Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1913-01-07

whenever you ask an electrical en-
gineer question he seizes a pad
and draws picture. This is getting
the cart before the horse. The bic
ture is a graphic representation Of
an idea. You have to comprehend
the idea before you can grasp tie
significance Of the picture.
Electricity is far more definite
science than that of steam power.
The public has learned from cor.
slant repetition that about 80 per
cent of the energy liberated by burn
ing coal to run a steam engine is
wasted In an electrical machine the
waste is far less and the amount
of energy that is generated can ! e
measurer far more accurately.
Electric generators are machines
to transform mechanical power into
electrical power. In other words,
they generate electric current when
driven by mechanical power. They
are run by steam engines, turbines.
gas engines or some other form If
mechanical power called "prime
movers" The generator is con.
structed to transform the amount of
mechanical power that the prime
mover running it supplies A gener.
ator run by a ten horsepower en-
CINE, for instance. will transform ten
horse power of energy, less a small
percentage (about 10 per cent? lost
in the process. Electrical engineers
don't usually say that a generator
transforms ten horse power Their
measure Of energy Tor power) is the
kilowatt which is equal to one and a
third horse power So they say that
| the generator transforms seven and
a half kilowatts, which is the equlva-
4 lent Of ten horse power Why should
this change in nomenclature be any
more confusing than to say that one
inch is equal to two and a half CEN
! timeters?
Mention the action Of electric cur
rent 10 neophyte, and he immedi-
ately assumes a look of blank per
| plexity Yet the fundamental facts
about electric current are extremely
simple. An electric current will not
move unless it can move in com
nlete circuit, and get back to where
| i came from, This is why il is safer
for a man handling an electric cur
rent to work with one hand behind
his back. He is then not likely to
touch it in two places and thus com
plete a circuit through himself. Elec-
4 trio current may be said to have
exactly the same sort Of intelligence
/ as child playing puss-iu-the-corner
The child viii not leave the corner
/ 1t occupies until it sees a corner
free for it to go to. BY likening the
4 electric circuit to the piping system
which leads the water to a wash
basin and away from it to the sewer.
1 it is possible to grasp this idea BY
noting the difference in the action
\ OF electric current and Of the water
IN the case Of electricity, If you
open the faucet the electricity will
/ flow only if the discharge pipe is
free all the way and it has the
power of finding this ont instantly
even il the obstruction in the dis
charge pipe is very far away. In
other words, an electric current acts
physically like one continuous piece
4 Of material such as hoop or an
endless chain. one part Of which will
/ not move unless the whole of It
moves. You cannot revolve one
part of hoop without revolving the
whole hoop. You cannot move one
/ part Of an endless chain without
moving the whole chain. In tele-
graphing from New York to Chicago
the action of electric current is pre-
eisely similar to what it would be
If you had long chain reaching
this distance and back, and you
pulled upon it intermittently to make
the dots and dashes. Only instead
Of pulling on the chain you break
/ and close the electric circuit. This
can be done at any point along the
line, and the effect is apparent at
any other place or at any number
Of places simultaneously Sometimes
the return part of the chain is by
a second electric WIRE and some.
\ times the return is made through
the earth, When the circuit is brok-
en- at any point on the line the cur
rent stops everywhere, TO start again
when the break is closed. But how
does the current in New York know
that the circuit is broken in Chicago?
| This brings us to one of the really
remarkable facts about electric cur
rent. 1t travels at the rate of 20O.-
600 miles a second, and can, so to
speak, "see ahead" this distance
which is longer than any electric
current that has ever been used. So
an electric current stops in less than
a second If the current is broken
anywhere within 100000 miles Of