Zénobe Théophile Gramme (1826-1901), the father of the dynamo, was a Belgian engineer who lived and died in France.
At the age of 30 he began work in a Paris electrical factory and in 1869 he created his continuous-current dynamo, a working model of which was displayed at the Academy of Sciences in 1871. Later that year, working with Hippolyte Fontaine, a French engineer, he began manufacturing his dynamo. In 1873 they discovered that the device was reversible and would spin when connected to any DC power supply. A working Gramme dynamo was exhibited that year at the Vienna exhibition.
He was voted the 23rd most important Belgian in the 2005 Belgian tv programme Les plus grands Belges.
He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. On his grave is a statue of the famous Belgian, a copy of which has pride of place in the courtyard of the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris – one of the oldest museums of industry and technology in the world. One hand of the statue holds the induction ring of a dynamo and the other holds a compass.
Musée des arts et métiers, 60 rue Réaumur, Paris 3e
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