The history of the transformer. Part 1
A hundred years ago, this inconspicuous device made it possible to implement the distribution of electricity in practice. Although modern electrical and telecommunications are unthinkable without this device, it remains one of the "unsung heroes" in the history of technological progress.
The scientific and technological revolution, which determined the development of civilization during the last two centuries, was the result of fundamental discoveries and inventions in the field of electrical engineering and communications. Such technical means as a telephone and a TV set have firmly entered our daily life.
But the invention, thanks to which we got access to electricity, remains in the shadows, although it plays a very important role in our life. This device is invisible, it does not move, it works almost silently and, as a rule, is hidden from our eyes in separate rooms or behind screening partitions.
It's a transformer. The transformer invented in the 19th century is one of the key components of the modern electric power system and radio electronic devices. It converts high voltages to low (and vice versa) with almost no loss of energy.
The transformer is an important element of many electrical appliances and mechanisms. Chargers and toy railways, radios and televisions - Transformers everywhere work to reduce or increase tension. Among them there are both very tiny, not more than a pea, and real colossi with a mass of 500 tons or more.
The discovery of electromagnetic induction by Michael Faraday
The phenomenon underlying the action of the electrical transformer was discovered by the English physicist Michael Faraday in 1831 when he conducted basic research in the field of electricity. After about 45 years, the first transformers appeared, containing all the main elements of modern devices.
This event was a real revolution in the then young electrical engineering field, connected with the creation of electric lighting circuits. At the turn of the century, alternating current electric power systems have already become generally accepted, and the transformer has gained a key role in the transmission and distribution of electricity. And in the future it also took an important place both in the technology of telecommunications and in radio electronic equipment.
Modern transformers outperform their predecessors, created by the beginning of the 20th century, by a power of 500, and by voltage - by 15 times; Their mass per unit of power decreased by approximately 10 times, and the efficiency is close to 99%.
In his experiments, Faraday relied on the results of the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted , who in 1820 established that a current passing through a conductor creates a magnetic field around it. The discovery of Oersted was received with great interest, since electricity and magnetism were previously considered to be manifestations of completely different and independent forces. And if the electric current could generate a magnetic field, then it seemed quite probable that the magnetic field in turn could generate an electric current.
In 1831 Faraday showed that for the generation of a current in a conductor by a magnetic field it is necessary that the field be variable. Faraday changed the intensity of the magnetic field, closing and interrupting the electric circuit generating the field. The same effect is achieved if we use an alternating current, that is, a current whose direction varies with time. This phenomenon of interaction between electric and magnetic forces has received the name of electromagnetic induction.
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