Milestones:Long Distance Electric Power Transmission Using Three-Phase Alternating Current, 1891
Title
Long Distance Electric Power Transmission Using Three-Phase Alternating Current, 1891
Citation
The world’s first long distance (175km), high voltage (15kV), highly efficient (75%) electric power transmission of 300 horsepower using three-phase alternating current (AC) was demonstrated at the 1891 International Electrotechnical Exhibition by Oskar von Miller, German-Bavarian consultant; Michael Dolivo-Dobrowolsky, Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), Germany; and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown, Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO), Switzerland. This Lauffen-to-Frankfurt demonstration directly influenced the eventual worldwide dominance of electric power transmission using three-phase AC systems.
Street address(es) and GPS coordinates of the Milestone Plaque Sites
Doliwo-Dobrowolski Square, 70-373 Szczecin / Poland (53.4244446, 14.5321641).
Palm House and Wine Park, 65-001 Zielona Góra / Poland (51.93775, 15.51306).
Gallusanlage, 60329 Frankfurt am Main / Germany (50.11022591, 8.67244124)., Doliwo-Dobrowolski Square, 70-373 Szczecin / Poland (53.4244446, 14.5321641).Palm House and Wine Park, 65-001 Zielona Góra / Poland (51.93775, 15.51306).Gallusanlage, 60329 Frankfurt am Main / Germany (50.11022591, 8.67244124).
Details of the physical location of the plaque
Szczecin: The plaque will be mounted at an architect-designed special pedestal for the installation of information boards, together with the foundation in the ground, near the bench with Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski sculpture.
Zielona Gora: The plaque will be mounted at an stone with information panel in the Palm House and Wine Park.
Frankfurt am Main: The plaque will be mounted at an information panel in the park.
How the plaque site is protected/secured
Szczecin: The plaque site is publicly accessible 24/7.
Zielona Gora: The plaque site is publicly accessible 24/7.
Frankfurt am Main: The plaque site is publicly accessible 24/7.
Historical significance of the work
In 1889, a discussion arose over the choice of the proper electrification system for Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Therefore, in 1891, the worldwide electrical exhibition was organized there and various systems of production, transmission, and distribution of electricity were presented. The right decision was, however, very difficult to make, because, on one side, at that time (i.e., in the late 1880s and 1890s), the quite well developed and widely used direct current (DC) electricity production and distribution technology limited the transmission distances to single kilometers. This required the construction of many local low-power plants, which supplied consumers who were divided into many separate and isolated networks. However, as hydroelectric power needed to be transmitted over long distances, its use was thus impractical.
While the new alternating current (AC) technology held the possibility of transforming energy transmission of high voltages over long distances, it was not yet accepted, and was met with strong resistance in both the USA and Europe. The question of whether to use DC or AC was called “the battle for the current” or “the transformer-battery war” [2].
The greatest supporters of further development of DC-based electrical energy were Thomas Alva Edison in the USA and Rookes Evelyn B. Crompton with Ernst Werner von Siemens in Europe. The methods they applied were sometimes quite brutal, including attempts to legally ban further development of the AC technology [1, 2, 4].
A breakthrough event in this "war" was on August 25, 1891, at the Frankfurt exhibition, with the world’s first transmission of three-phase electric energy of 300 HP from the hydroelectric power plant in Lauffen am Neckar to Frankfurt am Main at a the impressively long distance of 175 km. With the used high voltage of 15 kV and at the frequency of 25 Hz, the overall efficiency of this line exceeded 75%, which was an almost unbelievable success at that time. [2,10] “ ... the IEEE Board of Directors voted to designate 1991 as the centennial year for the industrial use of alternating current power. Among the reasons for selecting 1991 was the successful and well-publicized transmission of polyphase power beginning August 24, 1891 from Lauffen, Germany, to the site of an international electrical exhibition in Frankfurt, a distance of about 175 km. This demonstration provided convincing evidence of the economic and technical feasibility of supplying power generated at remote locations to industrial centers.” [9] The main organizers of this project were Oskar von Miller and Michael Dolivo-Dobrowolsky from from Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), Germany, and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown from Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO), Switzerland [4 pp 131-133].
Justification for the inclusion of names:
Regarding the exhibition in Frankfurt, Neidhöfer states “Most equipment was manufactured in joint cooperation of the Oerlikon Company MFO, Switzerland, and AEG, Berlin. Their respective engineers were Charles E.L. Brown, expert in high-voltage technology and large machinery construction, and Michael Dolivo-Dobrowolsky, expert in three-phase machinery and transformers.” [2].
Furthermore, Hughes states “The Frankfurt exhibition was a skirmish in “the battle of the systems ... Leopold Sonnenmann, a banker, politician and founder of the Frankfurter Zeitung, then suggested that the controversy be resolved by holding an electrotechnical exhibition in which the advocates of alternating current could demonstrate the most recent advances in their systems. A younger generation of engineers and designers contributed substantially to this exhibition. Prominent among them were Oskar von Miller, Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown, and Michael Dolivo-Dobrowolsky.
A persistent vision of harnessing the water power of the Alpine region of his Bavarian homeland stimulated von Miller. Brown brought to the exhibition the mechanical genius of the Swiss, with whom his father, an English engineer, had settled, and with whom he himself worked; and Dolivo-Dobrowolsky was intensely involved in developing polyphase machinery.
"Behind Brown was the Swiss mechanical-engineering manufacturing firm of Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon, and supporting Dolivo-Dobrowolski was the Berlin electrical manufacturer AEG.” [4, page 131]
Also, Thompson states “For many months the only example of a general distribution of polyphase currents from a central station was that of the town of Heilbronn, which derives its 3-phase supply from the generating station at Lauffen, on the river Neckar, about 9 miles distant. The engineer who laid out the system is Mr. Oskar von Miller, of Munich, by whose courtesy the following information is supplied. The generators at Lauffen, the same that were used in the famous Frankfort transmission (Fig. 30) ...“ [5, page 217]
Based on the outstanding contribution of the engineers Oskar von Miller, Michael Dolivo-Dobrowolski and Charles E.L. Brown to the first long distance transmission of electrical power using three-phase alternating current, their names should be included.
Obstacles that needed to be overcome
To our knowledge, the main obstacles to overcome where of financial and logistic nature. They needed to be solved to provide the first long distance transmission of electrical power using three-phase alternating current in time for the exhibition in Frankfurt.
Features that set this work apart from similar achievements
Polyphase power systems were independently invented by Galileo Ferraris, Michał Doliwo-Dobrovolski, Jonas Wenström, John Hopkinson, and Nikola Tesla in the late 1880s [1]. The first AC motor in the world invented by Italian physicist Galileo Ferraris was a two-phase machine and required 4 wires, which is evidently less efficient then the three-phase motors and generators developed by Michał Doliwo-Dobrovolski who used additional coils and new ways of connecting them (in a triangle or a star) [7]. For the 1891 International Electrotechnical Exhibition, for the first time in the world a complete three-phase AC system was implemented and led to the transmission of electricity over a distance of 175 km with at that time very high efficiency of 75 %.
Significant references
[1] B. Lawson, Woodbank Communications Ltd.’s Electropaedia: “History of Batteries (and other things)”, https://www.mpoweruk.com/history.htm
[2] G. Neidhöfer, “Early three-phase power. Winner in the development of polyphase AC”, IEEE Power and Energy, Vol. 5, No. 5, 2007, pp. 88-100
[3] G. Neidhöfer, “Michael von Dolivo-Dobrowolsky und der Drehstrom, Anfänge der modernen Antriebstechnik und Stromversorgung”, VDE Verlag, Berlin 2004
[4] T. P. Hughes, “Networks of power. Electrification in Western Society 1880-1930”. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore/London 1993
[5] P. S. Thompson, “Polyphase Electric Currents and Alternate-Current Motors”. E. & F. Spon Eds., London 1895
[6] F. Hillebrand, “Zur Geschichte des Drehstroms”, Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift-Ausgabe A, 1959, Vol. 80, pp. 457-458
[7] Chronik der Elektrotechnik, https://www2.vde.com/wiki/chronik_2016/Wiki-Seiten/GesamtChronik.aspx
[8] M. Doliwo-Dobrowolski, “Aus der Geschichte des Drehstromes”, Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift 1917, (part 1) Vol. 26, pp. 341-344, (part 2) Vol. 27, pp. 354-357, (part 3) Vol. 28, pp. 366-369, (part 4) Vol. 29, pp. 374-377
[9] https://web.archive.org/web/20120205124103/http://ieee.cincinnati.fuse.net/reiman/05_2001.html
[10] A. Allerhand, "The Earliest Years of Three-Phase Power—1891–1893 [Scanning Our Past]," in Proceedings of the IEEE 108, no. 1, pp. 215-227, Jan. 2020, doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2019.2955618. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8944322.
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