Editing Transformer (section)

====Early series circuit transformer distribution====
Induction coils with open magnetic circuits are inefficient at transferring power to [[Electrical load|loads]]. Until about 1880, the paradigm for AC power transmission from a high voltage supply to a low voltage load was a series circuit. Open-core transformers with a ratio near 1:1 were connected with their primaries in series to allow use of a high voltage for transmission while presenting a low voltage to the lamps. The inherent flaw in this method was that turning off a single lamp (or other electric device) affected the voltage supplied to all others on the same circuit. Many adjustable transformer designs were introduced to compensate for this problematic characteristic of the series circuit, including those employing methods of adjusting the core or bypassing the magnetic flux around part of a coil.<ref name=Uppenborn1889/>
Efficient, practical transformer designs did not appear until the 1880s, but within a decade, the transformer would be instrumental in the [[war of the currents]], and in seeing AC distribution systems triumph over their DC counterparts, a position in which they have remained dominant ever since.<ref name="Coltman1988">{{harvnb|Coltman|1988|pp=86–95}}</ref>

[[Image:Trafo1885.jpg|thumb|right|Shell form transformer. Sketch used by Uppenborn to describe ZBD engineers' 1885 patents and earliest articles.<ref name=Uppenborn1889/>]]

[[Image:DBZ trafo.jpg|thumb|right|Core form, front; shell form, back. Earliest specimens of ZBD-designed high-efficiency constant-potential transformers manufactured at the Ganz factory in 1885.]]
[[Image:ZBD team.jpg|right|thumb|The ZBD team consisted of [[Károly Zipernowsky]], [[Ottó Bláthy]] and [[Miksa Déri]]]]
[[Image:StanleyTransformer.png|thumb|right|Stanley's 1886 design for adjustable gap open-core induction coils]]