Induction Motor

Electric machine · 1887

Year: 1887
Kind: Electric machine
Materials: Silicon-steel laminations, copper stator windings, cast-aluminium rotor cage.
Efficiency: 85–96 %.
Power Density: Moderate; the workhorse rather than the racehorse.
Cycle: None

Used In

Pumps, fans, compressors, conveyors, machine tools — around 45 % of all electricity generated is used by electric motors, most of them this one.

How It Works

Three-phase current in the stator makes a magnetic field that rotates on its own; it induces current in a cage of copper or aluminium bars on the rotor, and the two fields drag the rotor round just slower than the field. No brushes, no magnets, nothing to wear but bearings.

Inventors

Galileo Ferraris Nikola Tesla

Equations

Ampère–Maxwell Law Faraday's Law of Induction Lorentz Force Power Torque

Elements

Silicon Copper Iron Aluminum

Referenced by

element

Aluminum Copper Iron Silicon

equation

Ampère–Maxwell Law Faraday's Law of Induction Lorentz Force Power Torque

researcher

Galileo Ferraris Nikola Tesla

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From the Machines database in Notion, last edited 2026-08-18. This page is the row, rendered by the build; nothing on it is written by hand.