Edison demonstrates his incandescent lamp, Menlo Park, New Jersey.

  • 1881

    Niagra Falls, New York; Charles Brush dynamo, connected to turbine in Quigley's flour mill lights city street lamps.

  • 1882

    The first hydroelectric power station opens in Wisconsin.

  • 1882

    Nikola Tesla identifies the rotating magnetic induction field principle.

  • 1883

    The electric transformer is invented. Thomas Edison introduces the "three-wire" transmission system.

  • 1885

    Galileo Ferraris researched the concept of poly-phase induction motor

  • 1886

    Nikola Tesla tries to sell his AC power system to investors in New York City, but it fails to be of interest in a city which is already heavily invested in DC power systems.

  • 1886

    Great Barrington, Massachusetts - the first full AC power system in the world is demonstrated using step up and step down transformers. The system was built by William Stanley and funded by Westinghouse.

  • 1886

    William Stanley designs an improved version of the Siemens single phase alternator

  • 1886

    Elihu Thomson's AC power system is rejected by the patent office. Westinghouse is already far ahead, having sold its system commercially already.

  • 1886

    William Stanley develops transformer and Alternating Current electric system. Frank Sprague builds first American transformer and demonstrates use of step up and step down transformers for long distance AC power transmission in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The Westinghouse Electric Company is organized. 40 to 50 water powered electric plants reported on line or under construction in the U.S. and Canada.

  • 1886

    November - Buffalo, New York receives the first commercial AC power system in the USA. This system designed by George Westinghouse, William Stanley, and Oliver B. Shallenberger

  • 1887

    C.S. Bradley builds the first AC 3 phase generator. Up until this time Siemens and Westinghouse had been producing single phase AC generators. The 3 phase system would be a great improvement.

  • 1887

    Sabastian Ferranti designs Depford Power Station in London. When it is completed in 1891 it would be an important early site in AC power history.

  • 1888

    Second Industrial Revolution initiated by the introduction of Tesla's motor.

  • 1888

    Tesla invented Alternating Current (AC) making long distance distribution of electrical energy possible.

  • 1889

    Single phase power transmitted 13 miles to Portland at 4,000 volts, stepped down to 50 volts for distribution.

  • 1890

    Michail Osipovich Dolivo-Dobrovolsky invented the three-phase cage rotor.

  • 1891

    Frankfurt, Germany: First distance power transmission (for electric power utility) Lauffen to Frankfurt 109 miles. The entire system was designed by Dobrovsky from generator to electric motor. Many important figures of AC power were invited to the event, at the Congress Dinner Galileo Ferraris was hailed as “the father of three-phase current.”

  • 1892

    General Electric Company formed by the merger of Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric.

  • 1897

    Electron discovered by J. J. Thomson.

  • 1900

    Highest voltage transmission line 60 Kilovolt.

  • 1905

    in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan the first low head hydro plant with direct connected vertical shaft turbines and generators is opened.

  • 1910

    Ernest R. Rutherford measured the distribution of an electric charge within the atom.

  • 1953

    The first 345 Kilovolt transmission line is laid.

  • 1954

    The first high voltage direct current (HVDC) line (20 megawatts/1900 Kilovolts, 96 Km).