How to generate electric current without a permanent magnet? The question is pretty simple:

Can we build a device that coverts mechanical work in electric current1 without employing a permanent magnet and without access to any external source of current?

The restrictions in place seem to rule out the possibility of current generation via induction; and I cannot think of another practical method. I have heard that industrial alternators sometimes work with electromagnets, but we don't have access to any external source of current, so this path doesn't seem viable.
Do we really need stupid magnetic rocks to produce current? Unacceptable.

To be more specific and minimize to risk of misunderstandings: my question is more or less equivalent to the following one

Can we build a device, powered by hand via some sort of rotating lever, that produces electric current, crucially without employing any external current and without any permanent magnet?


[1]: Usable electric current, let's say sufficient to properly power up a lamp; doesn't matter if AC or DC.
 A: Doesn't a battery do this?  Also, capacitors.
EDIT: With the edit, it looks like the premise of your question could be satisfied by a Van de Graff generator:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator
which uses friction to strip electrons from a substance, and create an electrostatic potential.
A: Piezo electric cells convert mechanical energy to electric energy
A: You could use alternators with electromagnets, without a connection to the power grid by one of these means:

*

*Use solar panels to generate the current for the electromagnets.


*Use batteries to power the electromagnets, the batteries being charged using either solar panels and/or using a fraction of the power produced by the alternators.


*Instead of batteries, you could use super capacitors:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/supercapacitors.


*Apparently in some car alternators, the residual magnetism (from the electromagnet's carcass) can be enough to bootstrap the process: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/519621/source-of-initial-magnetic-field-in-an-alternator
The idea is to charge the super-capacitors with a fraction of the power generated by the wind turbine, and then use it to power the electromagnets in turn. Of course, batteries and/or solar panels are needed to "bootstrap" the system at startup if the capacitors have lost their charge.
In a car, sacrificing  a part of the energy produced by the alternator in order to re-inject it (via the batteries) to power the electromagnets of the alternator is not an issue, because the source of power is the engine, itself powered by fuel.
If the aim is to generate electrical power using renewable energies in the most efficient manner possible, then doing without the electromagnets could prove counterproductive. A careful energy balance must be drawn in this case to try to assess if using electromagnets in place of permanent magnets is an overall benefit in terms of efficiency, in terms cost, in terms of ecological impact, etc.
A: You have a lot of ways to convert other forms of energy to electricity without permanent magnets, you might be using one right now, batteries, wich uses chemical energy (Unless it is recharged)
Here is a list of what i can think of:

*

*Solar power

*Chemical reactions (A good example for that is batteries)

*Static electricity (Would be funny to see hydropower with a turbine spinning socks on carpets)

*Lighting strikes

*Atmospheric elctricity

A: To answer this question one needs to think of a form of energy and then a device that will convert that energy into electrical energy.
Mechanical - Wimshurst machine, Van de Graaff generator, piezoelectric crystal, perhaps a self-exciting generator?
Light - Solar cell
Thermal - Thermocouple
Nuclear - Atomic battery
Sound - Contact microphone
Chemical - battery
Gravitational - via a mechanical device without a permanent magnet
In terms of lighting a bulb then a store of electrical energy, eg a capacitor, might be needed.
