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Lucien Gaulard | |
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| Born | 16 July 1850 (1850-07-16) |
| Died | 26 November 1888(1888-11-26) (aged 38) |
| Occupation | Inventor |
Lucien Gaulard (16 July 1850 – 26 November 1888) was a French engineer who invented devices for thetransmission ofalternating currentelectricalenergy.
Gaulard was born inParis, France in 1850.
A powertransformer developed by Gaulard ofFrance andJohn Dixon Gibbs ofEngland was demonstrated inLondon, and attracted the interest ofWestinghouse. Gaulard and Gibbs first exhibited a device in London in 1881 and then sold the idea to the American companyWestinghouse. They also exhibited the invention inTurin in 1884, where it was adopted for an electric lighting system. Many of the features of their design were adapted to the particular laws governing electrical distribution in the UK.[1]
In 1882, 1884, and 1885 Gaulard and Gibbs applied for patents on their transformer; however, these were overturned due to actions initiated bySebastian Ziani de Ferranti and others.
In 1885,William Stanley, Jr. built the first practical American transformer based on Gaulard and Gibbs's idea, the precursor of the modern transformer. Transformers were nothing new, but the Gaulard-Gibbs design was one of the first that could handle large amounts of power and promised to be easy to manufacture. Westinghouse imported a number of Gaulard-Gibbs transformers and aSiemens ACgenerator to begin experimenting withAC networks in Pittsburgh.
Gaulard died in an institution (Sainte-Anne Hospital) in Paris, and was said to have lost his reason due to the loss of the patents on his invention.[2] Several months before his death, Gaulard appeared at the Elysee asking the concierge to conduct him to the president of France, for whom, he said, he had an urgent message. The message was "I am God and God does not wait".[3] He has been described as an inventor whose ingenuity cost him not only his money, but reason and life as well.[4] A tablet was erected to Gaulard atLanzo Torinese.[5]
