[27] Later results show that the mass of a hydrogen atom is not far from 1.3×10-24 gramme and that the unit atomic charge or natural unit of electricity is 1.3 × 10−20 of an electromagnetic C.G.S. unit. The mass of the electron or corpuscle is 7.0 × 10−28 gramme and its diameter is 3 × 10−13 centimetre. The diameter of a chemical atom is of the order of 10−7 centimetre.
See H.A. Lorentz, “The Electron Theory,” Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift, 1905, 26, p. 584; or Science Abstracts, 1905, 8, A, p. 603.
[28] See J.J. Thomson, Electricity and Matter (London, 1904).
ELECTRICITY SUPPLY. I. General Principles.—The improvements made in the dynamo and electric motor between 1870 and 1880 and also in the details of the arc and incandescent electric lamp towards the close of that decade, induced engineers to turn their attention to the question of the private and public supply of electric current for the purpose of lighting and power. T.A. Edison[1] and St G. Lane Fox[2] were among the first to see the possibilities and advantages of public electric supply, and to devise plans for its practical establishment. If a supply of electric current has to be furnished to a building the option exists in many cases of drawing from a public supply or of generating it by a private plant.
Private Plants.—In spite of a great amount of ingenuity devoted to the development of the primary battery and the thermopile, no means of generation of large currents can compete in economy with the dynamo. Hence a private electric generating plant involves the erection of a dynamo which may be driven either by a steam, gas or oil engine, or by power obtained by means of a turbine from a low or high fall of water. It may be either directly coupled to the motor, or driven by a belt; and it may be either a continuous-current machine or an alternator, and if the latter, either single-phase or polyphase. The convenience of being able to employ storage batteries in connexion with a private-supply system is so great that unless power has to be transmitted long distances, the invariable rule is to employ a continuous-current dynamo. Where space is valuable this is always coupled direct to the motor; and if a steam-engine is employed, an enclosed engine is most cleanly and compact. Where coal or heating gas is available, a gas-engine is exceedingly convenient, since it requires little attention. Where coal gas is not available, a Dowson gas-producer can be employed. The oil-engine has been so improved that it is extensively used in combination with a direct-coupled or belt-driven dynamo and thus forms a favourite and easily-managed plant for private electric lighting. Lead storage cells, however, as at present made, when charged by a steam-driven dynamo deteriorate less rapidly than when an oil-engine is employed, the reason being that the charging current is more irregular in the latter case, since the single cylinder oil-engine only makes an impulse every other revolution. In connexion with the generator, it is almost the invariable custom to put down a secondary battery of storage cells, to enable the supply to be given after the engine has stopped. This is necessary, not only as a security for the continuity of supply, but because otherwise the costs of labour in running the engine night and day become excessive. The storage battery gives its supply automatically, but the dynamo and engine require incessant skilled attendance. If the building to be lighted is at some distance from the engine-house the battery should be placed in the basement of the building, and underground or overhead conductors, to convey the charging current, brought to it from the dynamo.
It is usual, in the case of electric lighting installations, to reckon all lamps in their equivalent number of 8 candle power (c.p.) incandescent lamps. In lighting a private house or building, the first thing to be done is to settle the total number of incandescent lamps and their size, whether 32 c.p., 16 c.p. or 8 c.p. Lamps of 5 c.p. can be used with advantage in small bedrooms and passages. Each candle-power in the case of a carbon filament lamp can be taken as equivalent to 3.5 watts, or the 8 c.p. lamp as equal to 30 watts, the 16 c.p. lamp to 60 watts, and so on. In the case of metallic filament lamps about 1.0 or 1.25 watts. Hence if the equivalent of 100 carbon filament 8 c.p. lamps is required in a building the maximum electric power-supply available must be 3000 watts or 3 kilowatts. The next matter to consider is the pressure of supply. If the battery can be in a position near the building to be lighted, it is best to use 100-volt incandescent lamps and enclosed arc lamps, which can be worked singly off the 100-volt circuit. If, however, the lamps are scattered over a wide area, or in separate buildings somewhat far apart, as in a college or hospital, it may be better to select 200 volts as the supply pressure. Arc lamps can then be worked three in series with added resistance. The third step is to select the size of the dynamo unit and the amount of spare plant. It is desirable that there should be at least three dynamos, two of which are capable of taking the whole of the full load, the third being reserved to replace either of the others when required. The total power to be absorbed by the lamps and motors (if any) being given, together with an allowance for extensions, the size of the dynamos can be settled, and the power of the engines required to drive them determined. A good rule to follow is that the indicated horse-power (I.H.P.) of the engine should be double the dynamo full-load output in kilowatts; that is to say, for a 10-kilowatt dynamo an engine should be capable of giving 20 indicated (not nominal) H.P. From the I.H.P. of the engine, if a steam engine, the size of the boiler required for steam production becomes known. For small plants it is safe to reckon that, including water waste, boiler capacity should be provided equal to evaporating 40 ℔ of water per hour for every I.H.P. of the engine. The locomotive boiler is a convenient form; but where large amounts of steam are required, some modification of the Lancashire boiler or the water-tube boiler is generally adopted. In settling the electromotive force of the dynamo to be employed, attention must be paid to the question of charging secondary cells, if these are used. If a secondary battery is employed in connexion with 100-volt lamps, it is usual to put in 53 or 54 cells. The electromotive force of these cells varies between 2.2 and 1.8 volts as they discharge; hence the above number of cells is sufficient for maintaining the necessary electromotive force. For charging, however, it is necessary to provide 2.5 volts per cell, and the dynamo must therefore have an electromotive force of 135 volts, plus any voltage required to overcome the fall of potential in the cable connecting the dynamo with the secondary battery. Supposing this to be 10 volts, it is safe to install dynamos having an electromotive force of 150 volts, since by means of resistance in the field circuits this electromotive force can be lowered to 110 or 115 if it is required at any time to dispense with the battery. The size of the secondary cell will be determined by the nature of the supply to be given after the dynamos have been stopped. It is usual to provide sufficient storage capacity to run all the lamps for three or four hours without assistance from the dynamo.
As an example taken from actual practice, the following figures give the capacity of the plant put down to supply 500 8 c.p. lamps in a hospital. The dynamos were 15-unit machines, having a full-load capacity of 100 amperes at 150 volts, each coupled direct to an engine of 25 H.P.; and a double plant of this description was supplied from two steel locomotive boilers, each capable of evaporating 800 ℔ of water per hour. One dynamo during the day was used for charging the storage battery of 54 cells; and at night the discharge from the cells, together with the current from one of the dynamos, supplied the lamps until the heaviest part of the load had been taken; after that the current was drawn from the batteries alone. In working such a plant it is necessary to have the means of varying the electromotive force of the dynamo as the charging of the cells proceeds. When they are nearly exhausted, their electromotive force is less than 2 volts; but as the charging proceeds, a counter-electromotive force is gradually built up, and the engineer-in-charge has to raise the voltage of the dynamo in order to maintain a constant charging current. This is effected by having the dynamos designed to give normally the highest E.M.F. required, and then inserting resistance in their field circuits to reduce it as may be necessary. The space and attendance required for an oil-engine plant are much less than for a steam-engine.
Public Supply.—The methods at present in successful operation for public electric supply fall into two broad divisions:—(1) continuous-current systems and (2) alternating-current systems. Continuous-current systems are either low- or high-pressure. In the former the current is generated by dynamos at some pressure less than 500 volts, generally about 460 volts, and is supplied to users at half this pressure by means of a three-wire system (see below) of distribution, with or without the addition of storage batteries.
The general arrangements of a low-pressure continuous-current town supply station are as follows:—If steam is the motive power selected, it is generated under all the best conditions of economy by a battery of boilers, and Low-pressure continuous supply. supplied to engines which are now almost invariably coupled direct, each to its own dynamo, on one common bedplate; a multipolar dynamo is most usually employed, coupled direct to an enclosed engine. Parsons or Curtis steam turbines (see [Steam-Engine]) are frequently selected, since experience has shown that the costs of oil and attendance are far less for this type than for the reciprocating engine, whilst the floor space and, therefore, the building cost are greatly reduced. In choosing the size of unit to be adopted, the engineer has need of considerable experience and discretion, and also a full knowledge of the nature of the public demand for electric current. The rule is to choose as large units as possible, consistent with security, because they are proportionately more economical than small ones. The over-all efficiency of a steam dynamo—that is, the ratio between the electrical power output, reckoned say in kilowatts, and the I.H.P. of the engine, reckoned in the same units—is a number which falls rapidly as the load decreases, but at full load may reach some such value as 80 or 85%. It is common to specify the efficiency, as above defined, which must be attained by the plant at full-load, and also the efficiencies at quarter- and half-load which must be reached or exceeded. Hence in the selection of the size of the units the engineer is guided by the consideration that whatever units are in use shall be as nearly as possible fully loaded. If the demand on the station is chiefly for electric lighting, it varies during the hours of the day and night with tolerable regularity. If the output of the station, either in amperes or watts, is represented by the ordinates of a curve, the abscissae of which represent the hours of the day, this load diagram for a supply station with lighting load only, is a curve such as is shown in fig. 1, having a high peak somewhere between 6 and 8 P.M. The area enclosed by this load-diagram compared with the area of the circumscribing rectangle is called the load-factor of the station. This varies from day to day during the year, but on the average for a simple lighting load is not generally above 10 or 12%, and may be lower. Thus the total output from the station is only some 10% on an average of that which it would be if the supply were at all times equal to the maximum demand. Roughly speaking, therefore, the total output of an electric supply station, furnishing current chiefly for electric lighting, is at best equal to about two hours’ supply during the day at full load. Hence during the greater part of the twenty-four hours a large part of the plant is lying idle. It is usual to provide certain small sets of steam dynamos, called the daylight machines, for supplying the demand during the day and later part of the evening, the remainder of the machines being called into requisition only for a short time. Provision must be made for sufficient reserve of plant, so that the breakdown of one or more sets will not cripple the output of the station.