Paul Boucherot
| Paul Boucherot | |
|---|---|
Boucherot's grave marker at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, Paris depicting Prometheus' punishment for providing the power of fire to humanity
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| Born |
3 October 1869 Paris |
| Died | 20 February 1943 Ardentes |
| Nationality | French |
| Education | École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Electrical engineering |
| Employer(s) | Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord |
Paul Boucherot (1869–1943) was an engineer with the Chemins de Fer du Nord (Northern Railway of France). He studied at the elite École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI) where he later also taught electrical engineering. He was a pioneer of DC electric power distribution, designed induction motors, and with Georges Claude, built early plants for obtaining thermal energy from the sea. He also contributed to electrical analysis, including the relationship between real and apparent power.
Boucherot was interested in using polyphase supplies to power asynchronous motors as early as 1894. The squirrel-cage rotor asynchronous motor was invented by Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky in 1889 and they were being built industrially from 1891. A problem with asynchronous machines is that they are difficult to start. The coupling to the rotor is weak until it gets moving and the current drawn by the motor is high. Boucherot solved this problem with his discovery of the double cage asynchronous motor in 1912. In fact, Dolivo-Dobrovolsky had already invented the double cage all the way back in 1893 but it was long since forgotten.
The apparent power delivered by a generator as calculated by a simplistic multiplication of the voltage and the current is, in general, greater than the actual (real) power delivered as measured by the work done or heat produced. What is more the total apparent power consumed by two different circuits is not, in general, equal to their arithmetic sum. Boucherot developed a theorem relating real and apparent power with the introduction of a new concept, reactive power. Reactive power represents the energy stored in electric and magnetic fields and is not consumed, hence does not figure in the total of real power. states that the total reactive power can be found by an arithmetic sum of its components and the total real power can likewise be found by an arithmetic sum of its components. The square of the total apparent power, on the other hand, is equal to the sum of the square of the total real power and the square of the total reactive power.
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