Auguste de Meritens
Baron Auguste de Méritens (1834-1898), of 44 Rue Boursault, Paris
He is best known his work on magneto generators, particularly those used for arc lighting and lighthouses. Similar magneto generators had been produced earlier by Nollet; de Méritens' innovation was to replace the rotor coils previously wound on individual bobbins, with a 'ring wound' armature. These windings were wound on a segmented iron core, similar to a Gramme ring, so as to form a single continuous hoop. This gave a more even output current, which was advantageous for use with arc lamps.
1898 Obituary[1]
"...French electrical engineer, M. De Meritens, under very distressing circumstances. It appears that, being in greatly reduced circumstances, and deeply in debt, he had gone with his wife to live in a small house in Pontoise, and did not even have sufficient money to pay for his furniture. On his failing to pay, the furniture was seized and sold by auction, and this appears to have so acted on his mind and that of his wife, who was thirty years his junior, that they both poisoned themselves. It is lamentable that a man so clever and well known should perish in such fashion.
The best-known invention made by M. De Meritens is his dynamo, and though one of the very first, if not the first dynamo of any practical value, he is still used at the present time, though only..." [More].
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1898/11/11, p464.