Voltage Transformer
date: label: date made
content: ca 1889
name: label: maker
content: Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: A transformer was one of the critical components needed to make an electrical power system based on alternating current. Transformers raise and lower the electrical voltage (or potential) or the current, depending on the design. Electrical inventors Lucien Gaulard and John Gibbs introduced a practical design in Europe in 1882. George Westinghouse licensed their design and William Stanley, an engineer working in his company, added refinements that improved the device. This potential transformer has two coils of wire–one coil with a few turns of thick wire, the other with many turns of thin wire. A current passing through one (the primary coil) induces a current in the other (the secondary coil). The voltage can be raised or lowered depending on which coil serves as primary.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Energy & Power
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content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Princeton University, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, thru Dean Howard Menand
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.318584
label: catalog number
content: 318584
label: accession number
content: 232729
objectType: label: Object Name
content: transformer
label: Object Name
content: potential transformer
label: Other Terms
content: transformer; Measuring Devices
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mica (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 3/4 in x 9 in x 6 in; 42.545 cm x 22.86 cm x 15.24 cm