Wallace generator with Gramme armature
date: label: Date made
content: 1873
name: label: maker
content: Wallace & Sons
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: A generator for use in an electric lighting system. Nameplate reads: "Manufactured by / Wallace & Sons / Ansonia, Conn." Copper wire brushes are badly bend, in need of replacement.
label: Description (Brief)
content: According to C. H. Hayes (of Wallace and Sons), "This machine was built in the summer of 1873, for a plaything. The armature is of the Gramme type, and is probably the first Gramme armature wound in this country. The machine was originally a magneto, the field being charged by batteries. But in the early spring of 1874, the principle of the Dynamo (self charging) was discovered by Mr. Wallace and independently by another [perhaps a reference to Charles Wheatstone], and put in practice on this machine, and this is believed to be the first machine ever run in that way. The late Professor Moses G. Farmer had hit upon the Dynamo principle earlier than anyone here, but had not published it, and was making arrangements to have a Plating Machine built on which to try the new idea. He came here on business, and while here, was shown our little machine. He at once proposed that we should build this machine, and Wallace & Sons did build several from his designs and patterns. This machine was exhibited at the Franklin Institute Fair in Philadelphia in 1884, and at the World's Fair at Chicago, 1893."
label: Description (Brief)
content: William J. Hammer (who worked for Edison prior to becoming an electrical consultant) believed that this machine was constructed in 1874, after Wallace was informed by his friend, Professor Barker, of the Gramme dynamos at the Vienna Exposition of 1873. Reference: William J. Hammer, "William Wallace and his Contributions to the Electrical Industries."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Coe Brass Manufacturing Co.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.181639
label: catalog number
content: 181639
label: accession number
content: 32363
objectType: label: Object Name
content: electical generator
label: Object Name
content: electrical generator
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 24 1/2 in x 20 in x 18 in; 62.23 cm x 50.8 cm x 45.72 cm