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44 After a short period as a direct employee of Thomas Alva Edison in New York,
Tesla founded the Tesla Electric Company with help from financial backers in
1887. Here, he continued his own research and realised his ideas. As a result,
he filed a total of seven patents at the New York patent office in October
1887, and these were granted to him in May 1888. These patents described his
discovery of the rotating magnetic field and, among other things, comprised
an asynchronous (induction) machine, a synchronous machine, a polyphase
transformer and energy transmission using polyphase alternating current /2/.
In this way, a scientific basis had been created for simple conversion of elec-
trical energy and for the economical transport of energy over large distances
using high voltages. Tesla’s alternating current system triggered off a huge
demand in the worldwide use of electricity at the end of the 19th century. His
patented inventions made it possible to produce electrical energy, transport
it and, above all, to convert it everywhere into mechanical power.
By means of the direct-current motor developed by Antonio Pacinotti in 1860,
it became possible to produce mechanical force for industrial use. The first
electrical transmissions using direct-current motors were presented to the
public for the first time at the world exhibitions in Vienna in 1873 and in Phil-
adelphia in 1876.
Thomas Alva Edison developed the first direct-current network in the USA,
and the first power station to produce electricity was started up in Pearl
Street, New York, in 1882. In the same year, Edison was able to establish the
direct-current system as an overall concept for production, transmission and
distribution in London. At that time, direct current was used in particular for
electrical lighting installations /2/.
Due to technical problems with the direct current network, direct-current mo-
tors were only used for special machinery in large industrial companies. Com-
panies involved in mass production did without this new form of actuation. As
for alternating current, which emerged in these years, only electrical lighting
installations were connected to the AC network since there were initially no
powerful and reliable AC motors available.
The Niagara Falls
power station:
Direct current or
alternating current?
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Buch Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech"
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Editor’s foreword 8
- Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech 11
- The Graz Tech: A tradition of innovation 12
- Nikola Tesla: Milestones in his life 14
- Nikola Tesla: Student at the Graz Tech 20
- Nikola Tesla: Honorary doctor of technical sciences 28
- People shape the development of the Tech 37
- References 38
- Nikola Tesla: Visionary and Inventor Contributions to scientific and industrial development 41
- Development of electrical engineering from 1850 to 1950 42
- The problem of the commutator 43
- The rotating magnetic field: Polyphase alternating current system 43
- The Niagara Falls power station: Direct current or alternating current? 44
- High frequency, the Tesla transformer and Wardenclyffe Tower 54
- Remote-controlled ships and robots 62
- Hotel room 3327 in New York 64
- Tesla’s innovations: visible in the 21st century 65
- References 65
- Constant development and unrelenting progress is the goal… Stages in the development of the Universalmuseum Joanneum 67
- The main reasons behind its establishment and their classification in the history of museums 70
- Original scope 72
- Outline of the course of development 73
- The early Joanneum (1811 to 1887) 75
- The Joanneum from 1888 to 2002 82
- The State Museum or Universalmuseum Joanneum GmbH: Stepping out into the Future 87
- References 90
- The architecture of the high-voltage laboratory: An exciting architectural monument to technology 91
- Design principle 94
- Tasks and test facilities 97
- Postscript 98
- References 98
- ‘ Technology is the pride of our age’ (Peter Rosegger) A technological history of Graz in the 19th century 99
- References 118
- List of authors 120