Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-03-02


Mr.. Kimban is an expert electrical
engineer in the employ of the General
Electric Co. in Boston and we doubt not
that to him we are in no small measure in
debted for the success of the electric plant
The electrical apparatus has been fur
mished by the General Electric Company
OF schenectady, N. Y, which is the largest
manufacturer of electric light, electric
railway and power apparatus in this coun-
try, if not in the world. They employ at
the present time about 10000 operatives,
and have very extensive factories at Sche-
nectady, N. Y, Lynn, Mass, land Harrison,
n. j. The system used here is called the
monocyclic system, and is one of the lat
est developments in the transmission of
electrical energy over long distances by
means of so-called alternating currents.
Until within a comparatively few years it
would have been commercially impossible
to have constructed a power station at
Clyde Falls, bringing the electrical energy
into Barton. Up to about 1887 all lig hitting
was done by direct current electric ma
chimes and the enforced use of electric cur
rents of this character precluded the posi-
very extended areas. Consequently cleo
trio lighting was confined either to large
cities, where the necessary high cost Of
conductors could be afforded, or to isolated
plants where the distance of transmission
was comparatively short. Briefly, the diff
ference between a direct and an alternat
ing current is as follows: In a direct cur
rent of electricity the impulses of energy
impressed on the wire conductor are all in
one direction;so to speak, series of push
es, to use a general illustration. In the
alternating current, however, the impuls
es are impressed by alternating pushes and
pulls. In the case of direct current appar-
atus, the same electrical energy that is pro-
duced in the dynamo is supplied directly to
the lights, land inasmuch as multiple burn
ing incandescent lamps could not be sue
cessfully made for use on over about 125
volts, the pressure at which the dynamo
delivered the electricity was limited to
about the same amount.
The transmitting of electrical energy
over any conductor is only accomplished
at the expense of a certain amount of
waste in overcoming the molecular fric-
ton of the conductor itself, just as water
loses pressures by being forced through
long pipe; and in order to have good reg
ulation in the light of the lamps, it was
necessary to have practically the same
pressure at the lamps at the Dynamo
only a small percentage of the original ell
force, or pressure generated
by the dynamo could be lost in pushing
bo bo
coming it's resistance. This percentage
amounted in extreme cases to 10 per cent;
hence, when using a 125 volt dynamo, only
lbout 125 volts could be allowed for loss
n the conductors, and this left 1923 volts
n the extremity of the line to be used in
he lamps themselves. Being thus limited
% the loss of very small pressure in trans
hitting current, it became necessary, when
electricity was to be transmitted any dis
ance, to use very large copper conductors
having little resistance in order to keep
within this limit, and when transmissions
If any considerable distance We're under
aiken, the size of the copper wires neces-
arily used became so great that their cost
vas commercially impractical bic. The use
IF ordinary transformers, such as are now
Installed at Charleston and Barton, is i'm
possible with the direct current. The quail
ties and possibilities of the alternating
urrent were known long prior to its adj
'ptiOn for commercial uses. 1t remained,
however, for Messrs. Goulard and Gibbs of
England and Carpenter of France to first
pply alternating currents to electric light
ng through the intermediary of transform
10 q foa in wit
he alternating current if two wires lie
loosely side by side, in one of which an al
current is circulating, that with
ut actual electrical contact between the |
WO conductors, a current of electricity
will be induced Or set up in the second
wire. A homely illustration of this may
'e seen in the fact that if piece of red hot
ron be held very close to another piece of
ron, the second piece will be heated, al |
hOugh there is no contact. This illustra-
ion is not scientifically correct, but gives
general idea of the action taking place |
'etween the wires. When two or more |
oils made up of wires like those mention
d above are placed side by side in a prop |
L case, for the purpose of producing in
uced electrical currents, the whole device /
called transformer" or converter - |
! horse power of electrical energy may be |
made up either of small quantity of cleo
richly under very high pressure, or large
uantity under low pressure, just the same
S in hydraulics the same amount of power
nay be obtained from either a fall of a
mall quantity of water at considerable
cad, or considerable quantity of water
Fob
antage of in the operation of the s'Mono-
yclic System" We have an alternating
urrent or dynamo which supplies currents
t 1000 volts pressure to the transformer;
his transformer consists Of two coils of
ire lying closely side by side in an iron
ase as mentioned above, and when an al