The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-01-24

tor does not lie in its being able to do
any more work for each horse power
than could be done by the steam en-
CINE, but in the fact that the power for
many motors can be generated at one
central station under conditions OF
much greater economy than can be Sc
cured in the locomotive or in small sep
arate plants, and also in the greater eff
ficiency for certain purposes of rotary
motor over the reciprocating action of
the ordinary steam engine. Speaking
generally, the power all comes from
coal originally and the steam engine is
used to drive the electric generators or
dynamos, as they are called. If there
are a hundred machines to be driven
and each of these would take five horse
power they would each require an cleo
trio motor of the same power as if the
motor We're steam engine and the
whole would require central station
engine, which could furnish to them 500
horse power in the aggregate. The loss
Of power in good practice amounts to
fro me to 10 per cent, so that the CEN
trail station must actually produce, in
such case, fifty horse power perhaps,
more than the separate steam engines
to perform the same work would be re-
CURED to do.
You wonder, then, where the econo-
my of using electricity lies? Let us con-
slider this as applied to the running of
locomotives, for instance. An express
locomotive, running under favorable
conditions. will use about four pounds
of coal an hour for each horse power
produced. Some runs have been made
upon a consumption of three and one
half pounds an hour for each horse
power. An engine drawing coal train
will burn five pounds of coal every hour
for each horse power, while the usual
consumption Of freight locomotive is
from six to ten pounds Even this does
not take in the coal wasted while the
engine is getting up steam, or that
burned when the fires are banked or
thrown away when the fires are drawn.
Compare this with the results attained
in good stationary plants. Some of
these will produce power at an expense
of 1.5 pounds of coal for each horse
power an hour, while it is a poor plant
which requires more than two pounds.
In the new steamship Kaiser Wilhelm
AVSVNV
horse power upon an average consump-
ton of one and one-half pounds of coal
for each horse power an hour for run
across the Atlantic. Coal can also be
delivered and handled cheaper at large
central stations, and the other expenses
are also less. AS rule the cost of fuel
on electric roads is about 5 per cent. of
the operating expenses, while on steam
roads it is about 10 per cent.
THE real reason why the electric To-
connective does not at once take the place
of the steam motor is the difficulty and
cost of distributing the electric current
| for long distances without great loss
| of current through the electrical resist
ance of the wires. To overcome this the
roads operated by electricity are divid-
| ed up into short sections, and separate
copper feeder wires are run from the
power house to each section. This
| would not entail SO much expense if it
! We're not for the fact that each feeder
wire as it is increased in length must
also be increased in size, or there would
be great loss of power, and the cost
of the copper soon gets to be too great
| to warrant the increase in size. When
the scheme for building the Broadway
proposed train service would take ST.
/ 100000 worth of copper wire alone If the
power all came from one station"
These difficulties We're very clearly
set forth recently by Claude Marshall
/ in a paper read before the Chicago
Electrical association, and Mr.. Marshall
also points a way in which they may be
| overcome He SAYS in part:
| "As far as an engineer can see into
the future it is improbable that cleo
tricity will supplant steam for general
railroading purposes, but there are
some departments of the work where
the adoption of electricity will be a
great advancement In thickly settled
communities, as parts of New England
North Atlantic and Central states, the
railroads will be forced to make
changes in their service to successfully
compete with the parallel trolley lines.
with the present equipment 1t seems
that 500 or 600 volts at most is the lin
itation of the direct current motor and
| long lines can only be operated by plac-
| ing power stations at frequent inter
walls, say ten or twelve miles apart. Tho
| transmission at this voltage involves
underground rapid transit railroad was
being investigated by supreme court
commission in 1895 experts testified that
to transmit the enormous amount OF
power which would be required for the
enormous losses or great expense fol-
copper On one road recently tested
the voltage varied from 525 volts neal
| the station to 240 volts at the end of a
| line seven miles distant It is obvious
that for transmission alternating cur.
rents must be employed. How necessa
ny high voltages are may be seen from
a little calculation on the cost of cop.
per for line wire. Mr. Stillwe1l gives
the cost of copper required to deliver
one horse power at motor shaft ter
miles from the generator, allowing a q
per cent drop and copper Is cents pei
pound, at 500 volts, $7S0.75, and at ,00t
volts, $l.95. Thus it is seen that it cost:
400 times as much to furnish copper a.
500 volts as it does at 10000. A voltage
of 10000 is we'll within the present en-
cheering practice.
''It is generally believed that alternat
ing current motors are out of considera
ton for traction purposes, and it is true
that the experiments have not been sue
cessful on account Of the low starting
torque and lack of regulation; but the