IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2019 - 84

profits materialized. The first practical
implementation of the Gaulard-Gibbs
system was made for arc lights and incandescent electric lights of the Metropolitan
Railway of London in December 1883.
The generating machinery was located at
one railway station, where a steam engine
drove a Siemens 2,000-V ac dynamo,
which supplied power of "16,000 alternations per minute" (8,000 cycles/min,
133 1/3 Hz) to Gaulard-Gibbs transformers in five railway stations (Figure 4). The
primary circuit was composed of a wire
15 mi long and 1/8-in diameter.

The Turin-to-Lanzo Torinese
Transmission Line

(a)

(b)

figure 2. (a) A scene in Edison's laboratory on 31 December 1879 from The Daily
Graphic (New York) on 3 January 1880. (b) An electric lamp on the cruise ship
SS Columbia, part of the first installation of Edison's incandescent electric lighting
on a commercial venue, completed just before the ship sailed on its maiden voyage in May 1880. The lamps resembled oil lamps, so that they could be replaced
by oil lamps of similar appearance if the bulbs failed, which they all did within two
months. (Source: Scientific American, 14 August 1880, modified by the author.)

Gibbs in the secondary generators
invented by them. . . . Turning to the
apparatus itself, we may observe
that it consists, in the first place, of
a dynamo-electric machine producing an alternating current. This current is conducted to the secondary
generator, which, in external appearance, resembles four columns
about 2 ft. high and 9 in. in diameter,
placed a few inches apart. . . .
At a recent private demonstration of the invention there were
two of the secondary generators
we have been describing. One of
them was supplying a current to
26 Woodhouse and Rawson incandescent lamps, while the other was
serving a Jablochkoff arc lamp,
five Swan incandescent lamps,
and was likewise running a small
electro-motor for transmitting
power. . . . In practically applying
this system it is proposed to es84

ieee power & energy magazine

tablish central stations where dynamo machines, driven by water
power wherever possible, would
be placed. A circuit would be laid
over the district to be supplied, and
in each house where the electric
current was to be utilised would
be placed a secondary generator.
The secondary generator described in
The Times article was the first Gaulard-
Gibbs ac transformer, followed by an
improved version (Figure 3) patented in
1884 in England (British patent number
3,173 of 12 February 1884) and elsewhere (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy,
and the United States). Early in 1883,
Gibbs orchestrated the incorporation of
a new company, the awkwardly named
National Company for the Distribution
of Electricity by Secondary Generators
(London). Gaulard and Gibbs sold the
exclusive rights to their inventions to this
the company; they were paid in company
stock and cash to be distributed when

Turin (Torino), an ancient city in northwestern Italy, held a large exposition
April-October 1884 (Figure 5). An international electrical exhibit (the blue
building in Figure 5) was part of this
event. Figure 6 shows the left and center aisles of the electricity hall. Gaulard
and Gibbs exhibited their transformer,
powered by a Siemens dynamo.
As the Turin exhibition was ending,
Gaulard and Gibbs began transmission
of 3,000-V, 133 1/3 Hz power from Turin to Lanzo Torinese, about 25 mi by
railroad. The installation used chromebronze wire of 3.7-mm diameter, supported on poles of the Turin-Ciriè-Lanzo telegraph line, alongside the tracks
of the Turin-Ciriè-Lanzo railway. A
Siemens ac dynamo driven by a steam
engine was located within the electrical
exhibition building in Turin. Gaulard-
Gibbs transformers in the building
powered 18 incandescent lights and one
arc lamp. There were additional transformers and lights at the Turin railway
station and in the railway stations of
Venaria Reale and Ciriè (see Figure 1).
In Lanzo, there were transformers, 27
incandescent lights, and three arc lights.
The periodical Annuario Scientifico ed
Industriale reported that the Gaulard-
Gibbs transmission system was the star
attraction of the electrical exhibition (this
is the author's translation from Italian):
Secondary generators of Gaulard
and Gibbs-The main attraction
of the recent international exhibition of electricity in Turin was the
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