The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century. — John Shaqi
The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.Byrn, Edward W. (Edward Wright)
History
The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
Byrn, Edward W. (Edward Wright)
Inventions -- History; Inventions -- History -- 19th century
In 1839 Prof. Jacobi, with the aid of Emperor Nicholas, applied his
electric motor to a boat 28 feet long, carrying fourteen passengers, and
propelled the same at a speed of three miles an hour. About the same
time Robert Davidson, a Scotchman, experimented with an electric railway
car sixteen feet long, weighing six tons, and attaining a speed of four
miles an hour. In 1840 Davenport, by means of his electric motor,
printed a news sheet called the _Electro Magnet and Mechanics’
Intelligencer_. In 1851 an electric locomotive made by Dr. Page in
accordance with his subsequent patent of 1854, drew a train of cars from
Washington to Bladensburg at a rate of nineteen miles an hour.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--DAVENPORT MOTOR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--NEFF MOTOR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC MOTOR.]
All these motors were operated by voltaic batteries, and on account of
the cost of the latter but little practical use of the electric motor
was made until the dynamo was invented. In 1873 an accidental
discovery led to the rapid practical development of the electric motor.
It is said that at the industrial exhibition at Vienna in that year, a
number of Gramme dynamos were being placed in position, and a workman
in making the electrical connections for one of these machines,
inadvertently connected it to another dynamo in active operation, and
was surprised to find that the dynamo he was connecting began to revolve
in the opposite direction. This was the clue that led to the important
recognition of the structural identity of the dynamo and the modern
type of electric motor. The dynamo and the electric motor then grew into
development together, and the same inventors who brought the dynamo to
its present high efficiency, produced electric motors of corresponding
principles and value. In the illustration, Fig. 32, is shown a modern
electric motor. It is a Westinghouse two-phase machine, of 300 horse
power, of the self starting induction type, designed to operate at a
speed of 500 revolutions per minute when supplied with two-phase
currents of 3,000 alternations per minute and 2,000 volts pressure.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--SIEMENS’ FIRST ELECTRIC RAILWAY.]
The most important application of the electric motor is for street car
operation. The first electric railway was that of Dr. Werner Siemens, at
Berlin, in 1879, an illustration of which is given in Fig. 33. The first
electric railway in America was installed at Baltimore in 1885, and ran
to Hampden, a distance of two miles.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--OVERHEAD TROLLEY CAR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--UNDERGROUND ELECTRIC TROLLEY SYSTEM.]
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