Sebastian Pietro Innocenzo Adhemar Ziani de Ferranti lived from April 9, 1864, to January 13, 1930. He was a British electrical engineer and inventor who helped develop high-voltage alternating current (AC) power in the United Kingdom. He patented the Ferranti dynamo and designed the Deptford Power Station.
Personal life
Ferranti was born in Liverpool, England. His father, Giulio Cesare Ziani de Ferranti, was Italian and worked as a photographer. His mother, Juliana de Ferranti (née Scott), was British and played the piano professionally. His paternal grandfather, Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti, was a composer. Ferranti attended several schools, including Hampstead School in London, St. Augustine's College in Westgate-on-Sea, and University College London.
On April 24, 1888, Ferranti married Gertrude Ruth Ince at St. Dominic's Priory in Hampstead. Together, they had seven children: Zoë Vanda Marie (born 1889, died 1978), Basil (born 1891, died 1917), Gerard Vincent
Professional career
Ferranti showed a great talent for electrical engineering from a young age. At 13, he created an arc light for street lighting. It is said that around age 16, he built an electrical generator with a "zig-zag armature" with the help of William Thomson, who later became Lord Kelvin. He got a patent for the device, called the "Ferranti Dynamo." He worked for Siemens Brothers in London and in 1882 started a business in London designing electrical devices as the firm Ferranti, Thompson and Ince.
In the late 1880s, there was a debate in the United States about sending electrical power, called the "war of the currents." Thomas Edison supported a direct current (DC) system because he owned many key patents and had built power plants that used DC. A competing company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, supported an alternating current (AC) system.
Ferranti chose to support AC early and was one of the few experts on this system in the UK. In 1887, the London Electric Supply Corporation (LESCO) hired Ferranti to design their power station at Deptford. He designed the building, the power equipment, and the system to send electricity to homes. When the station was completed in 1891, it was the first modern power station, sending high-voltage AC power at 11kV, which was then reduced to lower voltage for use in homes. This system is still used today worldwide. A support beam from the Deptford Power Station is now part of the sign at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, UK, where Ferranti's records are kept.
In 1885, Ferranti started a company with Francis Ince and Charles Sparks as partners, called S.Z. de Ferranti. The company became S.Z. de Ferranti Ltd in 1890 and Ferranti Ltd in 1900 after Ince and Sparks left. Ferranti Ltd continued after Ferranti’s death and created the Ferranti Mark 1, the world’s first commercially available general-purpose computer, in 1951.
Ferranti was President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1910 and 1911. He was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1927. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester in 1912. He helped create the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association (BEAMA) in 1911 and was its first chairman until 1913. He supported the Electrical Association for Women, which Gertrude Ziani de Ferranti helped develop.
Commemoration
In 1932, the London Power Company honored Ferranti by naming a new ship, the SS Ferranti, which was a coastal collier with a gross register tonnage of 1,315. In 1934, Ferranti’s wife, Gertrude, and her brother, Robin Ince, wrote and published a book called The Life and Letters of Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti to honor him. Caroline Haslett wrote the foreword for the book. In 2016, a blue plaque was placed at 130 Bold Street, Liverpool, to mark the birthplace of Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti. An urban park located south of the former Deptford Power Station in southeast London is named Ferranti Park in his honor.