B21- History of Transformers -Timelines- Part 3

Previous parts of this series covered events in transformer history until 1884. The year 1885 was an epoch-making year in transformer history when transformers as we see them today evolved and were patented under this term. 

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1885

• March- Engineers of Messers Ganz and Company, Budapest, Hungary, proposed high-ratio transformers (1400 ~ 2000 V / 100 V) to separate the H.V. supply network from LV consumer networks.  They proposed a parallel connection of consumer loads (i.e. lights) across transformer secondary terminals instead of a series connection of loads to the supply as done hitherto.

• Ganz engineers applied for patents on January 2nd, 1885 (Austria) and March 3rd (Hungary) and for shell and core type transformers on March 6th, 1985 (Germany).  They termed this induction device "transformer" (from Latin) in their patents (Transzformator in the Hungarian language).  Till then, this voltage-changing device was called a converter. They described the shell and core-type construction of transformers in their patent.

• Key points of their invention were:

• A closed Iron Core

• Both primary and secondary side induction coils of transformers in a group were connected in parallel to get constant voltage on both sides, irrespective of the variation in connected load (i.e. lamps connected in parallel) and varying load current depending on the number of lamps switched on.

• Ganz, Hungary Patents connected with Transformers.

1.     Patent No.34,649 of February 18, 1885, by Carl Ziperonowsky and Max Deri of Budapest- “Improvements in the means for the regulation of alternating electric currents “

2.     Patent No.33,951 of February 18, 1885, by Max Deri of Vienna –“ Improvements in the distribution of electric currents”

3.     Patent No.40,414 of March 6, 1885, by Carl Ziperonowsky, Max Deri and Otto Titus Blathy of Budapest – “Improvements in induction apparatus for the purpose of transforming electric currents.”

The system described in these three patents was immediately adopted in the three exhibitions held at Budapest, Antwerp, and London (Inventions Exhibition), arousing general and well-earned attention in technical circles.

• In the Ganz patent, two types of transformers were described, depending on whether the iron wire (forming the core) was inside or outside. But in both types, the iron wire was running perpendicular to the direction of the copper wire winding. In one type (today called shell type), iron wires were wound on the circular copper coils (primary and secondary), and in the other type (core type), primary and secondary copper coils were wound outside the iron wires.

• May The first use of transformers in public: 

   Industrial Exhibition, Budapest, Hungary: Steam engine driven single phase,70 Hz Ganz make, synchronous A.C. Generator fed 1350 Volts to electric lines to light the town with 1067 Edison incandescent lamps connected in parallel to the 60 V terminals of the step-down transformers.  (12 Nos.  5 kVA shell type 1400 / 65 V 70 Hz and 4 Nos.  7.5 kVA core type 1400/ 65V,42 Hz transformers were used).  Out of these early transformers, one (Sl No16) is exhibited at Ford Museum (Earlier Edison Institute) in Dearborn (Detroit) USA and two others at the Historical Museum of Budapest.  

  Though the parallel connection shown in Fig. 3 may look so simple and logical today, it took nearly 30 years for” to arrive at it in the 19th century.

                               Fig 3. Current Distribution by parallel connection

• Please see below the “design sheet” of the Ganz transformer serial No.26, manufactured for Prof. Galileo Ferraris (Italy), who discovered the rotating magnetic field, the basis for the asynchronous motor.

•  If we decipher the 1885 design sheet for today, it will read as:

• The first core-type transformer, also known as a ring-type transformer, serial No. 28, was delivered on May 15th, 1885.

• ·Orders for Transformers poured to Ganz works-No86 unit delivered by the end of 1885, the hundredth transformer supplied on March 18th, 1886, the thousandth in 1889, the ten thousandth in 1899 and the 100,000th unit in 1961!

• December- Ferranti (U.K.) gets a patent for connecting transformers in parallel

• On the other side of the globe, William Stanley (USA) built the first transformer in 1885.  A single-phase A.C. power transformer