Hawkins Electrical Guide, Number One Part 1

Hawkins Electrical Guide, Number One.

by Nehemiah Hawkins.

PREFACE

_The word "guide" is defined as:_

=_One who leads another in any path or direction; a person who shows or points out the way, especially by accompanying or going before; more particularly, one who shows strangers or tourists about; a conductor; leader, as "let us follow our guide."_=

_This book, or ="Guide,"= is so called because it =leads= or =points out the way= to the acquirement of a theoretical and practical knowledge of Electricity._

_There are several guides, each covering in detail a certain phase of the broad subject of Electricity and leading the reader progressively, and in such a way, that he easily grasps, not only the simple fundamental facts, but the more complex problems, encountered in the study of Electricity.

This is accomplished by the aid of a =very large number of ill.u.s.trations=, together with specific explanations, worded in =concise and simple language=._

_The Guides are written partly in the question and answer form, as this style of presentation has met with hearty approval, not only from those of limited education, but also from the better informed._

_Where recourse is had to the question and answer form, the special aim of the author has been to give short and direct answers, in such plain language as to preclude a misconception of the meaning. With this in view, =the answer gives= simply =the information sought by the question=._

_=The answer is limited to one paragraph= so that the reader may concentrate upon the fact or facts demanded by the question._

_Any enlargement of the answer or specific explanations of items contained therein, are presented in separate paragraphs printed, in smaller type._

_With this plan of =separating the answer=, as it were, from items of secondary importance, and making it short and simple, its content is more forcibly impressed upon the mind of the reader._

_In a text book, it is necessary to ill.u.s.trate and explain the various species of commercial apparatus met with in practice, and in this connection the Publishers desire to call attention to the manner in which the author has treated what may be cla.s.sed as the ="descriptive matter."= Contrary to the usual custom of giving descriptions of commercial machines in the main text, where they would occupy considerable s.p.a.ce, to the exclusion of the more important matter, all such descriptions are placed in small type directly under the ill.u.s.trations, leaving s.p.a.ce for an adequate presentation of the underlying =principles=, =theories=, and for the large amount of =practical information= that is essential to obtain a general knowledge of Electricity and its numerous applications._

_Credit is largely due to Frank D. Graham, B.S., M.S. (Princeton University), and M.E. (Stevens Inst.i.tute), practical engineer, for the authorship of the =Guides=, and for original sketches ill.u.s.trating electrical principles and construction._

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

The subject matter of this work relates to one of the secrets of creation which appears to have been intended at the very beginning to be "sought out." This idea is expressed in a certain saying copied three or four thousand years ago by the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah: from Solomon's proverbs: "_It is the glory of G.o.d to conceal a thing: But the glory of Kings_ (i.e., _wise men_), _to search out a matter._"

In all that may be said hereafter through the work, it is admitted that the results recorded are the determinations of experiments performed by an incredible number of searchers extending through many ages. These inquiries have been pursued with a generous rivalry which has permitted discovery to be added to discovery, until the sum total has been wrought into such exactness that it has been thoughtlessly stated that there is nothing more, save its application.

It may be well, however, to state a few fundamental facts relating to electricity: 1, Electricity and magnetism are one and the same thing; 2, what is really known about it has come as a discovery and not as an invention. Thus, we say the intrepid explorer discovered the pole, not that he invented it. So with electricity it has been a subject of discovery while its many applications to useful purposes have been veritable inventions; 3, the earth itself is a magnet.

This last is shown by the fact that the earth affects a magnet just as one magnet affects another. Magnets are bodies, either natural or artificial, which have the property of attracting iron, and the power, when freely suspended, of taking a direction toward the poles of the earth. The natural magnet is sometimes called the _loadstone_. This word is said to be derived from _loedan_, a Saxon word which signifies to guide. It is an oxide of iron of a peculiar character, found occasionally in beds of iron ore. Though commonly met with in irregular ma.s.ses only a few inches in diameter, however, loadstones of larger sizes are sometimes found.

By means of simple experiments it may be ascertained that the magnet has the following general properties, viz: 1, power of attraction; 2, power of repulsion; 3, power of communicating magnetism to iron or steel; 4, polarity, or the power of taking a direction toward the poles of the earth; 5, power of inclining itself toward a point below the horizon.

Speaking generally we may say, that magnetism is a department of electrical science which treats of the properties and effects of the magnet. The same terms are also used to denote the unknown cause of magnetic phenomena, as when we speak of magnetism as excited, imparted, and so on.

Lightning and the Northern Lights are displays of electricity on a grand scale. Electricity is a term derived from the Greek word for _amber_, that being the substance in which a property of the agent now denominated electricity was first observed.

The ancient Greek philosophers were acquainted with the fact that amber, when rubbed, acquired the property of attracting light bodies; hence the effect was denominated electrical and in later times, the term electricity has been used to denote the unknown cause of electrical phenomena, and broadly the science which treats of electrical phenomena and their causes.

Electricity, whatever it may prove to be, is not _matter_ nor is it _energy_; it is however a means or medium of transmitting energy.

If electricity is to transmit or convey energy along a wire, this energy must be imparted to the electricity from some external source, that is to say, before electricity can perform any work it must be set in motion, against more or less resistance. This involves that pressure must be applied, and to obtain this pressure, energy must be expended from some external source.

Accordingly, in electrical engineering, the first principle to be grasped is that of _energy_. Without the expenditure of energy no useful work can be accomplished.

Energy may be defined as _the capacity for performing work_.

Although electricity is not energy, electricity under pressure is a form of energy spoken of as electrical energy.

In an expenditure of energy in this form, the electricity acts simply as a transmission agent or medium to transmit the energy imparted to it in causing it to flow.

In a similar manner, steam acts as a transmission agent or medium to transmit the heat energy of the coal to the steam engine, where it is converted into mechanical energy.

As just stated, electricity under pressure is a form of energy, and its generation is simply a transformation of energy from one form into another. Usually, mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy, and a dynamo is employed for effecting the transformation.

In transforming the mechanical energy of waterfalls into electric energy, this natural power of water due to its weight and motion is first converted into rotary motion by a turbine or water wheel, and then converted into electric energy by a dynamo, or an alternator.

All dynamos are but machines for converting into electric energy the energy which is given to them by some prime mover, as a steam engine, a gas engine, by hydraulic or even by wind power.

All electric motors are merely machines for reconverting the electric energy which they receive by means of the conducting wires or mains, into mechanical energy.

All electric lamps are contrivances for converting into luminous energy a percentage of the electric energy that is supplied through the mains.

=Potential and Kinetic Energy.=--_Potential energy_ is the capacity for performing work which a body possesses _by virtue of its position_.

_Kinetic energy_ is the capacity for performing work which a body possesses _by virtue of its motion_.

It must be evident that position or motion given to a body enables it to perform work. In the first instance, for example, a heavy weight at the top of a high tower possesses potential energy. A ten pound weight supported one foot above a plane has ten foot pounds of potential energy.

The flywheel of a steam engine in motion is an example of a body possessing kinetic energy. Some of this kinetic energy which was stored up in the fly wheel during the working stroke is expended in moving the engine over the "dead center," and any other point where no torque is produced by the pressure on the piston.

=Chemical Energy= can be converted into electric energy to a limited extent by means of the electric battery, but the cost of this energy is so high that it is commercially feasible only where small quant.i.ties are required, and the cost of production is secondary to the convenience of generation, as for signalling purposes, the operation of bells and annunciators, etc.

The chemical energy of coal and other fuels cannot be directly converted into electric energy. For power producing purposes, the chemical energy of a fuel is first converted into heat by combustion, and the heat thus obtained converted into mechanical energy by some form of heat engine, and the mechanical energy subsequently transformed into electric energy in an electric generator.

_Energy cannot be created or destroyed._ This is the law known as the =conservation of energy= which has been built up by Helmholtz, Thomson, Joule and others. It teaches further, that energy can be transmitted from one body to another or transformed in its manifestations.

Energy may be dissipated, that is, converted into a form from which it cannot be recovered, as is the case with the great percentage of heat escaping from the exhaust nozzle of a locomotive or in the circulating water of a steamship, but the total amount of energy in the universe, it is argued, remains constant and invariable.

Following this law comes the doctrine of the =conservation of electricity= as announced by Lippman, being undoubtedly the outcome of the ideas of Maxwell and of Faraday as to the nature of electricity. According to their doctrine, electricity _cannot be created or destroyed, although its distribution may be altered_.

Lippman states that every charge of electricity has an opposite and equal charge somewhere in the universe more or less distributed; that is, the sum of positive charges is always equal to the sum of negative charges.

In _altering the distribution of electricity_, we may cause =more= to appear at one place and =less= at another, or may change it from the condition of rest to that of motion, or may cause it to spin round in whirlpools or vortices, which themselves can attract or repel other vortices. According to this view all our electrical machines and batteries are merely instruments for altering the _distribution_ of electricity by moving some of it from one place to another, or for causing electricity, when acc.u.mulated or heaped, together in one place, to do work in returning to its former distribution.