The Invention of the Electro-Motive Engine

B.J.G. van der Kooij continues his exploration of the history of technological innovation, taking readers on an amazing, in-depth journey and examination of the social climate of the times, the lives of innovators, emergent technologies, and their larger impacts.

In the early nineteenth century, Jacobi's boat experiment in St. Petersburg and Page's electric locomotive on the Washington and Baltimore Railroad heralded the use of DC electric motors.

In the 1850s, Gramme, Edison, and Brush developed early direct current generators, followed by the creation of self-exciting dynamos by Wheatstone, Varley, and Siemens that would make inventions such as incandescent lamps and household appliances possible, changing daily life forever.

A third major step occurred in the 1880s, when the work of Nikola Tesla in the United States and Mikhail Osipovich Dolivo-Dobrowolsky in Germany brought about the AC induction electromotor. After the "Battle of the Currents" between Edison's DC system and Westinghouse's AC system, alternating current would develop into the major system that economic life depends on today.

"The Invention of the Electromotive Engine" gives readers insightful perspectives on the mechanisms behind the Second Industrial Revolution, the foundation for modern society.