How Transformers Work – Alexander Skinner

The Transformer is used in an AC (alternating current) system as a “secondary generator”.  The first transformer was created by Michael Faraday. The AC system uses very high voltages unlike the DC (direct current) system, and therefore must have a device that will lower those voltages to usable levels.  The Transformer steps in and lowers the voltages in the AC system in order to power small devices such as an individual incandescant light bulb.  The Transformer has a primary, and a secondary in it.  The primary is a copper wire that is fed electric current.  The electric current fed through the primary creates a magnetic field. The secondary is a copper wire that intercepts the primary’s field of force.  When the primary and the secondary interact, self-induction occurs. When the primary and the secondary are coupled just right a very high self-induction will occur.  At the time of Michael Faraday’s ground breaking transformer invention, no one quite understood how and why to couple the primary and secondary perfectly.  It took a man like George Westinghouse to realize the geneous of the transformer.  Westinghouse realized that the transformer could potentially revelutionize the world. As it turns out, Westinghouse was right.  The transformer plays a key role in the AC system and Michael Faraday invented one of the greatest electrical inventions in history.