Electric starter

“ They may be installed and maintained cheaply, solely for generating electricity, if desired. Steam engines, however, require so much care and expert attention that their use for farm electric plants is not to be advised, except under conditions where a small portion of their power can be used to make electricity as a by-product. ”

“ Volta's invention of the pile, or battery, so deservedly called after him, caused electrical science to take on an entirely new aspect, and the modern development of electricity was assured. It has been well said that no other invention, not even the steam-engine, meant so much for the transformation of modern life as this new apparatus for the production of a continuous electric current. ”

“ In mechanical appliances the new world has seemed to complete the inventions begun in the old world. Such was the case with the recording telegraph, the telephone, and the electric light. But in another class of inventions America did little or nothing. It was Europe that supplied the artificial generators of electricity. The voltaic pile, the thermo-electric pile, the Daniell and Grove batteries, and the dynamo machine were creations of the old world ”

“ Just as the perfection of the gasoline motor spurred on the inventors to adapt the steam-engine for use in automobiles, so the inventors of the storage battery, which is the heart of an electric carriage, were stirred up to make electric propulsion practical.
The storage battery of an electric vehicle is practically a tank that holds electricity; the electrical energy of the dynamo is transformed into chemical energy in the batteries, which in turn is changed into electrical energy again and used to run the motors.
Electric automobiles are the most simple of all the self-propelled vehicles. ”

“ Although there is a variety of ways of producing electricity, from the rubbing of a piece of sealing-wax on the coat-sleeve to the vast engines employed at large central lighting-stations, yet here we will consider only such methods of producing the force as are in practical use on a moderate scale. The current for electric lighting may be obtained either from chemical batteries or from machines termed dynamos. ”

“ As a partial offset to the low cost of the continuous-current generators and to the absence of transformers, there is the necessity for motor-generators in a sub-station when current for lighting as well as power is to be distributed. ”

“ Automatic maintenance approaches a high degree of perfection in the electric starting and lighting device on a modern automobile. In this case, a small dynamo geared to the main shaft is running whenever the engine is running. It is always ready to "pump" [Pg 251] electricity into the storage battery when needed. An electric magnet, wound in a peculiar manner, automatically cuts off the charging current from the dynamo, when the battery is "full;" and the same magnet, or "regulator," permits the current to flow into the battery when needed. ”

“ Thus, a one kilowatt plant permits the use of any one of these lamp circuit devices at a time, with a few lights in addition.
Power
Electric power is to be had through motors. A direct current dynamo and a direct current motor are identical in construction. That is, a motor becomes a generator if belted to power; and a generator becomes a motor, if connected to electric mains. ”

“ Without a stretch of the imagination, we can imagine an ingenious farmer possessing a water-power electric plant building up a thriving business among his less fortunate neighbors, with an "electricity" route. It could be made quite as paying as a milk route.
Connections for charging storage batteries on 110-volt mains
Many communities have water or steam power at a distance too great to transmit 110-volt current by wire economically; and because of lack of expert supervision, they do not care to risk using current at a pressure of 500 volts or higher, because of its danger to human life. ”

“ All supply undertakers are anxious to develop the consumption of electricity for power purposes even more than for lighting, but the first cost of installing electric motors is a deterrent to the adoption of electricity in small factories and shops, and most undertakers are therefore prepared to let out motors, &c., on hire or purchase on varying terms according to circumstances.
A board of trade unit will supply one 8 c.p. carbon lamp of 30 hours or 30 such lamps for one hour. ”

“ For here we have not only the dynamo, motors, and transformers that he gave freely to the world, not only the alternating-current transformer, and the system of transmission of power, but we even find that the principal consumers of the enormous electric power produced are employing it in carrying on some of the many processes in electro-chemistry, a science that he had done so much to advance. ”

“ Economy in Use of Current.—The same thing is necessary in the operation of the electric motor. The current must be so arranged that at certain periods it will be more effective than at others, and this effectiveness is generally wanted at times when the axles turn very slow, just the same as with the gasoline car.
This economizes, and prevents the waste of current. It is accomplished by connecting up the cells in such a manner that they may give a large voltage and small amperage, or a low voltage and great amperage, and in doing so will not detract from the efficiency of the battery. ”

“ CHAPTER IV CELLS AND BATTERIES In order that the young experimenter may obtain electricity for driving his various electrical devices it is necessary to resort to batteries, a small dynamo, or the house-lighting current.
All houses are not supplied with electric current. Furthermore, many boys have no source of power from which to drive a small dynamo. ”

“ Where street-car motors draw their energy from the same generators and transmission lines that supply commercial incandescent lamps, some means must be adopted to protect the lighting circuits from the fluctuations of voltage set up by the varying street-car loads. One way to accomplish this purpose is to operate the lighting circuits with generators driven by synchronous motors in the sub-stations. These generators may, of course, be of either direct or alternating type and of any desired voltage. ”

“ Even though it goes back and forth in waves of tremendous rapidity, you can see that there must be a time in this period when the electricity is for an infinitesimal space of time at low power, and another infinitesimal space of time at high. In order to keep the supply even and steady, two and sometimes three coils of wire are used in the generator to catch the electricity so that there is scant opportunity for the electric supply to be anything but even, for when one coil is up the other is down and thus they even up the strength of the current. ”

“ Late in the afternoon Kettering said, “I wonder if the danged thing will work,” to which Deeds replied, “We’ll soon find out.”
The connection was made and the engine turned over. “Then,” as Deeds commented later on, “we knew that quantitatively it was practical.” It was a memorable hour, for in the gathering dusk was born the second of the barn products that put the cap-stone on motoring, and made it safe as well as useful. With the perfection of the electric self-starter, a woman, even a child, could get into a car knowing that by merely pressing a button, the machine would start. ”

“ The electric generator, the dynamo, is explained in detail; and there are chapters on electric transmission and house-wiring, by which the farm mechanic is enabled to install his own plant without the aid and expense of an expert.
With modern appliances, within the means of the average farmer, the generation of electricity, with its unique conveniences, becomes automatic, provided some dependable source of power is to be had—such as a water wheel, gasoline (or other form of internal combustion) engine, or the ordinary windmill. ”

“ With the ordinary mechanical or electro-magnetic brakes this energy is wasted, but in the regenerative method it is turned into electric current, which is sent back into the circuit. If an electric motor is supplied with mechanical power instead of electric current it becomes a dynamo, and generates current instead of using it. In the regenerative system, when a car is “coasting” down a hill it drives the wheels, and the wheels drive the motors, so that the latter become dynamos and generate current which is sent back to the power station. ”

“ The current for energizing the sending apparatus is taken from the lines of the Potomac Light and Power Company; this runs an electric motor of 200 horse power which in turn drives a 100 kilowatt alternating current generator; the current from the latter flows through a transformer which raises the pressure of it to 25,000 volts. Next a battery of compressed air condensers are charged with this high voltage current and this is discharged by a rotating spark-gap. ”

“ The lamp cost too much to operate, because large copper wires were needed to carry the current, and the generators used up steam power too fast. Edison devised new forms of conductors and generators. All such work called more for mechanical ingenuity than for actual invention. No new principles were involved—merely the better adaptation of known methods. Given a perfect carbon, a globe perfectly free from air, cheap electric current, and cheap means of carrying it from the generating machine to the lamps, and the problem was solved. ”

“ In industrial production, as in so many other activities, large oaks from little acorns grow. The cash register and the electric self-starter are instances in point. The first factory of The National Cash Register Company under the presidency of John H. Patterson, was a room in the Callahan Power Building, forty feet wide and eighty feet long, with thirteen people on the payroll. From it emerged a business on which the sun never sets.
More humble in environment was the invention of the self-starter which had its birth in a barn. ”

“ Series arc lamps are operated through step-down transformers and synchronous motors direct-connected to constant continuous current dynamos. Continuous current stationary motors draw power from the transmission lines through step-down transformers and rotary converters, like the railway load. For the 2,200 volt circuits that supply service transformers for commercial arc and incandescent lighting the transmitted energy passes through step-down transformers and synchronous motor-generators. These motor-generators raise the frequency from twenty-five to sixty cycles per second. ”

“ The great law which regulates these transactions is this: that the sum of the internal and the external heats is a constant quantity; so that when the platinum wire was ignited we had less heat developed in the battery than before. The zinc in the battery is burned as fuel upon a hearth; the heat, however, being developed either upon the hearth itself or at any distance from it.
“As a primary source of electricity here is the combustion of a metal, the voltaic battery is not an economical source of power for producing electric light. ”

“ So far we have been considering a generator of electricity—a battery cell. We may introduce something at m, say a motor, which will indicate that an electric current is flowing. At length the cell ceases to generate current and is, as we say, "run down." Suppose now we substitute a dynamo in place of the motor in this circuit, connecting it so that the carbon rod shall be its positive pole and the zinc its negative pole. ”

“ Upon these two essentials hung the future of the electric light. The first essential, that of a substance at the ends of the wires or in the midst of the electric circuit which would resist the heat, was soon met by the use of specially prepared and hard graphite carbon tips, in the shape of candles. But the second essential, a generator of electricity cheaper and more powerful than the voltaic cell, was not met with till the dynamo machine reached an advanced stage of perfection ”

“ Remember that electricity, magic as it is, can burn as well as any flame, so don’t let your curtains blow against a red hot electric radiator and then blame it on the electricity which after all is your servant if you make it so by right treatment.
Always ask your salesman to what the device purchased should be attached. Some things are designed for the ordinary lamp socket, and others need different connections.
Many electric appliances have the pilot light to tell you whether your electric current is on or off. Yet it is wise to be your own pilot and remember what you are doing. ”

“ Still another form are the thermo-electric batteries, in which the electro-motive force is produced by the joining of two different metals, connecting them by a wire and heating their junctions. Thus, an electric current is obtained directly from heat, without going through the intermediate processes of boiling water to produce steam, using this steam to drive an engine, and using this engine to turn a dynamo machine to produce power. ”

“ If the two wires attached to the plates are now connected with electric lamps, or a motor, or other device, the active material will develop energy in the effort to again change its nature. This energy takes the form of an electric current, which leaves the battery and passes through the conductors and operates the lamps, motors, or other devices in its passage. ”

“ The first essential for the production of electricity with a hand machine like this is a good dinner. The energy provided by beef or mutton enables the operator to turn the big wheel of the machine, whence motion is transmitted to the apparatus for producing the electricity. This machine when rotated causes a coil of copper wire to be whirled in a magnetic field, and that rotation of the coil in a magnetic field converts the energy derived from the grass and from the mutton through the machine into electric currents ”