Zénobe Théophile Gramme (4 April 1826, Amay

Amay

Amay is a Belgian municipality located in the Walloon province of Liège. On January 1, 2006, Amay had a total population of 13,144. The total area is 27.61 km² which gives a population density of approximately 476 inhabitants per km²...

 - 20 January 1901) was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 electrical engineer. He invented the Gramme machine

Gramme machine

A Gramme machine, Gramme ring, Gramme magneto, or Gramme dynamo is an electrical generator which produces direct current, named for its Belgian inventor, Zénobe Gramme, and was built as either a dynamo or a magneto. It was the first generator to produce power on a commercial scale for industry...

, a type of direct current

Direct current

Direct current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...

 dynamo

Dynamo

- Engineering :* Dynamo, a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator* Dynamo theory, a theory relating to magnetic fields of celestial bodies* Solar dynamo, the physical process that generates the Sun's magnetic field- Software :...

 capable of generating smoother (less AC

Alternating current

In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....

) and much higher voltages than the dynamos known to that point.

In 1873 he and Hippolyte Fontaine

Hippolyte Fontaine

Hippolyte Fontaine was a French engineer and electrician who worked with Zénobe Gramme on the development of the Gramme machine , and whose contributions were essential to the creation of the dynamo...

 accidentally discovered that the device was reversible and would spin when connected to any DC power supply. The Gramme machine was the first usefully powerful electrical motor that was successful industrially. Before Gramme's inventions, electric motors attained only low power and were mainly used as toys or laboratory curiosities.

Gramme died at Bois-Colombes

Bois-Colombes

Bois-Colombes is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

In the city of Liège there is a High School, L'Institut Gramme

Institut Gramme

The Gramme Institute is a high school of engineering part of Haute École HELMo in Liege in Belgium.It was founded in 1906 by Belgian Jesuit Adolphe Renard. It was names "Ecole des Arts et Métiers" after the same school in France. The first promotion came out in 1908 at a time when the studies...

, named after him.

In 2005 he ended at 23rd place in the election of Le plus grand Belge

Le plus grand Belge

Le plus grand Belge , was a television show on the Belgian French-speaking public channel RTBF. In the program the audience could vote for the greatest Belgian by using the website, sending an SMS or using the telephone...

(The Greatest Belgian), the television show broadcast by the French-speaking RTBF

RTBF

Radio Télévision Belge Francophone is the public broadcasting organization of the French Community of Belgium, the southern, French-speaking part of Belgium...

 and based on the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 show 100 Greatest Britons

100 Greatest Britons

100 Greatest Britons was broadcast in 2002 by the BBC. The programme was the result of a vote conducted to determine whom the United Kingdom public considers the greatest British people in history. The series, Great Britons, included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further...

.