Historical Developments
Before the connection between magnetism and electricity was discovered, electrostatic generators were used. They operated on electrostatic principles. Such generators generated very high voltage and low current. They operated by using moving electrically charged belts, plates, and disks that carried charge to a high potential electrode. The charge was generated using either of two mechanisms:
- Electrostatic induction
- The triboelectric effect, where the contact between two insulators leaves them charged.
Because of their inefficiency and the difficulty of insulating machines that produced very high voltages, electrostatic generators had low power ratings, and were never used for generation of commercially significant quantities of electric power. The Wimshurst machine and Van de Graaff generator are examples of these machines that have survived.
Read more about this topic: Electric Generator
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