Development History of Transformers

On August 29, 1831, Faraday invented a "inductance ring" called the "Faraday induction coil", which is actually the prototype of a transformer in the world. But Faraday only used it to demonstrate the principle of electromagnetic induction and did not consider its practical use.

In 1881, Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs demonstrated a device called a "secondary hand generator" in London, and then sold the technology to Westinghouse in the United States, which may be a practical power transformer.

In 1884, Lucien Goral and John Dixon Gibbs demonstrated their equipment in Turin, Italy, using electric lighting. Early transformers used linear cores, which were later replaced by more effective circular cores.

Westinghouse engineer William Stanley purchased transformer patents from George Westinghouse, Luther Gerald, and John Dixon Gibbs and manufactured practical transformers in 1885. Later, the iron core of the transformer was composed of E-shaped iron sheets stacked together and began commercial use in 1886.

The principle of transformer transformation was first discovered by Faraday, but it was not until the 1880s that it began to be applied in practice. In the competition between DC and AC power output in power plants, the ability to use transformers for AC power is one of its advantages. Transformers can convert electrical energy into high voltage and low current forms, and then convert them back, greatly reducing the loss of electrical energy during the transmission process, making the economic transmission distance of electrical energy even longer. In this way, power plants can be built far away from electricity consumption. Most of the world"s electricity reaches users through a series of voltage transformations.