Electric Generator Information
Since electricity was brought to our homes, life kept getting easier. Inventions that use electrical power to run and that make our activities easier, continue to be developed, including personal computers, TV's and phones. What made it possible is an electric generator--an invention that revolutionized our lifestyles.
Other People Are Reading
-
What is an Electric Generator?
-
An electrical generator uses mechanical energy and converts it to electrical energy. Originally it was called "dynamo" and is based on the "electromagnetic induction" principle--a changing magnetic field causes a voltage in a conductor. It is the opposite of a motor that uses electrical power to generate mechanical power. Some of the sources of mechanical power are water and wind turbines, internal combustion engines, steam engines and compressed air.
History
-
Hans Christian Oersted, a Danish physicist and chemist, discovered that an electric current creates a magnetic field. By reversing this principle, Michael Faraday, an English chemist and physicist, discovered the electromagnetic induction principle and the electric generator in 1831. The generator was called "Faraday Disk,", but was not practical as the electrical flow was not continuous. This marked the start of the race to create a practical generator. Today generators work on the same basic conditions and produce most of the world's electricity.
-
How it works
-
When a magnet gets close to a wire, it forces the electrons in the wire to move. The generator is a device that moves a magnet close to a wire to create a flow of electrons. Either the wire or the magnet has to be continuously moving so the electrons will continue to flow. A mechanical force--even as simple as a crank pushed by hand--will move the magnet or the wire, thus maintaining the electrons' flow.
Types
-
The two main types of electric generators as based on the current they produce. The first type produces Direct Current (DC), which only flows in one direction. The second type produces Alternative Current (AC), which continually reverses direction. They work on the same basis, but are differently constructed to create AC or DC. Inside our homes we use AC as it is safer to be transferred over long distances and it also provides more power.
Applications
-
The electric generators are widely used. The DC generators are still used in older cars and in older machines, as they have DC motors and require DC power. The AC generators are the daily power generators today and are used for buildings power supply, inside cars and as home emergency generators. The generators used in cars are called alternators and have diodes that convert the AC to DC for battery charging.
-
