The Library of Work and Play: Electricity and Its Everyday UsesWoodhull, John F. (John Francis)
Science
The Library of Work and Play: Electricity and Its Everyday Uses
Woodhull, John F. (John Francis)
Electricity -- Juvenile literature
Recall that all dynamos are generators of alternating current. If the
brushes rest upon rings upon the axle they send forth alternating
current--but if the brushes rest upon commutator bars they send forth
direct current. Now we will have two sets of brushes, one pair of
which shall rest upon the rings on the axle, and they will collect
alternating current for the cottage, while the other pair will slide
over the commutator bars and collect direct current for the machine
shop. I have constructed a model which will make it plain. Here is
a piece of a broom handle (Fig. 138), one foot long, which shall
represent the axle of an armature. _a b c d_ is a stout wire which
represents the coil of the armature. In this case it has no iron at
its centre. Nevertheless it will serve as an armature having one loop
of its coil left. _e_ and _f_ are rings, sawed from a piece of brass
pipe, which fit snugly upon the axle. Another ring of the brass pipe
was sawed lengthwise, as shown in Fig. 139. These two halves are also
fastened upon the axle and one end of the wire loop, _c_, is fastened
to one of these, and the other end of the loop, _b_, is fastened to the
other half of the ring. These two halves of the piece of brass pipe
are placed so that their edges are near to each other but do not touch
on either side of the axle. The two ends of this wire loop are also
connected with the rings _e_ and _f_. A short wire connects _b_ and _e_
and another connects _c_ and _f_ passing through the wood of the axle,
as shown by the dotted line. We will now revolve this loop slowly about
its axle in a strong magnetic field. To produce this field I will send
two amperes of electricity through the coils of wire (Fig. 140), which
surround two iron pole pieces that are screwed into an iron base.
Between the poles _N_ and _S_ of this electro-magnet we will thrust
this wire loop and revolve it as an armature very slowly. Meanwhile I
connect two wires to my sensitive ammeter and let their free ends brush
along on the rings _e_ and _f_. The needle of the ammeter swings to and
fro for each half revolution of the armature, showing an alternating
current of .01 amperes. If this armature had many turns of wire instead
of this one loop, if it had an iron core, and if it should revolve at
high speed, the results would differ in degree but not in kind.
[Illustration: Fig. 140]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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