National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Electrostatic Generator
Though simple by today's standards, the early electrostatic generators were a great milestone in humankind's understanding of electricity, allowing scientists to produce electricity so they could study it. (Java tutorial)
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Electrostatic Generator 1706
Otto von Guericke's electrostatic machine evolved into increasingly improved instruments in the hands of later scientists. In the early 1700s, an Englishman named Francis Hauksbee designed his own electrostatic generator, a feat stemming...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Gramme Dynamo 1871
Zenobe Theophile Gramme (1826 - 1901) invented the first industrial generator, or dynamo. A deceptively simple-looking machine, it consisted of 30 coils wrapped around a spinning ring of iron.