A popular size was the 32-candlepower unit, which therefore required about 45 volts and hence at 3 amperes consumed about 135 watts. Allowing 5 per cent loss in the wires of each circuit, there was therefore 1140 of the 1200 volts left for the lamps. Hence about 25 32-candlepower or 50 16-candlepower lamps could be put on each series circuit. Different sizes of lamps could also be put on the same circuit, the number depending upon the aggregate voltage of the lamps.
Edison Municipal Lamp, 1885.
Inside the base was an arrangement by which the lamp was automatically short circuited when it burned out.
A device was put in the base of each lamp to short circuit the lamp when it burned out so as to prevent all the other lamps on that circuit from going out. This device consisted of a piece of wire put inside the lamp bulb between the two ends of the filament. Connected to this wire was a very thin wire inside the base which held a piece of metal compressed against a spring. The spring was connected to one terminal of the base. Should the lamp burn out, current would jump from the filament to the wire in the bulb, and the current then flowed through the thin wire to the other terminal of the base. The thin wire was melted by the current, and the spring pushed the piece of metal up short circuiting the terminals of the base. This scheme was later simplified by omitting the wire, spring, etc., and substituting a piece of metal which was prevented from short circuiting the terminals of the base by a thin piece of paper. When the lamp burned out the entire 1200 volts was impressed across this piece of paper, puncturing it and so short circuiting the base terminals. Should one or more lamps go out on a circuit, the increase in current above the normal 3 amperes was prevented by an adjustable resistance, or an extra lot of lamps which could be turned on one at a time, connected to each circuit and located in the power station under the control of the operator. This system disappeared from use with the advent of the constant current transformer.
THE SHUNT BOX SYSTEM FOR SERIES INCANDESCENT LAMPS
Shunt Box System, 1887.
Lamps were burned in series on a high voltage alternating current, and when a lamp burned out all the current then went through its “shunt box,” a reactance coil in multiple with each lamp.
Soon after the commercial development of the alternating current constant potential system, a scheme was developed to permit the use of lamps in series on such circuits without the necessity for short circuiting a lamp should it burn out. A reactance, called a “shunt box” and consisting of a coil of wire wound on an iron core, was connected across each lamp. The shunt box consumed but little current while the lamp was burning. Should one lamp go out, the entire current would flow through its shunt box and so maintain the current approximately constant. It had the difficulty, however, that if several lamps went out, the current would be materially increased tending to burn out the remaining lamps on the circuit. This system also disappeared from use with the development of the constant current transformer.