Area, square inches2·02·553·00
Area, square millimetres129016451935
Weight of copper in lb. per 100 yards461261256918
Cost of copper at 7¾ d. per lb. 1490 0190 00 2240 0
Laying 915 09 150 100 0
Insulators 04 60 46 04 6
6 surface boxes and connections 100 010 00 100 0
Culvert, 18 inches × 12 inches, for two lines conductor, 538 053 80 538 0
 in brickwork and cement, replacing pavement
Engineers and superintendence 100 010 00 150 0
Total 2327 6263 76 31212 6
Extra for copper at 9½ d. per lb. 340 043 100 510 0
Total 2667 6306 76 36312 6
Cost of copper per lb. laid complete13·8 d.12 d. 12 6 d.
Current in ampères7209101080
Cost per ampère 07 50 69 06 8½

The Vienna Central-station.

The practical success of the Battery Transformer system has been demonstrated at Vienna, where an installation of five thousand lamps in the Opera House and Burg Theatre was maintained for the past year from a distributing station 1,400 yards away. The boilers are fixed in a basement formed by excavating the court-yard of a private house to a depth of 15 feet 6 in. below the street level; the building itself is utilised partly for offices and partly as a large dynamo and engine-room. Each dynamo is designed to give an output of 72 kilowatts or 120 ampères, at 600 volts pressure. The current is led by means of a lead-covered cable underground to the accumulators, which are erected in groups of 52 cells each, so as to give 100 volts to the lamps, with a comfortable margin. The total pressure required to charge the four groups of batteries in series varies from 430 volts at the time the batteries are giving off work, to 480 volts for the short time during which the charge is being completed. During five hours of lighting about two-thirds of the current comes direct from the dynamos; but during this time, for short periods, the demand for current often increases to such an extent that these proportions may be reversed, and the batteries supply two-thirds of the total.

The regulation of groups of batteries placed in series is not a difficult matter, and will be understood by referring to the following diagram, [Fig. 27]:—

Fig. 27.

The four battery stations mentioned as arranged in series are represented. The current may be supposed to enter at the right hand corner, passing through the first battery with the lamps parallel to it, and from that battery to the commencement of the next, and so on through the third and fourth, the current being varied at will at the central-station, or kept constant by means of an electrical governor. The potential for each of the four groups of lamps is maintained in the following manner:—In each group one terminal is kept permanently connected to one of the discharge mains and to one of the charging mains; the other terminal can be shifted from cell to cell according to the E. M. F. required in the corresponding lamp circuit by means of a contact regulator. This movable terminal is shown by the bunch of lines at one extremity of each battery group. The rule for charge and discharge is, that the terminal cell at the regulating end of the battery is so arranged that it neither receives nor gives off current, so that there is no loss of energy in the shape of E. M. F. The contact regulator, which was designed by Mr. Crompton for use at Kensington Court, is shown by [Fig. 28]:—