Three-Phase Induction Machines

Abstract

It may be difficult to imagine nowadays that in the early years of electric power engineering, there was a serious controversy about the relative merits of directcurrent and alternating-current power systems. The advocates of a-c systems, lead by innovators like Tesla,* were opposed by no less a giant of the engineering world than Edison, † who had pioneered the first (d-c) system. Even though the advantages of high-voltage power transmission and the need for transformers were known and appreciated, it took another breakthrough, the invention of the induction motor (attributed to Tesla) to turn the tide in favor of a-c.