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Alessandro Volta invents the first electric battery and he proved that electicity could travel over wires.
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First energy utility is US founded
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Hans Christian Oersted observed that electrical currents affect the needle on a compass.
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Marie Ampere discovered that a coil of wires acted like a magnet when a current passed through it.
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D.F. Arago invented the electromagnet.
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Michael Faraday invents the first electric motor
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Faraday discovers the principles of electromagnetism induction, generation, and transmission.
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Hippolyte Pixii builts the first alternator. Pixii builds a device with a rotating magnet.
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First industrial electric motors
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First fuel cell invented by Sir William Robert Grove
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J.P. Joule's law of electrical heating published
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James Clerk Maxwell wrote equations that described the electromagnetic field, and predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves traveling with the speed of light.
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Edison Electric Light Co. (US) and American Electric and Illuminating (Canada) founded.
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London: Walter Baily makes a copper disc rotate using alternating current.
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First commercial power station opens in San Francisco, uses Charles Brush generator and arc lights. First commercial arc lighting system installed, Cleveland, Ohio.
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Thomas Edison demonstrates his incandescent lamp, Menlo Park, New Jersey.
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Niagra Falls, New York; Charles Brush dynamo, connected to turbine in Quigley's flour mill lights city street lamps.
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The first hydroelectric power station opens in Wisconsin.
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Nikola Tesla identifies the rotating magnetic induction field principle.
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The electric transformer is invented. Thomas Edison introduces the "three-wire" transmission system.
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Galileo Ferraris researched the concept of poly-phase induction motor
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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.
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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.
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William Stanley designs an improved version of the Siemens single phase alternator
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Elihu Thomson's AC power system is rejected by the patent office. Westinghouse is already far ahead, having sold its system commercially already.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Second Industrial Revolution initiated by the introduction of Tesla's motor.
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Tesla invented Alternating Current (AC) making long distance distribution of electrical energy possible.
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Single phase power transmitted 13 miles to Portland at 4,000 volts, stepped down to 50 volts for distribution.
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Michail Osipovich Dolivo-Dobrovolsky invented the three-phase cage rotor.
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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.”
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General Electric Company formed by the merger of Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric.
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Electron discovered by J. J. Thomson.
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Highest voltage transmission line 60 Kilovolt.
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in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan the first low head hydro plant with direct connected vertical shaft turbines and generators is opened.
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Ernest R. Rutherford measured the distribution of an electric charge within the atom.
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The first 345 Kilovolt transmission line is laid.
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The first high voltage direct current (HVDC) line (20 megawatts/1900 Kilovolts, 96 Km).