Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, January 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, January 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
In an electric motor the horseshoe magnet is called the field magnet,
and the rotating part is called the armature, while the device by
means of which the direction of the current through the armature coil
is reversed is called the commutator. In this last figure it will be
noticed that the coils wound upon the field magnet are represented
as of wire much finer than that wound upon the armature. In actual
practice machines are sometimes wound in this way, and sometimes the
field wire is twice as large as that on the armature. When the field
wire is very much finer than that of the armature the machine is what
is known as shunt wound, which means that only a small portion of the
current that passed through the armature passes through the field
coils. Although with this type of winding the current that passes
through the field coils is very weak, the magnetism developed thereby
can be made greater than that of the armature if desired. This result
is accomplished by increasing the number of turns of wire in the field
coils. Thus if the current through the armature is one hundred times
as strong as that through the field coils, the latter can be made to
equal the effect of the former by increasing the number of turns in the
proportion of one hundred to one, and if the increase is still greater
the field coils will develop the strongest magnetism. The reason why a
small current passing around a magnet a great many times will develop
as strong a magnetization as a large current, can be readily understood
when we say that the magnetism is in proportion to the total strength
of the electric current that circulates around the magnet. Suppose we
have two currents, one of which is one thousand times as strong as the
other, then if the weak one is passed through a coil consisting of
one thousand turns it will develop just as strong a magnetization as
the large current passing through a coil of only one turn. This last
explanation enables us to see how it is that the comparatively small
current that can pass through the contact between the trolley wire and
the trolley wheel can develop in the motor force sufficient to propel
a heavy car up a steep grade. When that small current reaches the car
motors it passes through a thousand or more turns of wire, and thus its
effect is increased a corresponding number of times.
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