The first private lighting plants were made up of parts built by different manufacturers and assembled to form generating systems with little regard to their adaptability. A gasoline engine belted to a dynamo of the proper generating capacity supplied the electricity. Neither the engines nor the dynamos were particularly suited to the work to be performed, yet these combinations were sufficiently successful to command a ready sale. The energy thus generated was accumulated in a storage battery from which was taken the current for a lighting and heating device. Besides the generating and storage apparatus there is required in such a system, a switchboard, to which are attached the necessary meters and switches that are required to measure and direct the current to the various electric circuits.
Foresighted manufacturers, comprehending the probable future demand, began the construction of the various parts, suited to the work and the conditions under which they were to be employed. The manufacture of apparatus, designed for the special service and composed of the fewest possible parts, has reduced the operating difficulty to a point of relative simplicity. Experience in the use of a large number of these plants has revealed to the maker the course of many minor difficulties of operation and the means of their correction. The mechanism has been improved to prevent possible derangement and to simplify the means of control, until the private electric plant is successfully employed by those who have had no former experience with power-generating machines.
Fig. 258.—Household electric generating plant.
As an example of the private electric plant Fig. 258 shows the apparatus included in a combined engine, dynamo and switchboard, connected with a storage battery. The relative size of the machine is shown by comparison with the girl in the act of starting the motor. This plant is of capacity suitable for supplying an average home with electricity for all ordinary domestic uses. A nearer view of the generating apparatus is given in Fig. 259 in which all of the exterior parts are named. An interior view of the generating apparatus is given in Fig. 260, in which is exposed all of the working parts. The right-hand side of the picture shows all of the parts of the gasoline engine that furnishes the power for driving the generator. This is an example of an air-cooled gasoline engine in which the excess heat developed in the cylinder is carried away by a drought of air. The air draft is induced by the flywheel of the engine, which is constructed as a fan. The blades of the fan, when in motion, are so set as to draw air into the top of the engine casing and exhaust it from the rim of the wheel. The air in passing takes up the heat in excess of that necessary for the proper cylinder temperature. This form of cylinder cooling takes the place of the customary water circulation and thus eliminates its attending sources of trouble. In principle the engine is the same as is employed in automobiles and other power generation.
Fig. 259.—Combined motor, electric generator and switchboard.
On the left-hand side is seen the dynamo and switchboard. The dynamo armature is attached to the crankshaft of the engine by which it is rotated in a magnetic field to produce the desired amount of electricity. The brushes, in contact with the commutator, conduct the electricity as it is generated in the armature, which after passing through the switchboard is made available from the two wires at the top of the board marked “light and power wires.” These wires are connected with the storage battery and also to the house circuits through which the current is to be sent.
Fig. 260.—Details of motor, electric generator and switchboard.