Zénobe Gramme
Zénobe Gramme | |
---|---|
Born | April 27, 1827 |
Died | January 20, 1901 |
Resting place | Père Lachaise cemetery |
Nationality | Belgian |
Occupation | electrical engineer |
Known for | Gramme dynamo |
Zénobe Théophile Gramme (April 4, 1826, Amay - January 20, 1901) was a Belgian electrical engineer. . He invented the Gramme machine, a type of direct current dynamo capable of generating smoother (less AC) and much higher voltages than the dynamos known to that point. In 1873 he and Hippolyte Fontaine accidentally discovered that the device was reversible and would spin when connected to any DC power supply. Tindustryhe Gramme machine was the first usefully powerful electrical motor that was successful industrially. Before Gramme's inventions, electric motors attained only low power and were mainly used as toys or laboratory curiosities.
Gramme died at Bois-Colombes, France and was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.
In the city of Liège there is a High School, L'Institut Gramme, named after him.
In 2005 he ended at 23rd place in the election of Le plus grand Belge (The Greatest Belgian), the television show broadcast by the French-speaking RTBF and based on the BBC show 100 Greatest Britons.
- Articles lacking sources from June 2008
- 1826 births
- 1901 deaths
- People from Liège (province)
- Belgian engineers
- Belgian inventors
- Belgian physicists
- Electrical engineers
- Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
- National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees
- Walloon people
- Belgian scientist stubs
- Physicist stubs
- Engineer stubs