The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-01-19
ELECTRICITY.
How 1t Is Stolen by the Wires
From the Immense DynamOs.

The wires are the thieves. and every min
ute of the day and night they are stealing
electricity from the immense dynamos
which they fail to account for in brilliant
light.
The perpetual loss of electricity is not
caused by leaks. An electric-light station
could not run if there was a leakage.
Whenever q poor ius ulati0n wears away
and the current in the exposed wire Jumps
across to another wire, 1t cuts the uncoV-
cred wire from which it leaps. and the eX-
cessiYe heat burns up the entire wire All
the lights round about flicker, and those 0
the destroyed current go out in gloom. Ihat
is why excited patrons wildly Jungle the tel
ephones and cry for light. Another ana
properly insulated wire must be put ID
place Of the one burned out.
These leakageS are merely accldental.
There is, however, one unceaslng, lmpor-
tant waste of electricity-that when Is IOSI
i'm the form of heat. Instead OF passing on
in regular current it heats the wire ana Is
lost in the cooling process. In the EDISON
building the electric power passes from the
dynamo to the feeder. large wire running
to some street corner, where 1t IS diSIrio-
uted through mains to the various resi-
dences aud establishments. THESE 1eeueTS
are very large wires, ranging from the
larger ones, One-Quarter OF an inch to 1uli
inch in diameter. These wires are extended
IL
and a quarter miles. A lengthy ware such
as that necessarily abs0rbs a considerable
amount of heat, and it is conceded that IL
per cent of the electricity manufacturer oy
the dynamo is lost in this manner. The
house wires, running largely over block,
consume on an average, ) per cent III is
thus that 10 per cent OF the total generated
electricity is wasted. While not as bad as
the waste of steam from coal, it is enough
to make an electrician weep and evoke
sigh also from the householder, who but Tor
it might get his incandescent illumination
cheaper.
Despite this irremediabe heat leakage,
one dynamo can produce enough electricity
for 300 lights If there was no such loss,
the same dynamo could produce 2941 lights.
Each dynamo thus loses electricity enough
for over AL lights. In this Edison station
alone, which contains eighteen dynamOs,
twelve dynamOs are running at present,
supplying a maximum OF $1,000 ilghts,
burning at one time The loss or wire
heating from this station is, therefore, 1894
lights.
AS the company charges at the rate of
three-quarters of a cent an hour Tor
each lamp the expense of the loss amounts
tonearly $40 an hour, $3.50 day, and, COM
putting at the same full time, $3.50, 400
year That is what the lost electricity
would have cost the consumer. The conn
pany is actually out 10 per cent OF its coal
bill
Under the usual 112-volt pressure each
lamp represents one fifteenth Of horse
power. The Edison station is out by the
wire-heating 3j3 horsepower, or S8,704
candle power.
There are in Philadelphia twenty-one
electric light plants of all sizes, about four
of which possess over 10000 candle-pOwer
each. AS most of these are private plants,
the average loss is much lower than that Of
the Edison station. fair estimate Of the
aggregate power of all these various plants
places the total production al 100000 lamps.
This represents a loss Of 80, 249 lights. The
ground and air is thus receiving constantly
from million wires steady supply OF
electricity to the extent of 564 704 candle
power or 1858 h0rse-po
Record.