Great Barrington Berkshire Massachusetts United States
Related Events
Showing 1 events out of 1 total
William Stanley, Jr., demonstrates the first complete system of high voltage Alternating Current transmission, consisting of generators, transformers and high-voltage transmission lines, on March 20, 1886.
His system allows the distribution of electrical power over wide areas.
Stanley and George Westinghouse install the first multiple-voltage AC power system in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
The network is driven by a hydropower generator that produces five hundred volts AC.
The voltage is stepped up to three thousand volts for transmission, and then stepped back down to one hundred volts volts to power electric lights.
Stanley, as an electrician working with tele keys and fire alarms of an early manufacturer in Philadelphia, had designed one of the first electrical installations (at a Fifth Avenue store in ).
In 1885, Stanley had built and on September 21 1886 patents the first practical alternating current device, based on Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs' idea.
This device is the precursor to the modern transformer.
Stanley's work led him to be hired by Westinghouse as his chief engineer in Pittsburgh.
Westinghouse, assisted by Stanley, and Franklin Leonard Pope, has worked to refine the transformer design and build a practical AC power network.