Personal life
Sebastian Ziani de
Ferranti was born at 130 Bold
Street in Liverpool,
England where his
Italian father, Cesar, who was a photographer, had a photographic art studio.
He married Gertrude
Ruth Ince on April 24, 1888 and they had seven children together.
Ferranti died
on January 13, 1930 in Zurich,
Switzerland. He
was buried in the same grave as his parents and his daughter Yolanda at
Hampstead cemetery, London.
Professional career
Ferranti showed a
remarkable talent for electrical engineering from his childhood. His first
invention was at the age of 13 in 1877. His father consulted him
on the "installation of electric lighting" in Bold Street, so he produced an arc light for street lighting. Reportedly,
around the age of 16, he built an electrical generator (that had a
"Zig-zag armature") with the help of Lord Kelvin and later patented
the device (called the "Ferranti Dynamo"). and one
year later sold a dynamo for £5 10s. In 1881, this was a significant
sum of money. He naturally went into
this business, in 1882, when he set up shop in London designing various electrical devices.
In the late 1880s
there was a debate within the industry about the transmission of electrical
power, known as the War of the Currents. Thomas Edison supported a direct
current (DC) based system, largely due to his holding many key patents and
having set up some power plants supplying DC power. His rival, Nikola Tesla,
supported an alternating current (AC) system that was being backed by
Westinghouse.
Ferranti bet on AC
early on, and was one of the few experts in this system in the UK.
In 1887 the
London Electric Supply Corporation
(LESCo) hired Ferranti for the design of
their power station at Deptford. He designed the building, the generating plant
and the distribution system. On its completion in 1891 it was the first truly
modern power station, supplying high-voltage AC power that was then
"stepped down" for consumer use on each street.
The
power station was the first to output electricity at 10,000 V. Sebastian
was one of the first people to advocate large scale power generating
stations sited outside of population centres and established the
principle of the national grid using AC (alternating current)
transmission Ferranti's Deptford Power Sation
This basic system
remains in use today around the world. One of the remaining supports of the
generating hall of Deptford Power Station forms the frame of the sign at the
Manchester Museum of science and Industry in Manchester UK, home of the
Ferranti Archives.
Wherever he came upon a problem he invented something to overcome it. Amongst others he invented -
1. An electrical Generator (dynamo) to make the electricity
2. The transformer required to step down the electricity carried from the power station at high voltage to make it suitable for use in the home.
3. Insulated cables to carry the high voltage electricity safely.
4. A meter to measure how much electricity any one consumer was using
5. The power station building necessary to do the job.
The Ferranti works moved from London to Hollinwood in 1896.
Dr Ferranti's interest were much wider than electrical engineering, and
embraced mechanical engineering, the design and manufacture of textile
machinery, and instrumentation. In the first world war Ferranti
supervised and controlled munitions production at Hollinwood.
Sebastian de Ferranti
