ENGLISH VERSION BELOW
Uroczystości odsłonięcia tablic Kamienia Milowego odbędą się w dniach 9-12. czerwca 2025 r. w Szczecinie, w Zielonej Górze i we Frankfurcie nad Menem
Autor opisu: prof. dr hab. inż. Adam Dąbrowski
Z inicjatywy Polskiej Sekcji IEEE podjętej w czerwcu 2021 r. rozpoczęto prace nad przygotowaniem kolejnego wniosku o przyznanie Kamienia Milowego IEEE tym razem za osiągnięcie związane z opracowaniem trójfazowego systemu elektro-energetycznego i zastosowaniem go, przy wykorzystaniu wysokich napięć przemiennych, do efektywnej transmisji energii elektrycznej na duże odległości. W opracowaniu i rozwoju tej technologii główną rolę odegrał Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski.
Prace nad nowym kamieniem milowym zapoczątkowałem listem z dnia 19. czerwca 2021 r. do Przewodniczącego Sekcji Niemieckiej IEEE Jana Haase i Przewodniczącego Sekcji Szwajcarskiej IEEE Thomasa Hanselmann’a, w którym napisałem:
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to you as the current Chairman of the IEEE Poland Section. I would like to invite you to undertake a joint initiative of the IEEE Poland Section, IEEE Germany Section and IEEE Switzerland Section to award the IEEE Milestone for the achievements of Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski. This is especially important to me now, because next year the Poland Section will be celebrating its 50th anniversary.
I think that the IEEE milestone I am proposing should be related to pioneering work on the use of three-phase alternating current. I have verified that such a milestone has not been awarded so far by IEEE.
At the end of the 19th century (in the late 1880s and 1890s) the so-called “battle of the current”, also called the “war of the accumulator battery against the transformer” took place worldwide in the electrical engineering. The “transformer” and alternating current won mainly thanks to Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski. The greatest supporters of further development of direct current based energy were: Thomas Alva Edison in the USA and Rookes Evelyn B. Crompton with Ernest Werner von Siemens in Europe. Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski was not only a supporter of the use of alternating current, but a precursor of a symmetric three-phase system with phases shifted by 120 degrees (called by Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski “Drehstrom”, due to its usefulness for the implementation of a rotating magnetic field and thus the implementation of the rotary motion of the so-called induction motors. It should be noted that Nikola Tesla used a two-phase current for this purpose. The concept of Tesla in the language of modern algebra was based on the use of the so-called “basis”, i.e. the minimum set of components to represent a two-dimensional rotating vector while the Doliwo-Dobrowolski concept was based on the so-called “frame” with three symmetric components, i.e. a slightly larger number than two basis components. In both cases, the connection required three wires, but the Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski idea led to better configurations of electric and especially magnetic circuits and therefore the three-phase system revolutionized a very quick development of the whole electrical engineering.
In 1889, a discussion arose over the choice of the electrification system for Frankfurt am Main. Therefore, in 1891, the world electrical exhibition was organized in Frankfurt am Main, where various systems of production, transmission, and distribution of electricity were presented. A breakthrough event was the presentation at this exhibition of the world’s first transmission of the three-phase electric power from the hydroelectric plant in Lauffen on Nekar at a distance of 175 km to Frankfurt am Main. The voltage of 15 kV and the frequency of 25 Hz were used. The main organizer and designer of this project were: Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski (representative of Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft AEG in Berlin, who designed 100 kVA dry transformers, 100 HP (horse power) induction motor for 65 V voltage and a rotational speed of approx. 600 revolutions per minute) and Chatles Eugene Lancelot Brown (chief designer of the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon MFO in Zurich, who designed a 300 HP generator and 150 kVA oil transformers for this line).
After the end of this exhibition, the line was turned off. The decision to choose the electrification system in Frankfurt am Main was not made until 1893. To the surprise of Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski, a wrong decision was made to choose a single-phase system. However, the three-phase power plant in Lauffen and an 11 km section of this high-voltage line were used to supply electricity to Heilbronn and worked until 1912.
Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski cooperated also in the design and construction of pioneering three-phase power plants in Poland in the cities of Zabrze and Chorzów. Already in 1896, the three-phase system was adapted in Zielona Góra, Poland to produce hydroelectric energy with the power of 466 kW and with contemporary frequency of 50 Hz in Nowogród Bobrzański on the river Bóbr and to transmit it to Zielona Góra for common use over distance of 25 km.
It should be mentioned that Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski invented also various measuring instruments, incl. wattmeter, phasemeter, and frequency meter. He introduced a concept and notion of the commonly used “power coefficient” known also as “cos φ”. Moreover, he dealt with the issues of electric arc by developing the so-called extinguishing chambers in high-voltage circuit breakers. Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski invented: three-phase triangle or star windings transformer (1889), squirrel cage motor (1889), and generator (1890). These are achievements of great practical importance and remain fully valid up to now.
Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski was born in 1862 in Gatczyna near Saint Petersburg. In 1881, during his student period, he was expelled as Pole from the Polytechnic Institute in Riga due to the repression of Poles after the attack on Tsar Alexander II (the attacker was a Polish student Ignacy Hryniewiecki). As a result, Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski left for Germany and completed his studies in Darmstadt at the newly opened Electrical Engineering Faculty, where he started working as an assistant in the Professor Erasmus Kittler team.
I hope that you will accept my invitation and that we will soon work together on the mentioned IEEE Milestone application.
Best regards
Adam Dąbrowski
Ta inicjatywa doprowadziła do sukcesu i już w dniach 9-12. czerwca 2025 r. będziemy odsłaniać w Szczecinie (w miejscu upamiętnienia osiągnięć Michała Doliwo-Dobrowolskiego na placu jego imienia), w Zielonej Górze (w której powstała już w 1896 r. jedna z pierwszych w świecie powszechnych, miejskich instalacji trójfazowych o częstotliwości 50 Hz) i we Franfurcie nad Menem w RFN (rys. 1) tablice informacyjne nowego Kamienia Milowego IEEE o treści:
Long Distance Transmission of Electrical Power Using Three-Phase Alternating Current, 1891
The world’s first long distance (175km), high voltage (15kV), highly efficient (75%) electric power transmission of 300 horsepower using three-phase alternating current (AC) was demonstrated at the 1891 International Electrotechnical Exhibition by Oskar von Miller, German-Bavarian consultant; Michael Dolivo-Dobrowolsky, Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), Germany; and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown, Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO), Switzerland. This Lauffen-to-Frankfurt demonstration directly influenced the eventual worldwide dominance of electric power transmission using three-phase AC systems.
Rys. 1. Pocztówka ilustrująca osiągnięcie nagrodzone aktualnym Kamieniem Milowym IEEE z inicjatywy PS IEEE
Fig. 1. Postcard illustrating an achievement awarded with the current IEEE Milestone from the IEEE PS initiative
Dzisiaj wskutek rozwoju fotowoltaiki znów powstają małe, gęsto rozmieszczone elektrownie prądu stałego, ale dzięki energoelektronice są one zazwyczaj zaopatrzone w falowniki przekształcające tę energię w energię trójfazową prądu przemiennego, zsynchronizowaną z siecią energetyczną i współcześnie nie obserwujemy już „wojny o prąd”.
Na koniec chciałbym jeszcze podkreślić, że IEEE jest największą w świecie organizacją zawodową zrzeszającą ogółem ponad 400 000 a w Polsce ponad 1 000 członków. W obszarze elektryki, elektroniki i dziedzinach pokrewnych IEEE nadaje wybitnym, epokowym osiągnięciom technicznym miano tzw. „Milestones” (pol. „kamieni milowych”), podkreślając tym samym najwyższą rangę tych osiągnięć. Przyznanie IEEE Milestone oznacza, że gdyby to osiągnięcie nie zaistniało, świat wyglądałby inaczej, gorzej.
Pierwszy IEEE Milestone zainicjowany przez PS IEEE został przyznany w 2014 r. za „Złamanie po raz pierwszy kodów maszyny szyfrującej ENIGMA przez zespół Polskiego Biura Szyfrów, 1932-39”, tj. przez Mariana Rejewskiego, Jerzego Różyckiego i Henryka Zygalskiego (rys. 2). Osiągnięcie to miało dwa aspekty: techniczny i historyczny. Aspekt techniczny polegał na tym, że było to zadanie w owym czasie o niezwykłym stopniu trudności, a historyczny – bo miało istotny wpływ na wcześniejsze pokonanie faszyzmu i pomyślne zakończenie II Wojny Światowej.
Drugi IEEE Milestone Polskiej Sekcji IEEE (wniosek wspólny z Sekcją Niemiecką) został przyznany w 2019 r. za przełomowe odkrycie przez Profesora Jana Czochralskiego metody hodowania monokryształów (rys. 3). Dzięki stosowanej do dzisiaj na całym świecie metodzie otrzymywania monokryształów krzemu, służących do produkcji układów scalonych, profesor Jan Czochralski jest zwany „ojcem światowej elektroniki”. Jego odkrycie zostało wpisane do panteonu wynalazców, a Profesor Jan Czochralski stał się obecnie najczęściej wymienianym i cytowanym polskim uczonym w światowej literaturze naukowej.
Rys. 2. Tablica pierwszego Kamienia Milowego IEEE dla PS IEEE
Fig. 2. Plaque of the first IEEE Milestobe of IEEE PS
Rys. 3. Tablica drugiego Kamienia Milowego IEEE dla PS IEEE
Fig. 3. Plaque of the second IEEE Milestobe of IEEE PS
ENGLISH VERSION
The unveiling ceremonies of the Milestone plaques will take place on June 9-12, 2025 in Szczecin, Zielona Góra, and Frankfurt am Main.
Author of this description: Professor Adam Dąbrowski
At the initiative of the IEEE Poland Section undertaken in June 2021, preparing efforts began on another application for the award of the IEEE Milestone, this time for an achievement related to the development of a three-phase alternating current (AC) power system and its application, using high voltages, for the efficient transmission of electricity over long distances. Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski played a major role in the development of this technology. I initiated work on this new milestone initiative with a letter dated June 19, 2021 to the Chairman of the IEEE German Section Jan Haase and the Chairman of the IEEE Switzerland Section Thomas Hanselmann, in which I wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to you as the current Chairman of the IEEE Poland Section. I would like to invite you to undertake a joint initiative of the IEEE Poland Section, IEEE Germany Section and IEEE Switzerland Section to award the IEEE Milestone for the achievements of Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski. This is especially important to me now, because next year the Poland Section will be celebrating its 50th anniversary.
I think that the IEEE milestone I am proposing should be related to pioneering work on the use of three-phase alternating current. I have verified that such a milestone has not been awarded so far by IEEE.
At the end of the 19th century (in the late 1880s and 1890s) the so-called “battle of the current”, also called the “war of the accumulator battery against the transformer” took place worldwide in the electrical engineering. The “transformer” and alternating current won mainly thanks to Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski. The greatest supporters of further development of direct current based energy were: Thomas Alva Edison in the USA and Rookes Evelyn B. Crompton with Ernest Werner von Siemens in Europe. Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski was not only a supporter of the use of alternating current, but a precursor of a symmetric three-phase system with phases shifted by 120 degrees called by Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski “Drehstrom” (in German), due to its usefulness for the implementation of a rotating magnetic field and thus implementation of the rotary motion with the so-called induction motors. It should be noted that Nikola Tesla used a two-phase current for this purpose. The concept of Tesla in the language of modern algebra was based on the use of the so-called “basis”, i.e. the minimum set of components to represent a two-dimensional rotating vector while the Doliwo-Dobrowolski concept was based on the so-called “frame” with three symmetric components, i.e. a slightly larger number than two basis components. In both cases, the connection required three wires, but the Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski idea led to better configurations of electric and especially magnetic circuits and therefore the three-phase system revolutionized a very quick development of the whole electrical engineering worldwide.
In 1889, a discussion arose over the choice of the electrification system for Frankfurt am Main. Therefore, in 1891, the world electrical exhibition was organized in Frankfurt am Main, where various systems of production, transmission, and distribution of electricity were presented. A breakthrough event was the presentation at this exhibition of the world’s first transmission of the three-phase electric power from the hydroelectric plant in Lauffen on Nekar at a distance of 175 km to Frankfurt am Main. The voltage of 15 kV and the frequency of 25 Hz were used. The main organizer and designer of this project were: Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski (representative of Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft AEG in Berlin, who designed 100 kVA dry transformers, 100 HP (horse power) induction motor for 65 V voltage and a rotational speed of approx. 600 revolutions per minute) and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown (chief designer of the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon MFO in Zurich, who designed a 300 HP generator and 150 kVA oil transformers for this line).
After the end of this exhibition, the line was turned off. The decision to choose the electrification system in Frankfurt am Main was not made until 1893. To the surprise of Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski, a wrong decision was made to choose a single-phase system. However, the three-phase power plant in Lauffen and an 11 km section of this high-voltage line were used to supply electricity to Heilbronn and worked until 1912.
Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski cooperated also in the design and construction of pioneering three-phase power plants in Poland in the cities of Zabrze and Chorzów. Already in 1896, the three-phase system was adapted in Zielona Góra, Poland to produce hydroelectric energy with the power of 466 kW and with contemporary frequency of 50 Hz in Nowogród Bobrzański on the river Bóbr and to transmit it to Zielona Góra for common use over distance of 25 km.
It should be mentioned that Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski invented also various measuring instruments, incl. wattmeter, phasemeter, and frequency meter. He introduced a concept and notion of the commonly used “power coefficient” known also as “cos φ”. Moreover, he dealt with the issues of electric arc by developing the so-called extinguishing chambers in high-voltage circuit breakers. Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski invented: three-phase triangle or star windings transformer (1889), squirrel cage motor (1889), and generator (1890). These are achievements of great practical importance and remain fully valid up to now.
Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski was born in 1862 in Gatczyna near Saint Petersburg. In 1881, during his student period, he was expelled as Pole from the Polytechnic Institute in Riga due to the repression of Poles after the attack on Tsar Alexander II (the attacker was a Polish student Ignacy Hryniewiecki). As a result, Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski left for Germany and completed his studies in Darmstadt at the newly opened Electrical Engineering Faculty, where he started working as an assistant in the Professor Erasmus Kittler team.
I hope that you will accept my invitation and that we will soon work together on the mentioned IEEE Milestone application.
Best regards
Adam Dąbrowski
This initiative has led to success and already on June 9-12, 2025 in Szczecin (at the place commemorating the achievements of Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski on the square named after him), in Zielona Góra (where one of the first universal, municipal three-phase 50 Hz installations in the world was built in 1896) and in Frankfurt am Main, Germany (Fig. 1) we will be unveiling information boards of the new IEEE Milestone with the following text:
Long Distance Transmission of Electrical Power Using Three-Phase Alternating Current, 1891
The world’s first long distance (175km), high voltage (15kV), highly efficient (75%) electric power transmission of 300 horsepower using three-phase alternating current (AC) was demonstrated at the 1891 International Electrotechnical Exhibition by Oskar von Miller, German-Bavarian consultant; Michael Dolivo-Dobrowolsky, Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), Germany; and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown, Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO), Switzerland. This Lauffen-to-Frankfurt demonstration directly influenced the eventual worldwide dominance of electric power transmission using three-phase AC systems.
Fig. 1. Postcard illustrating an achievement awarded with the current IEEE Milestone from the IEEE PS initiative
Today, as a result of the development of photovoltaics, small, densely spaced direct current (DC) power plants are emerging again, but thanks to power electronics, they are usually equipped with inverters that convert this energy into three-phase AC energy, synchronised with the power grid, and today we no longer observe an “AC against DC war for electricity”.
I would also like to emphasize that IEEE is the world’s largest professional organization, with a total of over 400,000 members, and in Poland over 1,000. In the area of electrical engineering, electronics, and related fields, IEEE awards outstanding, epochal technical achievements with the so-called “Milestones”, thus emphasizing the highest rank of these achievements. Awarding an IEEE Milestone means that if this achievement had not occurred, the world would look different and worse.
The first IEEE Milestone initiated by the IEEE PS was awarded in 2014 for „First Breaking of Enigma Code by the team the Polish Cipher Bureau, 1932-39”, i.e. by Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski (Fig. 2). This achievement had two aspects: technical and historical. The technical aspect was that it was a task of extraordinary difficulty at that time, and the historical aspect – because it had a significant impact on the earlier defeat of fascism and the successful end of World War II.
The second IEEE Milestone of the IEEE Poland Section (joint application with the German Section) was awarded in 2019 for the groundbreaking discovery of a method for growing single crystals by Professor Jan Czochralski (Fig. 3). Thanks to the method of obtaining single crystals of silicon still used worldwide to produce integrated circuits, Professor Jan Czochralski is called the “father of world electronics”. His discovery was entered into the pantheon of inventors, and Professor Jan Czochralski has now become the most frequently mentioned and cited Polish scientist in the world scientific literature.
Fig. 2. Plaque of the first IEEE Milestobe of IEEE PS
Fig. 3. Plaque of the second IEEE Milestobe of IEEE PS
IEEE Milestone application of the IEEE PS Section:
What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)?
In 1889, a discussion arose over the choice of the proper electrification system for Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Therefore, in 1891, the worldwide electrical exhibition was organized there and various systems of production, transmission, and distribution of electricity were presented. The right decision was, however, very difficult to make, because, on one side, at that time (i.e., in the late 1880s and in the 1890s) the quite well developed and widely used direct current (DC) electricity production and distribution technology limited the transmission distances to single kilometers and required the construction of many local low-power plants, supplying consumers divided into separate networks, forming isolated islands. This practically excluded the use of the hydroelectric power, which needed to be transmitted over long distances. On the other hand, the new alternating current (AC) technology, which due to a possibility of transformation the energy to high voltages for the long distance transmission, was not yet accepted and met with strong resistance both in the USA and in Europe. This very determined movement was called “the battle for the current” or “the transformer-battery war”. The greatest supporters of further development of the DC based electrical energy were Thomas Alva Edison in the USA and Rookes Evelyn B. Crompton with Ernst Werner von Siemens in Europe. The methods they applied were sometimes quite brutal, including attempts to legally ban further development of the AC technology [1, 4]. A breakthrough was an event on August 25, 1891 at the mentioned Frankfurt exhibition, which was the world’s first transmission of the three-phase electric energy of 300 HP from the hydroelectric power plant in Lauffen am Neckar to Frankfurt am Main at a quite long distance of 175 km. With the used high voltage of 15 kV and frequency of 25 Hz, the overall efficiency of this line exceeded 75 %, which was an almost unbelievable success at that time. The main organizers of this project were, Oskar von Miller, Michał Doliwo-Dobrovolski from AEG, Germany and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown from Oerlikon, Switzerland [4].
It is curious that after the end of the Frankfurt exhibition, the high- voltage line was turned off and the decision to choose the electrification system for Frankfurt am Main was not made until 1893. A single- phase AC system was eventually chosen, i.e., a quite wrong decision and costly to correct was made. However, the three-phase power plant in Lauffen and an 11 km long initial section of the line was used to supply electricity to Heilbronn and worked until 1912. Already in 1896, the system was adapted in Poland to produce hydroelectric energy with the power of 466 kW and with contemporary frequency of 50 Hz in Nowogród Bobrzański (Naumburg am Bober) on the river Bóbr (Bober) and to transmit it to Zielona Góra (Grünberg) over distance of 25 km [7].
What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?
To our knowledge, there are no technical, political, or geographical obstacles to be overcome.
What features set this work apart from similar achievements?
Polyphase power systems were independently invented by Galileo Ferraris, Michał Doliwo- Dobrowolski, Jonas Wenström, John Hopkinson, and Nikola Tesla in the late 1880s [1]. The first AC motor in the world invented by Italian physicist Galileo Ferraris was a two-phase machine and required 4 wires, which is evidently less efficient then the three-phase motors and generators developed by Michał Doliwo-Dobrowolski who used additional coils and new ways of connecting them (in a triangle or a star) [7]. For the 1891 International Electrotechnical Exhibition, for the first time in the world a complete three- phase AC system was implemented and led to the transmission of electricity over a distance of 175 km with at that time very high efficiency of 75 %.
Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly’ is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.
[1] B. Lawson, Woodbank Communications Ltd.’s Electropaedia: “History of Batteries (and other things)”, https://www.mpoweruk.com/history.htm
[2] G. Neidhöfer, “Early three-phase power. Winner in the development of polyphase AC”, IEEE Power and Energy, Vol. 5, No. 5, 2007, pp. 88-100
[3] G. Neidhöfer, “Michael von Dolivo-Dobrowolsky und der Drehstrom, Anfänge der modernen Antriebstechnik und Stromversorgung”, VDE Verlag, Berlin 2004
[4] T. P. Hughes, “Networks of power. Electrification in Western Society 1880-1930”. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore/London 1993
[5] P. S. Thompson, “Polyphase Electric Currents and Alternate-Current Motors”. E. & F. Spon Eds., London 1895
[6] F. Hillebrand, “Zur Geschichte des Drehstroms”, Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift-Ausgabe A, 1959, Vol. 80, pp. 457-458
[7] Chronik der Elektrotechnik, https://www2.vde.com/wiki/chronik_2016/Wiki-Seiten/GesamtChronik.aspx
[8] M. Doliwo-Dobrowolski, “Aus der Geschichte des Drehstromes”, Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift 1917, (part 1) Vol. 26, pp. 341-344, (part 2) Vol. 27, pp. 354-357, (part 3) Vol. 28, pp. 366-369, (part 4) Vol. 29, pp. 374-377
[9] https://web.archive.org/web/20120205124103/http://ieee.cincinnati.fuse.net/reiman/05_2001.html