Lucien Gaulard

Lucien Gaulard (July 16th, 1850 to the 77 of the old street of the temple with Paris - November 26th 1888) is a Engineer in French electricity, Chimiste of formation, inventive of the Electric transformer.

Biography

Leon Adrien says Lucien Gaulard is the eleventh child of a family of twelve. Wire of Edmé Gaulard and Onézime Justice, married on November 26th, 1835.

The father of Lucien, manufacturing varnish old street of the temple was holder of a bearing patent on the improvement of the conservation of fatty varnishes. This explains why the first profession of Lucien was naturally Chemistry. Between 1876 and 1881 Lucien amongst other things deposits several series of patents having for object, the Tannage of the leather skins, the production of soda salts, the manufacture of the Pulp paper, the dephosphorisation of the iron ores etc.

In 1880 Lucien Gaulard lives with 65 rue Nollet in the 17th district of Paris, it then already acquired certain competences in electricity since it proposed in 1876 to use it to accelerate the tanning of leathers.

In 1881 Lucien Gaulard is registered with the exposure of electricity of Paris and proposes there a flashlight and a thermopile. We do not know anything the pile proposed and this equipment was not the subject of a patent filling. It is probable that it did not function or that very imperfectly. On the other hand the lamp is described in a patent taken at the end of 1881. This lamp was coarsely made up of an arc lamp and an incandescent lamp assembled in series through a reel of Rumkorff.

The invention of the transformer

With the end of the year 1881, Lucien Gaulard finds in London in the person of John Dixon Gibbs a new silent partner and both publish as of on October 18th a patent on the shape of the electric drivers. In this patent, they recommend the use of hollow tubular drivers by taking again the theory of Denis Poisson which said that electricity was distributed only on the surface of the drivers. Phenomenon checked since by the introduction of the effect of skin depend on the frequency.

November 7th, 1882, Gaulard and Gibbs deposit the first patent founder of the electric distribution modern its title “New delivery system of electricity to be used with the production as light and of the driving force” evokes badly that the author proposes to produce and to transport electrical energy by the use of the Alternative course and especially recommends the use of the “secondary generators” which are not other than transformer.

The “secondary generator” describes in this first patent is composed of a made primary winding of copper wire of 3mm of diameter isolated and laid out on three layers on a soft iron core. The secondary winding consists of 6 reels positioned around the primary winding and each one made up of 6 wire 0.5 mm in suitable for connection diameter either in series or in parallel. The great innovation of the system was to make it possible to regulate the report/ratio of transformation. One of these disadvantages would nowadays be called the fall of charging voltage related to an inevitably important impedance. Undoubtedly this version only functioned T it very badly.

In 1883, thanks to a rise in the tension, Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs succeed in transporting electricity on a distance from 40 km using a Alternative course under a tension of 2000 Volt S using transformers with a core bar-shaped. November 6th, 1883, Lucien Gaulard deposits a new patent in which it details the phenomena of induction and presents a new apparatus to composite cable. He states as well as the secondary electromotive force (tension) increases: “ with the intensity of the primary education current ” (What translates the primary tension) “ with the number of whorl of the secondary winding ” (What translates the report/ratio of transformation) “ with the alternativities of the primary education current ” (What translates the frequency).

The new generator then consists of a wire comprising closely dependant the primary education and the secondary with for effect to reduce what was not yet called the impedance and thus the fall of charging voltage. The driver was then composed of a primary education wire 4 mms in diameter wrapped by 48 secondary wire laid out in six groups of eight. It is this type of apparatus which was used with lighting of the subway as London. In this particular version the primary education was fed by a tension from approximately 20 to 30 volts and the secondaries could deliver between 50 and 100 volts. It was used to clarify five stations Edgware Road, Notting hill spoils, Gower street, King' S cross-country race and Aldgate. The lighting of the subway of London then used 151 incandescent lamps of 63 W under 100 V and 5 arc lamps of the Jablochkoff type of 375 W under 50 V. Each column of generator was able to deliver approximately 250 W and more than 48 were necessary to the lighting of the subway as show it taken measurements in March 1884 by J. Hopkinson.

With Edgware Road, a steam engine actuated an alternator of 30 horses and 2000 V. the primary line a 25 km length served the 5 stations where 4 groups of 4 secondary generators were placed in series. The system functioned without incident each day between November 1883 and September 1884 of 16:30 to 1:05.

In 1884 Lucien Gaulard brings into service a buckled connection of demonstration (133 Hz) supplied with alternative course under 2000 volts, of Turin in Lanzo outward journey and return (80 km). One ends then up admitting the advantage of the transformer, which makes it possible to raise, to transport, then to lower, the tension delivered by a Alternateur, thus facilitating the transport of electrical energy by lines with high voltage. February 27th, 1884 Lucien Gaulard deposits a third version of its generator. The primary windings and secondary then consist of alternate copper discs whorls with whorls the secondary propellers being able to be connected in parallel by group. The power reached by the secondary propeller generators then reached 1300 W for a copper mass of 12.280 kg is 72 W/kg to be compared with the version with composite cable or the power was only of 30 W/kg. The output of the apparatus reached then more than 83%.

The name of transformer was proposed in 1884 per MR. E Hospital during the meetings of the International Société of the Electricians.

During the summer 1885, George Westinghouse on the council of Pantaleoni bought several Gaulard generators and became exclusive dealer for the US in December. The transaction amounted then to 50.000 $. The transformer of Gaulard of 1886 does not have great a deal to envy the current transformers, its closed magnetic circuit (the prototype of 1884 comprised an open magnetic circuit, from where a quite poor output) consists of an iron wire beam announcing the laminated circuit with isolated sheets.

January 18th, 1886, Lucien Gaulard inaugurates the central factory of Tours where 250 horses of steam engine supply 2 alternators. By an underground distribution Gaulard feeds from the generators secondary of a new type with closed magnetic circuit and placed in derivation.

A fine tragedy

Meanwhile, of the Brevet S were also taken by others. The first patent of Gaulard in 1882 was refused in its time, " under pretext which the inventor claimed to be able to do “something of nothing” " ! Gaulard counter-attacks in vain, it loses its Procès, is ruined, and finishes its days in a Asile.

Lucien Gaulard dies on November 26th, 1888 with the hospital Holy-Anne where it had entered a few months earlier following an access of insanity. Indeed on February 1st of the same Gaulard year had arised to the Elysium while saying to the caretaker “I am God and I want Universelle peace” as defers it the Morning in its edition of February 14th.

On the request of his/her sister, Mrs. Lane-Gaulard, a small street located in the 18th driving district of the street of Caulaincourt at the holy cemetery Vincent and not comprising that only one building was called street Lucien Gaulard in his memory. A commemorative plaque was affixed old street of the temple at the expenses of his/her cousin Emile Gaulard, sculptor of profession.

See too

External bonds

Lucien Gaulard and the electric transformer