French
inventor who in 1832 made the first practical electricity generator. It
could produce both direct current and alternating current.
Pixii was an instrumentmaker, trained by his father. Learning of
Michael
Faraday's electromagnetic induction and his suggestions for making a simple
dynamo, Pixii constructed a device that consisted of a permanent horseshoe
magnet, rotated by means of a treadle, and a coil of copper wire above each
of the magnet's poles. The two coils were linked and the free ends of the
wires connected to terminals, from which a small alternating current was
obtained when the magnet rotated. This device was first exhibited at the
French Academy of Sciences in Paris 1832. Later, at the suggestion of physicist
André Marie Ampère, a commutator (a simple switching device
for reversing the connections to the terminals as the magnet is rotated)
was fitted so that Pixii's generator could produce direct-current electricity.
This revised generator was taken to Britain in 1833 and exhibited in London. |