The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-11-01

lines known as loop lines. One is known
as the Vernon-Fitchburg line and the
other leads from the Deerfeld river plants
TO AIillbury. If anything goes wrong on
one side of this loop the electricity can
still come in ON the other. The electricity
comes in in balanced power on an even
load at Aiillbury. One might compare
them to a pair of horses, one black horse
and one white horse. The lines work
automatically. If anything goes wrong.
in one-twelfth of a second the automatic
device cuts out the black horse and puts
the load on the white.
At the delicate brain center of trans
mission lines at AIillbury many lines are
tied in together If trouble develops on
any line the other lines all go to the res
cue
One thinks of the high tension trans
mission lines as extremely dangerous.
and as such they are. To come nearer
than three feet to a $4,000 volt line on a
damp night means death, and yet pro-
cess has been developed recently by which
the men can work on these high tension
lines when the lines are alive. The in
strument used in testing the lines Is
known as buzz stick 1t has three
prongS of which two are placed on the
opposite side of the insulator it is wished
to test. On the third prong of the buzz
stick is paint brush. If the paint brush
is used il indicates that this particular
ipsulator is bad.
Since the lines are not kept in opera
ton all the time it costs less to make re
pairs 1t formerly cost 10 cents disk
to inspect the insulators. This cost has
now been reduced to one cent. Other eco
Monies are being effected.
Much has been done to improve the
service to customers. Lessons from acct
dents are turned to advantage. Usually
the transformers are used in three-phase
&,s,, 81. In, HFrn at ha ara to
ton all three transformers were dam
aged. This has been remedied so that u
similar accident cannot happen again.
The company now has two fat cars
equipped with a complete Sub-StatiOn,
transformers and ALL with which service
can be restored very quicklE, The com
pany also has complete emergency sub
stations for its customers. The value of
this service was shown this summer
when Keene lost its whole sub-statiOn by
lightning. Ordinarily it would have taken
three days to repair this damage, but by
, "a m. the following day the power COM
pany had its portable sub-stations deliv-
cred at Keene and service was restored.
OF the entire service rendered figures
show that electric lighting consumes only
five to 10 per cent of the load. The ques-
ton arises, Doesn't the company do much
of the lighting? The answer is, 1t does
practically all of the lighting. All central
New England Is lighted directly or indi-
rectly by the power companies, but the
power load is so much greater that it
makes the lighting load seem small.
OF the power sold by the New Eng
land Power Co. about twO-thirds is made
by water power. The other third, or
about 75,0OO.000 kilowatt hours, is made
by steam. The company has its own steam
plant at Uxbridge and has eight auxil-
iaries. The big auxiliaries are the Bos-
ton Edison Co, the Narragansett Flee
tric Light Co. and the plant at Norwich,
Conn. The Narragansett Electric Light
Co. had the largest single unit in the
world, but one is being installed by the
Commonwealth Edison Co. at Chicago,
which is even larger. The Narragansett
Co. is relay to the New England Power
Co. system. In normal periods power is
delivered to the Narragansett Co. only
nights and Sundays, but during high
water periods a lot of power is sold to
this company. #.
The flow of the water in the rivers can
| be controlled somewhat to meet the sea
sonal demands. BY the use of reservoirs
the water can be pended The flow of
the Connecticut river can be controlled
from week to week. The Deerfield river
can be controlled from day to day.