Tools & manufacturing · 1834

Electric motor

Electromagnets turn current into continuous rotation.

Moritz Jacobi built a practical rotating motor in 1834, and Thomas Davenport patented one in 1837. Once grids arrived, motors put power at every machine and in every home.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Electromagnetic induction 1831
Voltaic battery 1800

What it led to 10

AC induction motor 1888
Electric streetcar 1888
La Jamais Contente 1899
Moving assembly line 1913
Home refrigerator 1927
Differential analyzer 1931
Center-pivot irrigation 1948
Shinkansen high-speed rail 1964
General-purpose factory robots ~2030
Humanoid robots in homes ~2036

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

UK electricity output since 1896 Latest: 3.57M MWh (1998) Source: Our World in Data