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EDISON’S POWER
GENERATING SYSTEM

Even while pursuing the electric light, Thomas Edison knew that when he eventually reached his goal, the light wouldn’t be of much use by itself. An entire central system for generating electricity and distributing it to homes would still be needed. To Edison goes the credit for masterminding and building this system.

To make such a system come true, Edison had to invent practically everything in it: under- ground distribution mains, insulating materials, power switches, meters, dynamos, lighting fixtures, fuses, and more. Certainly all of these inventions played an important role in the success of the system. But among the most vital was the world’s first economical direct-current (DC) generator, or dynamo. This brings us to our last project. The big one. It’s a DC motor, which is essentially the same as a DC generator.

Experiment 10

A Speedy Electric Motor