Fig. 9
Rotary Converters
Sometimes alternating-current electric power is transformed at the sub-station into continuous-current power. This is done by a special kind of transformer called a “rotary converter.” The static transformers of which we have just been speaking are built, like ordinary reduction-coils, with no moving parts, and operate by taking in alternating currents at a given potential and giving out alternating currents at a different potential, higher or lower as the case may be. The rotary converter, however, is built something like a dynamo, with a stationary field and a revolving armature, and ordinarily operates by receiving an alternating current at a given potential and delivering a continuous current of the same or a different potential. This kind of transformation is employed wherever it is desired to obtain any large amount of continuous current from an alternating-current transmission-line; and especially to obtain “500-volt continuous current” for operating street and interurban electric railways, as we shall see under the [next heading]. [Fig. 10] shows one form of rotary converter built for supplying continuous current for trolley service.
Fig. 10
Oftentimes the sub-station of a transmission system contains both static transformers and rotary converters, to supply both alternating current and continuous current from the same high-voltage alternating-current line. When the continuous current has to be transformed from one voltage to another, a “motor dynamo” is used, consisting of an electric motor driving a dynamo on a common shaft.
One of the most interesting features of electric-power transmission is the care that is taken to avoid the terrible danger from the high potentials, and at the same time prevent loss of power on the way. The electricity in the machinery and in the line-wires that extend across the country is veritable lightning, and has to be carefully guarded from doing any damage or escaping. To prevent leakage, the insulation of all of the station machinery and apparatus is made extra good, with “high dielectric strength,” so that it will not be punctured by the high voltage; and the line-insulators are made very large, and electrically and mechanically strong—quite unlike the ordinary-sized glass or porcelain insulators that are employed for telegraph and telephone lines. Each insulator before being put up is tested under a “breakdown voltage” much higher than it is to stand in actual service.
Oil-switches
The switching of high-voltage electric power is a knotty problem. The circuit cannot be interrupted by “air-break” switches, such as are used in ordinary electric-light stations, for any attempt to do so would result in a destructive arc many feet long, that could not be extinguished. Therefore “oil-switches” are always used to control the line-circuits at the main generating station and the sub-stations. In these oil-switches—which are designed to be operated from a distance, by hand-levers, or sometimes by electric motors—the circuit is made and broken under the surface of oil, which prevents the formation of an arc. Moreover, the switchboard attendant does not have to come anywhere near the deadly high-voltage wires, but can make the necessary connections at a safe distance.