Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931; Inventors -- United States -- Biography
"SIR,--In reading the discussions relative to the Pearl Street station
of the Edison light, I have noted that while it is claimed that there
is scarcely any loss from leakage of current, nothing is said about the
loss due to the resistance of the long circuits. I am informed that this
is the secret of the failure to produce with the power in position a
sufficient amount of current to run all the lamps that have been put
up, and that while six, and even seven, lights to the horse-power may be
produced from an isolated plant, the resistance of the long underground
wires reduces this result in the above case to less than three lights to
the horse-power, thus making the cost of production greatly in excess of
gas. Can the Edison company explain this? 'INVESTIGATOR'."
This was one of the many anonymous letters that had been written to the
newspapers on the subject, and the following reply by the Edison company
was printed December 3, 1882:
"To the Editor of the Sun:
"SIR,--'Investigator' in Wednesday's Sun, says that the Edison company
is troubled at its Pearl Street station with a 'loss of current, due
to the resistance of the long circuits'; also that, whereas Edison gets
'six or even seven lights to the horse-power in isolated plants, the
resistance of the long underground wires reduces that result in the
Pearl Street station to less than three lights to the horse-power.' Both
of these statements are false. As regards loss due to resistance, there
is a well-known law for determining it, based on Ohm's law. By use of
that law we knew in advance, that is to say, when the original plans for
the station were drawn, just what this loss would be, precisely the same
as a mechanical engineer when constructing a mill with long lines of
shafting can forecast the loss of power due to friction. The practical
result in the Pearl Street station has fully demonstrated the
correctness of our estimate thus made in advance. As regards our getting
only three lights per horse-power, our station has now been running
three months, without stopping a moment, day or night, and we invariably
get over six lamps per horse-power, or substantially the same as we do
in our isolated plants. We are now lighting one hundred and ninety-three
buildings, wired for forty-four hundred lamps, of which about two-thirds
are in constant use, and we are adding additional houses and lamps
daily. These figures can be verified at the office of the Board of
Underwriters, where certificates with full details permitting the use of
our light are filed by their own inspector. To light these lamps we run
from one to three dynamos, according to the lamps in use at any given
time, and we shall start additional dynamos as fast as we can connect
more buildings. Neither as regards the loss due to resistance, nor as
regards the number of lamps per horse-power, is there the slightest
trouble or disappointment on the part of our company, and your
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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