Lucien Gaulard

Lucien Gaulard (1850 - November 26, 1888) invented devices for the transmission of alternating current electrical energy.

Biography

Gaulard was born in Paris, France.

A power transformer developed by Gaulard of France and John Dixon Gibbs of England was demonstrated in London, and attracted the interest of Westinghouse. Gaulard and Gibbs first exhibited a device in London in 1881 and then sold the idea to the American company Westinghouse. They also exhibited the invention in Turin in 1884, where it was adopted for an electric lighting system. Many of the features of their design were adapted to the particular laws governing electrical distribution in the UK [ Thomas P. Hughes, "Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Societies 1880-1930", Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1983 ISBN 0-8018-2873-2 ]

In 1882, 1884, and 1885 Gaulard and Gibbs applied for patents on their transformer; however, these were overturned due to actions initiated by Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti and others.

In 1885, William Stanley, Jr. built the first practical transformer based on Gaulard and Gibbs's idea, the precursor of the modern transformer. Transformers were nothing new, but the Gaulard-Gibbs design was one of the first that could handle large amounts of power and promised to be easy to manufacture. Westinghouse imported a number of Gaulard-Gibbs transformers and a Siemens AC generator to begin experimenting with AC networks in Pittsburgh.

Gaulard died in an institution (Sainte-Anne Hospital) in Paris, and was said to have lost his reason due to the loss of the patents on his invention [Hughes, pg. 94 ] A tablet was erected to Gaulard at Lanzo. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=0AgAAAAAMAAJ Electric engineer] , Biggs & Co, 1890. Page 271.]

ee also

* Inductor
* Alternating current
* George Westinghouse
* William Stanley

References

;Citations ;General
* [http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/gaulard.html Lucien Gaulard]