Electric utility

“ For a shop on a small scale, wherever it may be, it is cleaner, less troublesome and cheaper to use electric power than it is to use gas or steam power.
Should you intend to operate on a very large scale it may then be to your advantage to look up a place where there is water power, or if your industry is one that calls for the large use of electricity you would then be justified in moving to Niagara Falls, or some other place where there are great hydro-electric plants. ”

“ By means of electricity the work, not only of factories, but also of the home and the farm may be done in any place where electricity can be installed. We must bear in mind that electricity is never a source of power, but is only the agent that carries power to the user. The source of all electric power is either steam or water, produced by water-wheels, turbines, steam-engines or gas-engines. The economical way to furnish electric power is to establish central power plants, and electricity may be conveyed from them for many miles. ”

“ Concluding, as we do, that the franchise has not expired, but is still subsisting, we come to the question whether it is limited to the distribution of electric current for lighting purposes, or includes its distribution for power and heat. ”

“ But at the present time, houses and business premises are supplied with electricity by companies who carry electric mains through the streets. In England these electric mains, which are thick insulated copper wires, are inclosed in iron pipes and laid beneath the pavement, like the gas mains. ”

“ This allows for overload, which is bound to occur occasionally; and it also insures smooth running, easy governing, and the highest efficiency. Since the electric current, once the plant is installed, will cost practically nothing, the farmer can afford to ignore the power going to waste, and consider only how to get the best service. ”

“ If you could store large amounts of electricity in an accumulator of small volume, without appreciable leakage loss, you could build generators designed to handle average rather than peak load—with resultant savings in cost; you could build electric motors, containing their own energy supply and hence portable—which meant electric automobiles and possibly aircraft ”

“ Owing to the high relative cost of electric power when generated in small amounts and the great advantages of generating it in proximity to coal mines and waterfalls, the supply of electric power in bulk to small towns and manufacturing districts has become a great feature in modern electrical engineering. ”

“ The majority of families accustomed to city conveniences will want to have electricity available so as to use electric lights and the labor-saving devices that are operated by electric power. With the expansion that has taken place in the development of rural electric lines in recent years, there is not a great deal of difficulty in getting a location which [Pg 55] will give the housewife the advantages that electricity offers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Every available article on wheels was pressed into service to bring business men into the city from the outlying districts, and many worthy citizens were seen trying to look dignified and unconcerned as they jogged along in conveyances which might have come out of the Ark. On such an occasion as this, if we imagine the electric light supply stopped also, we can form some little idea of our indebtedness to those who have harnessed electricity and made it the greatest power of the twentieth century. ”

“ Telephone service and electrical facilities may fall into the class of luxuries for those with limited resources. It may be pointed out in this connection that millions of farm homes are still using petroleum products for lighting purposes and are finding it no hardship. Practically all would, of course, use electricity if it were available and financially possible. The new home owner in the country will find it advantageous to locate where electric service is obtainable.
Other services for the country residents are pretty largely up to the owner as to their utilization and type. ”

“ Until a short time ago it was customary to locate electric power-houses near the market, that is, in cities. But the benefits to be derived from having the electric plant near the source of power, so that the cost of production is greatly lessened, are becoming better recognized. ”

“ There are many small electric lighting plants which furnish current from sundown to midnight only at fifteen cents per kilowatt hour, with little profit. The transformer (Fig. 127) makes it possible to gather all this generation of electricity for sparsely settled districts into large central stations, located sometimes far away from the consumer perhaps, where there is abundant power in some water-fall, thus saving the expense of coal for running the dynamos. ”

“ They had even no chariots to run by electricity. The records prove this.”
235
“Then,” spoke Paul, “you are entitled to precedence in this matter, as well. Such things the world is well acquainted with to-day, and we have many uses for electricity which you, perhaps, have never yet dreamed of; but they have all been discovered within the last fifty years.”
This admission seemed to please the Tcha. Ama, who took a deep interest in the discussion, said:
“Tell me, then; what electric devices are in use by your people that we know not of?” ”

“ COST OF CONDUCTORS FOR ELECTRIC-POWER TRANSMISSION.
Electrical transmission of energy involves problems quite distinct from its development. A great water-power, or a location where fuel is cheap, may offer opportunity to generate electrical energy at an exceptionally low cost. ”

“ Three main factors are concerned in the cost of electric power transmission, namely, the transformers, the pole line, and the wire or conductors. These factors enter into the cost of transmitted energy in very different degrees, according to the circumstances of each case. The maximum and average rates of energy transmission, the total voltage, the percentage of line loss, and the length of the line mainly determine the relative importance of the transformers, pole line, and conductors in the total cost of delivered energy. ”

“ Electric light and power are transmitted all over the largest cities. It is no longer necessary that a factory be of any specified size nor that it have any waste power. If it be within reach of the electrical current it may use as much or as little as is needed.
The cheapness of electric power must always depend on nearness to the source of supply or to the market. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The nature of the electric utilities industry is such that about 90 per cent of all power generation and distribution is intrastate in character, and most of the States have developed their own regulatory systems as to certificates of convenience, rates, and profits of such utilities. ”

“ A pure lighting service tends toward the larger ratio between the average and maximum load, while a larger motor capacity along with the lamps, tends to reduce the ratio. Furthermore, by far the greater part of the energy output of an electrical supply system during each twenty-four hours must be delivered between noon and midnight. ”

“ Electricity as an illuminant and for all possible purposes is so cheaply procured as to be within the means of all requiring its use. Throughout the irrigated belt and on most portions of Ento there are Stations where thoroughly trained persons attend to the production and distribution of electric currents, and so valued is life that accidents are of very rare occurrence. ”

“ We shall have wires laid along every street, tapped into every house, as gas-pipes are at present; we shall have the quantity of electricity used in each house registered, as gas is at present, and it will be passed through little electric machines to drive machinery, to produce ventilation, to replace stoves and fires, to work apple-parers and mangles and barbers' brushes, among other things, as well as to give everybody an electric light. ”

“ It has been found that some electric stations, working twenty-four hours daily on mixed loads of lamps and stationary motors, can deliver energy to an amount represented by the necessary maximum capacity during about 3,000 hours per year. Applying this rule to the present case, the transformers at the sub-station, if loaded to their maximum capacity of 10,000 horse-power by the heaviest demands of consumers, may be expected to deliver energy to the amount of 3,000 × 10,000 = 30,000,000 horse-power hours yearly. ”

“ As a very natural consequence of such development, the company by 1902 had 420 miles of underground system supplying installation amounting to 1,928,090 fifty-watt equivalents.
Electricity a Living Factor.
To talk about electrical development in terms of power consumed tells but one side of the story. More impressive even than figures are the immense number of uses to which electricity is put. Electric lighting, introduced in 1882, has become practically the standard for illumination, not only here, but for the entire civilized world. ”

“ This arises in cases where current is consumed during the day for motors, fans, lifts, electric tramways, and other like purposes, and, as the employment of electric energy for these services is rapidly becoming general, no difficulty need be anticipated in the successful working of combined destructor and electric plants where these conditions prevail. ”

“ In New York, Chicago, Washington, and other large cities the electric automobile for private use is highly developed and there is also an extensive service of electric vehicles ranging in size from a small parcels van to a large lorry capable of carrying loads up to several tons. No doubt the local cost of other means of transport has something to do with this American development, which has, moreover, been strongly supported by the companies which supply electricity to the public. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All proposals for the extension of generating stations and mains had to be brought before the Electric Power Supply Department of the Ministry, which issued priority certificates for those judged to be most urgent. The output of electrical manufacturing firms was likewise controlled, so that the production of both electric power and electric plant was centrally organized to meet the ever-increasing demand for current. ”

“ In any electric supply system the demand for current does not remain constant, but fluctuates more or less. For instance, in a system including an electric tramway, if a car breaks down and remains a fixture for a short time, all cars behind it are held up, and a long line of cars is quickly formed. ”

“ In the aggregate these are used in collecting water from mountain streams, in conducting it for considerable distances to power house where the force arising from its descent through the pipe lines is transmuted into electric energy, and in transmitting that energy to places beyond the reservations, where it is sold to whoever has occasion to use it for power, lighting, or heating. In each case some part of the works is on private lands, but much the greater part is on lands of the United States. ”

“ If a saving of fuel, measured by the available flow of water during those hours when it can be devoted directly to electrical supply, were its only advantage, the number of cases in which this power could be utilized at a profit would be relatively small. ”

“ The advantages of the electric light and of the distribution of power by electricity have lately been recognized by the British Government, who have just passed a bill through Parliament to facilitate the establishment of electrical conductors in towns, subject to certain regulating clauses to protect the interests of the public and of local authorities. ”

“ It is now so easy to introduce the electric wire and a small electric motor into the household or the shop adjoining the household and to so operate small machines for the various processes in many of the manufacturing industries, that this new use of electricity for the transmission of power is already making visible changes in the factory systems of the world, and promises still greater changes. ”

“ The spread of electric light and power lines through the country constitutes a boon that makes possible the use of all kinds of electrical appliances known in the city, including refrigerators, cooking ranges, washing machines, water pumps, water heaters and hundreds of other machines and appliances, some of which are in their infancy. No great difficulty is experienced in locating in the open country where such electrical facilities are available. ”