Zénobe Théophile Gramme (; 4 April 1826 – 20 January 1901) was a Belgian

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He was born at Jehay-Bodegnée on 4 April 1826, the sixth child of Mathieu-Joseph Gramme, and died at

Bois-Colombes Bois-Colombes () is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department, in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. International companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, IBM and Aviva have their French headquart ...

on 20 January 1901. He invented the Gramme machine, a type of

direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional electric current, flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor (material), conductor such as a wire, but can also flow throug ...

dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos employed electromagnets for self-starting by using residual magnetic field left in the iron cores ...

capable of generating smoother (less AC) and much higher voltages than the dynamos known to that point.

Career

Gramme was poorly educated and semi-literate throughout his life. His talent was in handicraft and when he left school he became a joiner. After moving to Paris he took a job as a model maker at a company that manufactured electrical equipment and there became interested in technology. Having built an improved dynamo, Gramme, in association with Hippolyte Fontaine, opened a factory to develop the device. The business, called Société des Machines Magnéto-Électriques Gramme, manufactured the Gramme dynamo, Gramme ring, Gramme armature and other devices. In 1873 a Gramme dynamo was exhibited at the Vienna exhibition. He was made an officer of the National Order of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1877. In 1888 he was awarded the last of the valuable Volta Prizes by the French government.

Gramme machine as motor

In 1873 he and Hippolyte Fontaine accidentally discovered that the device was reversible and would spin when connected to any DC power supply. The Gramme machine was the first usefully powerful electrical motor that was successful industrially. Before Gramme's inventions, electric motors attained only low power and were mainly used as toys or laboratory curiosities. In 1875,

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla (;"Tesla"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...

observed a Gramme machine at the Graz University of Technology. He conceived the idea of using it for

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...

but was unable to develop the idea at this time.

Family

In 1857 he married Hortense Nysten who was a widow and mother of a daughter, Héloïse. Hortense died in 1890. On 17 August 1891 he married Antonie Schentur in

Death and tributes

Gramme died at

, France, on 20 January 1901 and was buried in

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

. In the town where his second wife grew up and that Gramme visited every year for a few months, he donated the construction of an avenue to cool the underground water pipe built in 1898. It was named Gramme-Allee in 1902. In the city of

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

there is a graduate school of engineering, l' Institut Gramme, named after him. In 2005 he ended up at the 23rd place in the election of '' Le plus grand Belge'' (The Greatest Belgian), the television show broadcast by the French-speaking

RTBF The ("Belgian Radio-television of the French Community"), shortened to RTBF (branded as rtbf.be), is a public broadcasting, public service broadcaster for the French Community of Belgium, French-speaking Community of Belgium. Its counterpart i ...

and based on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

show

100 Greatest Britons ''100 Greatest Britons'' is a television series that was broadcast by the BBC in 2002. It was based on a television poll conducted to determine who the British people at that time considered the greatest Britons in history. The series included i ...

. A958 ''Zenobe Gramme'', (1961–), a sailing ship of the

Belgian Navy The Belgian Navy, officially the Naval Component (, ; , ; , ) of the Belgian Armed Forces, is the Navy, naval service of Belgium. History Early history The Belgian Navy was created as the ''Marine Royale'' () on 15 January 1831. This force ...

used for training, is named after him.

Honours

* Commander in the Order of Leopold. * Officer in the

. * 1888 Volta Prize

Picture gallery

Image:Zenobe Gramme dsc03852.jpg, Zénobe Gramme, by Mathurin Moreau File:Perelachaise-Gramme-p1000390.jpg, Grave at Cemetery Père-Lachaise File:GrammeMachine.jpg, Gramme machine

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gramme, Zenobe 1826 births 1901 deaths People from Liège Province 19th-century Belgian engineers 19th-century Belgian inventors Belgian physicists Belgian electrical engineers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery