The Van Buren press., 1896-02-22
CoALLEss CITIES.
Smoke Can BE Abolished by Water Power
and the Electric Current.

Smoke Can Be Abolished hY Water Power
and the Electric Current.
The conditions Of the great problem
OF entirely excluding coal from city
may be treated as follows: Artificial
illumination, motive power, heating,
cooking, manufacturing and various
domestic operations now performed
with the aid of coal must be accom-
plished without bringing coal or any
Objectionable substitute into the city.
But how can such radical and stnpen-
dous scheme be accomplished? The
hrst reply to this, as to all other APP
parently unansWerable questions,
would almost certainly be: "By elee-
trieity, of course"
II a suita6le water power be avail
able within a reasonable distance. it
would naturally be utilized for driv-
ing the dynqmos to generate electrical
current for supplying q city. In the
case of nearly all other large cities,
however, the power would almost
necessarily have to be obtained from
coal, which would be brought to one
or more large stations, located on the
outskirts of, or at a sufficient distance
from, the city, so that the latter would
be free from smoke and other Disagree
able consequences of coal combustion.
The current generated by The dyna-
mos would be carried by overhead or
underground conductors TO the limits
of the city, where the pressure would
be reduced by step-down transformers
from, say, about 10000 volts to about
$500 volts in one or more stations, To-
Gated Mt convenient points. The dis
tribution of the current would be ae-
eomplished by running underground
conductors from these main transform
mer stations to transformer substa-
tions, where the potential would be
brought down to go volts for feeding
lamps, motors, etc, by the three-wire
system.
These substations should be quite
numerous, so that the local distfibu-
ton at low pressure shall neeessitate
only the minimum weight of copper for
the conductors.
A transformer substation could be in
each block of the city to be supplied
with current Local circuits from the
secondary of the transformers would
be cprried around the block. These
circuits would not be dangerous, since
/ they would be operate at only $50 volts,
and they could be strung as aerial wires
supported upon fixtures or brackets
. attached to the roofs or back walls of
| the building or they might be run in
troughs, laid on the tops of the houses.
Strong objections would probably be
raised against allowing wires to be put
up in this manner, but it should be re-
membered that they would be en-
tirely out of sight from the streets, and
would save the constant and very seri-
Gus nuisance of digging up the latter
for making connections to the individ-
ual houses With overhead wires this
could be done with trifling expense
and trouble. All reasonable objections
to these conductors are really less
weighty than digging up the streets a
single time to make or repair house
connection for gas or electric lighting.
Il5 SuD0iullOu1 WOh&O tN'fi'l 'i'fJ
part of the cellar in some building in
each block, and there would not be
sufficient noise or vibration from sta
tionary or even rotary transformers to
be at all perceptible in the rest OF
the building. The only precaution
necessary would be the locking up
of the transformers in a room accessl-
BILE only to a regular attendant who
could take care of ten or more sta
tions, visiting each occasionally to eX-
anime the apparatus, and perhaps also
to regulate the voltage or to connect
in circuit more transformers during
the hours of heavy load. These last
two operations could be performed elee-
trically from central station or auto
matically by clockworl1, if desired
Cassier's Magazine.