Editing Power engineering (section)

==Pioneering years==
[[Electricity]] became a subject of scientific interest in the late 17th century. Over the next two centuries a number of important discoveries were made including the [[incandescent light bulb]] and the [[voltaic pile]].<ref>{{cite web | title = The History Of The Light Bulb | publisher = Net Guides Publishing, Inc. | year = 2004 | url = http://www.thehistoryof.net/the-history-of-the-light-bulb.html | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120524190823/http://www.thehistoryof.net/the-history-of-the-light-bulb.html | url-status = usurped | archive-date = May 24, 2012 | access-date = 2007-05-02 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | first = Thomas | last = Greenslade | title = The Voltaic Pile | publisher = [[Kenyon College]] | url = http://physics.kenyon.edu/EarlyApparatus/Electricity/Voltaic_Pile/Voltaic_Pile.html | access-date = 2008-03-31 }}</ref> Probably the greatest discovery with respect to power engineering came from [[Michael Faraday]] who in 1831 discovered that a change in magnetic flux induces an [[electromotive force]] in a loop of wire&mdash;a principle known as [[electromagnetic induction]] that helps explain how generators and transformers work.<ref>{{cite web | title = Faraday Page | publisher = The Royal Institute | url = http://www.rigb.org/heritage/faradaypage.jsp | access-date = 2008-03-31 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080329153140/http://www.rigb.org/heritage/faradaypage.jsp | archive-date = 2008-03-29 }}</ref>

In 1881 two electricians built the world's first power station at [[Godalming]] in England. The station employed two waterwheels to produce an alternating current that was used to supply seven Siemens [[arc lamp]]s at 250 volts and thirty-four [[incandescent lamp]]s at 40 volts.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=744 | title=Godalming Power Station | publisher=Engineering Timelines | access-date=2009-05-03 }}</ref> However supply was intermittent and in 1882 [[Thomas Edison]] and his company, The Edison Electric Light Company, developed the first steam-powered electric power station on Pearl Street in New York City. The [[Pearl Street Station]] consisted of several generators and initially powered around 3,000 lamps for 59 customers.<ref>{{cite news | first=Jasmin | last=Williams | title = Edison Lights The City | publisher =[[New York Post]] | url = http://www.nypost.com/seven/11302007/news/cextra/edison_lights_the_city_514905.htm | access-date = 2008-03-31 | date=2007-11-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | first = Casey | last = Grant | title = The Birth of NFPA | publisher = [[National Fire Protection Association]] | url = http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=500&itemID=18020&URL=About%20Us/History&cookie%5Ftest=1 | access-date = 2008-03-31 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071228104759/http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=500&itemID=18020&URL=About%20Us%2FHistory&cookie_test=1 | archive-date = 2007-12-28 }}</ref> The power station used [[direct current]] and operated at a single voltage. Since the direct current power could not be easily transformed to the higher voltages necessary to minimise power loss during transmission, the possible distance between the generators and load was limited to around half-a-mile (800 m).<ref>{{cite press release | title=Bulk Electricity Grid Beginnings | publisher=New York Independent System Operator | url=http://www.pearlstreetinc.com/NYISO_bulk_elect_beginnings.pdf | access-date=2008-05-25 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226080753/http://www.pearlstreetinc.com/NYISO_bulk_elect_beginnings.pdf | archive-date=2009-02-26 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

That same year in London [[Lucien Gaulard]] and [[John Dixon Gibbs]] demonstrated the first transformer suitable for use in a real power system. The practical value of Gaulard and Gibbs' transformer was demonstrated in 1884 at [[Turin]] where the transformer was used to light up {{convert|40|km|mi|abbr=off|spell=in}} of railway from a single [[alternating current]] generator.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://people.clarkson.edu/~ekatz/scientists/gaulard.html | title=Lucien Gaulard | first=Evgeny | last=Katz | date=2007-04-08 | access-date=2008-05-25 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080422072336/http://people.clarkson.edu/~ekatz/scientists/gaulard.html |archive-date = 2008-04-22}}</ref> Despite the success of the system, the pair made some fundamental mistakes. Perhaps the most serious was connecting the primaries of the transformers in [[series and parallel circuits|series]] so that switching one lamp on or off would affect other lamps further down the line. Following the demonstration [[George Westinghouse]], an American entrepreneur, imported a number of the transformers along with a [[Siemens]] generator and set his engineers to experimenting with them in the hopes of improving them for use in a commercial power system.

One of Westinghouse's engineers, [[William Stanley, Jr.|William Stanley]], recognised the problem with connecting transformers in series as opposed to [[series and parallel circuits|parallel]] and also realised that making the iron core of a transformer a fully enclosed loop would improve the [[voltage regulation]] of the secondary winding. Using this knowledge he built the world's first practical transformer based alternating current power system at [[Great Barrington, Massachusetts]] in 1886.<ref>[http://www.edisontechcenter.org/GreatBarrington.html Great Barrington 1886 - Inspiring an industry toward AC power]</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/stanley.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080105063908/http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/stanley.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 5, 2008 | title=Alternating Current Electrification, 1886 | publisher=IEEE | first=Thomas | last=Blalock | date=2004-10-02 | access-date=2008-05-25 }}</ref><!-- <ref>{{US patent reference | number = 349611 | y = 1886 | m = 09 | d = 21 | inventor = William Stanley Jr. | title = Induction Coil}}</ref> --> In 1885 the Italian physicist and electrical engineer [[Galileo Ferraris]] demonstrated an [[induction motor]] and in 1887 and 1888 the Serbian-American engineer [[Nikola Tesla]] filed a range of patents related to power systems including one for a practical two-phase induction motor<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8j5bJ5OkGpgC&pg=PA36 |title=Fritz E. Froehlich, Allen Kent, The Froehlich/Kent Encyclopedia of Telecommunications: Volume 17, page 36 |date= December 1998|isbn=9780824729158 |access-date=2012-09-10|last1=Froehlich |first1=Fritz E. |last2=Kent |first2=Allen |publisher=CRC Press }}</ref><ref>Petar Miljanic, Tesla's Polyphase System and Induction Motor, Serbian Journal of Electrical Engineering, pp.&nbsp;121–130, Vol. 3, No. 2, November 2006.</ref> which Westinghouse licensed for his AC system.

By 1890 the power industry had flourished and power companies had built thousands of power systems (both direct and alternating current) in the United States and Europe – these networks were effectively dedicated to providing electric lighting. During this time a fierce rivalry in the US known as the "[[war of the currents]]" emerged between Edison and Westinghouse over which form of transmission (direct or alternating current) was superior. In 1891, Westinghouse installed the first major power system that was designed to drive an electric motor and not just provide electric lighting. The installation powered a {{convert|100|hp}} synchronous motor at [[Telluride, Colorado]] with the motor being started by a Tesla induction motor.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/niagara.htm | title=The Day They Turned The Falls On | first=Jack | last=Foran | access-date=2008-05-25 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511151552/http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/niagara.htm | archive-date=2008-05-11 }}</ref> On the other side of the Atlantic, [[Oskar von Miller]] built a 20 kV 176&nbsp;km three-phase transmission line from [[Lauffen am Neckar]] to [[Frankfurt am Main]] for the Electrical Engineering Exhibition in Frankfurt.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.more-powerful-solutions.com/media/ScreenPDF_Hypower_15_72dpi.pdf | author=Voith Siemens (company) | title=HyPower | pages=7 | date=2007-02-01 | access-date=2008-05-25 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725153629/http://www.more-powerful-solutions.com/media/ScreenPDF_Hypower_15_72dpi.pdf | archive-date=2012-07-25 | url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1895, after a protracted decision-making process, the [[Adams Power Plant|Adams No. 1 generating station]] at [[Niagara Falls]] began transmitting three-phase alternating current power to Buffalo at 11 kV. Following completion of the Niagara Falls project, new power systems increasingly chose [[alternating current]] as opposed to [[direct current]] for electrical transmission.<ref>{{ cite web | url=http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/adams.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080105063606/http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/adams.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 5, 2008 | title=Adams Hydroelectric Generating Plant, 1895 | publisher=IEEE | access-date=2008-05-25 }}</ref>