This machine was the first self-excited dynamo by use of the residual magnetism in the field poles.
Dr. Werner Siemens also made a self-excited machine, having series fields, a paper on which was read before the Academy of Sciences in Berlin on January 17, 1867. This paper was forwarded to the Royal Society in London and presented at the same meeting at which Wheatstone’s dynamo was described. Wheatstone probably preceded Siemens in this re-discovery of the principle of self-excitation, but both are given the merit of it. However, S. A. Varley on December 24, 1866, obtained a provisional English patent on this, which was not published until July, 1867.
Gramme’s Dynamo, 1871.
These were commercially used, their main feature being the “ring” wound armature.
Gramme’s “Ring” Armature.
Wire coils, surrounding an iron wire core, were all connected together in an endless ring, each coil being tapped with a wire connected to a commutator bar.
In 1870 Gramme, a Frenchman, patented his well-known ring armature. The idea had been previously thought of by Elias, a Hollander, in 1842, and by Pacinnotti, an Italian, as shown by the crude motors (not dynamos) they had made. Gramme’s armature consisted of an iron wire core coated with a bituminous compound in order to reduce the eddy currents. This core was wound with insulated wire coils, all connected together in series as one single endless coil. Each coil was tapped with a wire connected to a commutator bar. His first machine, having permanent magnets for fields, was submitted to the French Academy of Sciences in 1871. Later machines were made with self-excited field coils, which were used in commercial service. They had, however a high resistance armature, so that their efficiency did not exceed 50 per cent.
