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Concept
Rotating magnetic field
Summary
A rotating magnetic field is the resultant magnetic field produced by a system of coils symmetrically placed and supplied with polyphase currents. A rotating magnetic field can be produced by a poly-phase (two or more phases) current or by a single phase current provided that, in the latter case, two field windings are supplied and are so designed that the two resulting magnetic fields generated thereby are out of phase.
Rotating magnetic fields are often utilized for electromechanical applications, such as induction motors, electric generators and induction regulators.
In 1824, the French physicist François Arago formulated the existence of rotating magnetic fields using a rotating copper disk and a needle, termed “Arago's rotations.” English experimenters Charles Babbage and John Herschel found they could induce rotation in Arago's copper disk by spinning a horseshoe magnet under it, with English scientist Michael Faraday later attributing the effect to electromagnetic induction. In 1879, English physicist Walter Baily replaced the horseshoe magnets with four electromagnets and, by manually turning switches on and off, demonstrated a primitive induction motor.
The idea of a rotating magnetic field in an AC motor was explored by the Italian physicist and electrical engineer Galileo Ferraris and the Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. Ferraris wrote about researching the concept and built a working model in 1885. Tesla attempted several (unsuccessful) designs and working models through the early 1880s before building a working prototype in 1887 According to Ferraris principle of rotating magnetic field, Friedrich August Haselwander developed the first AC 3 phase generator in 1887. In 1888, Ferraris published his research in a paper to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Turin and Tesla obtained a United States patent () for his design. Based on the Haselwander generator, Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky will develop a three-phase generator and motor for the world's first three-phase power plant built in 1891 in Frankfurt, Germany.
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