Model name: Bipolar
Years: ~1896-1898
Type: Fixed head
Version: one version identified (see below)
Blades: ? cm, pizza shaped blades and round ended blades for later versions
Cage: without cage
Motor: ?
Electric current: unknown
Weight: unknown
Description:
In response to the first air agitators arriving from the USA in the last decade of the 1800s Ercole Marelli’s first production model was a bipolar fan. In the absence of a name this is simply referred to as the Bipolar.
The Bipolar was a fixed head table fan with direct current generated from a Zénobe Gramme/Antonio Pacinotti dynamo [1]. This model came with neither speed regulation nor protective cage and we believe was manufactured between 1896 and 1898.
[1] Z. Gramme (a Belgian) patented his dynamo motor in 1869 while A. Pancinotti patented essentially the same invention in 1871 in Italy. This would lead to a heated dispute in later years.
Marelli Fan 