GC: n

CT: Air-gap or axial-flux generators are a popular generator design for small wind turbines in Britain. Both Marlec and Proven use this strategy by arraying the magnets and stator coils axially rather than in the more common radial pattern. In Marlec’s 1700 and Proven’s 2.5 kW model, the manufacturers use two sets of magnets rings, with stator coils sandwiched between them. To build bigger alternators, a designer can increase the alternator’s diameter or add more disks. Jeumont Industrie did both in its 48-meter (160 ft) diameter, 750 kW wind turbines. Jeumont, a manufacturer od discoidal alternators for French nuclear submarines, adapted the technology to wind energy.

S: WP – https://books.google.es/books?isbn=1603581634, p. 124 (last access: 21 December 2014)

N: 1. air (n): c.1300, “invisible gases that make up the atmosphere,” from Old French air “atmosphere, breeze, weather” (12c.), from Latin aerem (nominative aer) “air, lower atmosphere, sky,” from Greek aer (genitive aeros) “air” (related to aenai “to blow, breathe”), of unknown origin, possibly from a base awer- and thus related to aeirein “to raise” and arteria “windpipe, artery” on notion of “lifting, that which rises.” In Homer mostly “thick air, mist;” later “air” as one of the four elements.
gap (n): early 14c. (mid-13c. in place names), from Old Norse gap “chasm,” related to gapa “to gape,” from PIE ghai- “to yawn, gape”. Originally “hole in a wall or hedge;” broader sense is 16c. In U.S., common in place names in reference to a break or pass in a long mountain chain (especially one that water flows through). As a verb from 1847.
generator (n): 1640s, “person or thing that generates,” from Latin generator “a begetter, producer,” agent noun from past participle stem of generare. Meaning “machine that generates power” first recorded 1794; in sense of “machine that generates electric energy,” 1879. Fem. generatrix attested from 1650s.
2. A generator for small wind turbines using magnets and stator coils in an axial array rather than in the more common radial pattern.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=air&searchmode=none; http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=gap&searchmode=none; http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=generator&searchmode=none (last access: 21 December 2014). 2. TERMIUMPLUS.

SYN: axial-flux generator

S: WP – https://books.google.es/books?isbn=1603581634, p. 124 (last access: 21 December 2014); TERMIUMPLUS.

CR: electrical energy, generator.