Wechselstrom
Alternating current generating systems were known in simple forms from the discovery of the magnetic induction of electric current in the 1830s. Rotating generators naturally produced alternating current but, since there was little use for it, it was normally converted into direct current via the addition of a commutator in the generator. The early machines were developed by pioneers such as Michael Faraday and Hippolyte Pixii. Faraday developed the "rotating rectangle", whose operation was "heteropolar" – each active conductor passed successively through regions where the magnetic field was in opposite directions. Lord Kelvin and Sebastian Ferranti also developed early alternators, producing frequencies between 100 and 300 Hz.