The Washington herald., 1921-09-25
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Scientific
Notes
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SUNDAY. sErTEnBER -, issl-
HYING SPARKS TELL
CARBON CONTENT or STEEL
The sparks that ny from the
wheel OF the scissors grinder have
been developed into a delicate In
strument for Determining the car
bon content OF steel
the American Society for Steel
Treating at indianapolis. d. X.
! Stacks. consulting metsllurgicsi en-
gineer Of West Hartford. Conn.
announced that he had succeeded
In using the fireworks from q fast
revolving grinding wheel for anaiy-
sis Of steel
when q piece of iro nor steel
10 pressed against a fast revolving
grinding wheel. minute particles of
! metal are removed and thrown into
space which are observed as lines
Of ire and which seem to become
(; molten and finally disappear" he
explained I'm case Of an almost
carbonless iron these are shaped
like steel needle with the point
In the direction of light and slight
ly tipped at the end on account Of
the rapid cooling effect OF the at
mosphere. In case the iron con-
taine q small amount OF carbon the
needle-like effect is broken up with
an explosion and little lines Of IRE
dart out Of what was originally the
needle-like body. Al the carbon in
creases these secondary iines OF
nre again explode causing further
subdivisions and the action con-
tinues as the carbon increases. un-
til all that can be observed 10 a
mass Of explosions
when all conditions are stand
ardized, and by the use Of known
standards and with the personal
equation eliminated. the Inspection
| Of steel can be successfully carried
out by placing the unknown COM
potition along with the known upon
specially designed automatic ma
chine which win throw out two
lines Of nre and spark explosions
simultaneously In such Q manner
that the carbon content OF the un-
4
dividual Determination check on
the average within plus or minus
o.ofs per cent Of cerbon variation
from the standard combustion re-
sulta"
EFFECT OF A MILLION VOLTS
ON COMMERCIAL TRANSMISSION.
The announcement OF the Cen
eral Electric Company that they
have succeeded in transmitting a
100000 volt current in their lab
oratory IL assurance that there need
be no further question about the at
tainment OF suff1ciently high volt
age for power transmission 10 any
reasonable distance.
For this 10 higher potential than
VIII be commercially necessary for
transmission of power from any
part Of this country to its place OF
use. This is the opinion OF Charles
E. Oakes. electrical engineer for
the Federal Power Commission.
that is concerned with the large
. hydro-electric power projects OF the
country.
Large amounts OF power are not
, likely to be transmitted across the
contenent from coast TO coast. Mr..
Oakes believes. The Transmission
problems will be confined to with
Ia the large areas OF power pro-
, ducing and power using, such as
the superpower zone area. and these
areas will be relatively independent
Of each other. In fact, for many
|, years to come. IL is improbable that
a voltage higher than 3so.OO0 will
be used on commercial lines
| The highest voltage line in the
|, country is that being erected 10
feed San Francisco at 100000 volts.
This pioneer line will be placed into
commission this year.
! A much longer line. operating at
10000 volts 10 that in Southern
J California supplying Los Angeles
from the Big Creek power plant on
the San Joaquin River 24s miles
away.
The fact It is unlikely that the
million volts will be used for COM
mercial transmission does not
lessen the achievement OF the Gem
eral Electric engineers. The pro-
duction and transmission OF the
; million volts will allow the more
rigorous testing Of insulators and
other apparatus and will provide a
new upper limit for experimental
and research work. For I'VE or six
years the General Electric labora-
tory has been using 75o. .ooe volts in
more or less routine way 20 proof
test insulators for lines OF lower
voltage. In some cases a million
volts have been transformed and
used for insulation testing, al
though its Transmission ha. Just
been achieved recently.
Mr.. Oakes explains that the
amount OF power that can be trans
. mitted over q given line is in
creased as the square OF the volt
: age. For this reason a-seemingly
small increase in voltage causes a
large Increase In power trans
: mitted- Increase OF voltage from
; 10000 to $4,000 means a jump
from 100000 to 900. 900 kiiowatts. he
explains. II 10 also interesting that
q 10000 volt line Of SUN cientiy
large diameter wire can be turned
into 100000 volt line by changing
the insulators. and this line could
easily transmit 500 miles.
The great superpower zone plan.
that will link the power using and
producing areas OF the East into
one big system. contemplates the
use Of only 100000 TO $50, ooo volts
on Its transmission lines and about
half that within the area.
Power houses on the St law
, renee River and at Niagara will
send electricity at that voltage 20
Ns~ yorl era Me- Enplapd and