How much earlier could the eletric generator have been developed?

When are it possible to build a useful electric generator, could it have been build in 1500, 1600 or 1700?
 
I mean technically, all you need is a magnetic field moving/changing relative to a copper coil, for a really basic. Actually finding how to use it is another thing entirely
 
If a generator is "something that will at least make a spark" I see no reason why it couldn't be physically done in the bronze age. They made wire and had magnets. But why would they put those parts together that way without some sort of theory to drive it?
 
If a generator is "something that will at least make a spark" I see no reason why it couldn't be physically done in the bronze age. They made wire and had magnets. But why would they put those parts together that way without some sort of theory to drive it?

It could start out as a toy/doodad made by some helenistic inventor for a rich patron, I believe several of Heron of Alexandria's inventions were of this nature.
 
When I talk about useful, I mean one which can used to do practical things. One you can set up on a water mill. I would also like to hear suggestions what it could be used to.
 
To send the mind of Nikola Tesla back to the bronze age would be classified as ASB on this forum, but historic inventive genius often involves flashes of insight just as remote. Somebody makes a rig that consists a rotating magnet in a spool wrapped with wire. Parts of the wire get hot. Why build such a device? The toy theory might be the best, because nobody would initially connect such an arrangement with invention. Perhaps a jeweler's wire is stored and wrapped around a hollow spool covered with beeswax, an insulator.
 
To make a DC generator more than a toy, you'll need to have machine techniques that are reasonably far along. Looking at the instrument makers of the 18th century, with the right flash of insight (thanks, Mark E.) I'd guess it's not impossible by the time of the American Revolution. The question then becomes: what does one do with the power thus generated? You'd need a transmission network, meaning larger scale copper mining and wire manufacture for openers. And then what happens at the other end? I'll grant that if one could make a generator, making a motor is equally possible--but it would be stationary, probably providing belt power for (say) a machine shop, cabinet maker, or some similar enterprise. In that day of localized commerce, it would have been simpler/cheaper to locate such an enterprise at the source of power; i.e., on a flowing stream with a millrace. IMO, you'll need the Industrial Revolution to get applications to make hydro-generated electric power more widespread--or for that matter, steam-generated electric power after about 1804.
 
To make a DC generator more than a toy, you'll need to have machine techniques that are reasonably far along. Looking at the instrument makers of the 18th century, with the right flash of insight (thanks, Mark E.) I'd guess it's not impossible by the time of the American Revolution. The question then becomes: what does one do with the power thus generated? You'd need a transmission network, meaning larger scale copper mining and wire manufacture for openers. And then what happens at the other end? I'll grant that if one could make a generator, making a motor is equally possible--but it would be stationary, probably providing belt power for (say) a machine shop, cabinet maker, or some similar enterprise. In that day of localized commerce, it would have been simpler/cheaper to locate such an enterprise at the source of power; i.e., on a flowing stream with a millrace. IMO, you'll need the Industrial Revolution to get applications to make hydro-generated electric power more widespread--or for that matter, steam-generated electric power after about 1804.

Yes that's a very good point. But it also raise some important question; how early could a light bolt be made and how early could we see electric heating. Because it's two uses which could be useful close to a watermill, where mechanical energy couldn't just replace it. If we could see electricity powered smelting of metals. This would be pretty useful in areas like Norway and Sweden which are rich in metal and water but poor in coal, as it would remove the need for charcoal. Both also had significant sources of copper.
 
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