Machines · machine
Alternator
Electric machine · 1866
- Year
- 1866
- Kind
- Electric machine
- Materials
- Copper windings, silicon-steel cores, hydrogen cooling in the large ones because it carries heat away better than air.
- Efficiency
- 95–99 % for large machines.
- Used In
- Every grid; every car.
- Power Density
- A single generator can exceed a gigawatt.
- Cycle
- None
How It Works
A magnet — or an electromagnet — spins inside coils, and the changing field induces an alternating voltage in them. Every power station on Earth ends in one, driven by a steam, gas, water or wind turbine; the one under a car's bonnet is the same machine in miniature.
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