Dynamo company

Electrical power was utilized in Italy during the 1890s. For this purpose a trust was formed by the German Siemens Company, which included the Edison company and the Dynamo company, and which was financially supported by the Deutsche Bank. Power plants, mainly hydro-electric, were built in the northern regions. The power generators, both hydro- and thermo-electric, were manufactured by the Siemens firm. In the first years of the twentieth century Edison electrical bulbs lit Italian... 

Castner, Hamilton Young — (Sep. 11, 1858, Brooklyn, New York, USA - Oct. 11,1899, Saranac Lake, New York, USA) Castner studied at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and at the School of Mines of Columbia University. He started as an analytical chemist, however, later he devoted himself to the design and the improvement of industrial chemical processes. He worked on the production of charcoal, and it led him to investigate the Devilles aluminum process. He discovered an efficient way to produce sodium in 1886 which made also the production of aluminum much cheaper. He could make aluminum on a substantial industrial scale at the Oldbury plant of The Aluminium Company Limited founded in England. However, - Hall and - Heroult invented their electrochemical process which could manufacture aluminum at an even lower price, and the chemical process became obsolete. Castner also started to use electricity, which became available and cheap after the invention of the dynamo by - Siemens in 1866, and elaborated the - chlor-alkali electrolysis process by using a mercury cathode. Since Karl Kellner (1851-1905) also patented an almost identical procedure, the process became known as Castner-Kellner process. Cast-... 

In 1873, the Brequet Company was the first to produce Plante lead—acid batteries and Gramme dynamo machines. Thus, a technical possibility was created to easily generate and store electric energy. At that time, the system dynamo and lead—acid storage battery was still only a curious scientific achievement. Electric energy had not yet found practical application in human life. 

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