The Washington Electrical Handbook jm 1 lii ;!i n'> K, p^ >/ LOCAL RECEPTION COMMIHEE BOSTON MASS. MEMORANDUM. This electrical handbook is one of a series of ten similar handbooks prepared under the atis- pices of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers by the local Reception Committees in the Cities of Boston, New York, Schenectady, Montreal, Niagara Falls, Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburg, Wash- ington, and Philadelphia. These are the stopping places on the circular tour organized by the Institute for the reception and entertainment of its foreign guests who visit the United States in connection with the International Electrical Congress at St. Louis, Septem- ber 12th to 17th, 1904. It is hoped in these hand- books to present short historical sketches of the cities visited and a rapid sur\"ey of the power plants and important electrical industries along the route. Washington. No. 4:64 The Washington ELECTRICAL HAND-BOOK Being a Guide for Visitors from Abroad Attending the International Electri- cal Congress, St. Louis, Mo. September, 1904 Uasliiugtuu. 1. (E. Published under the auspices of The American Institute of Electrical Engineers 1904 Copyrighted by American Institute of Electrical Engineers 1904 AS TO THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. AMONG tlie cities where commerce reigns and manufactures hold sway there is keen com- l)etition. There is only one National Capital. Though a score of communities scramble for such local distinction as may be extracted from the self- applied term '"metropolis," there is only one center of government of the United States. By din and roar and rattle and smoke hundreds of towns deservedly achieve rank in the realm of industry. There is only one incomparable residence city in tlic United States. That is the city of Washington; the city that charms men and delights women at all seasons of the year. Washington's government is not of the so-called popular form, but it comes nearer to being popular with all the parties directly concerned than any other variety of municipal government operating in this coun- try at this time. Tliree Commissioners are appointed by the President of the United States. These Com- missioners — frequently termed the "triumvirate" l>y those who would prefer other commissioners — frame estimates for the municipal sustenance of the District of Cohnnl)ia. urge Congress to permit the District of Columbia to spend tlie money which the District raises through taxation, and then, when appropriations are made, see that they are properly di.sbursed. The Com- missioners are generally men of prominence — one of them is required by the law to be an officer in the Corps of Engineers of the Army — and it is superfluous to add that they are scrupulously honest. As a con- sequence, all moneys are expended as the law directs and without the discounting intervention of a Board of Aldermen and a Common Council. The novelty of this condition must appeal strongh' to persons who have resided in cities where tax-paj'ers' contributions are regarded as legitimate spoils for the city's fathers and their friends. The idea that the people of the Dis- trict of Columbia get a dollar's worth of material for 6 The W a sli ing t n a dollar must be extremely fascinating to the plucked American who has breathed the atmosphere of muni- cipal carelessness, not to say corruption. So it comes to pass that, even with insufficient appropriations, Washington is the most delightful of American cities because it is the best governed ; because its municipal administration is unmunicipally business-like and com- pletely devoid of dishonesty's taint. MISCXDEKSTOOD REL.\TIOXSHIP. One of the important things not generally under- stood b}' the public at large is the peculiar relationship existing between the General Government and the other tax-paj'ing residents of the District of Columbia. That relation should be of interest to every American. There is an impression abroad in the land — frequently evident in Congress — "that Washingtonians are mendi- cants, dependent upon the national bountj-. untaxed or lightly taxed, and draining, vampire-like, the life- blood of every Congressman's tax-burdened constitu- ents." If such an impression had any foundation in fact, Washington's growth would soon reach phe- nomenal proportions. The human desire to get as much as possible for nothing would give the District a population of more than a million within a decade. The truth is that Washingtonians pay their share of all bills and are not indebted in any way either to the General Government or to the component parts thereof which are located without the limits of the District of Columbia. In June. 1783. Congress was in session in Philadel- phia. Some of the Revolutionar\- soldiers had grievances, and they threateningly organized and marched toward the then seat of Government. Both the State and local authorities confessed themselves unable to control the invaders, so Congress fled pre- cipitately. Thus was the necessity for a truly National Capital driven home, and as the result came the Con- stitutional provision which led to the cession of terri- tory, ten miles square, by Marj-land and Virginia — the District of Columbia — the site of what President Wash- ington called the Federal City, which, in 1800. became the seat of Government. Electrical Handbook 7 In all the original city site there were 6,iii acres. The original owners donated to the United States for streets and alleys 3,606 acres, and 982 additional acres, divided into 10,136 building lots. The United States- then purchased for its own uses 541 acres more, its total holding amounting then to 5,129 acres. All that the original owners received were 982 acres, sub- divided into 10.136 lots. It was provided that the. 541 acres purchased for puljlic building sites and reser- vations should be paid for out of the first proceeds, of the lots donated to the Government. This was. done ; so the Government did not pay even one cent for the vast quantity of soil it owns in the District of Columbia. In a recent Board of Trade publication the then president of the organization sketched briefly the con- ditions which prevailed as to the National Capital partnership from the time of the initial agreements as to maintenance until the year 1878, when the organic law now in operation was enacted. "The original owners of Washington," said the writer, "donated fiv^e-sevenths of the city's soil and yielded the right of self-government to the Nation on the understanding and implied agreement that the Nation was to build up here a magnificent capital, at its own expense, reimbursing itself in part from the proceeds of the sale of the donated lots. A pretentious city was planned, and lots were sold by the Government on the strength of this understanding. Patrick Henry complained that the residents of the District might, under the arrangement, "enjoy exclusive emoluments to the great injury of the rest of the people,' and pam- phlet protest was entered against Congress meeting all the needs of the capital, on the ground that the inde- pendence and self-respect of its citizens would be de- graded. It was from the beginning, in theory at least, the city of the Nation, and not the city of its residents, and the primary responsibility for its development has always been in equity upon the Nation, and the resi- dents, who have no voice in the disposition of the S The \Va s }ii n (/to n money exacted from tlicm. are the incidental con- tributors. In spite of this conceded relation of Nation and capital, the local tax-payers of the District for three-fourths of a century were compelled to assume practically the entire burden of capital-making, the Nation violating and neglecting the obligations which it had incurred. In 1878 the amount of the contribu- tions of the resident tax-payers toward the expenses of the capital were fixed by law at one-half the total amount, the Nation tardily and inadequately fullill- ing its original agreement." TREES. P.\RKS, HOMES. Countless shade trees and scores of miles of broad asphalted streets would of themselves make Washing- ton worthy of a visit, but they are only two of the many items which go to make up the sum total of urban desirability. Scattered liberally throughout the length and breadth of the city are parks (officially known as Government reservations). Some of these parks are merely grass-planted triangles, contributing to the fascinating geometrical design which caused it to be said that "Washington was modeled after Versailles and Versailles from a spider's web." Others are great squares or circles where streets and avenues converge", a setting of emerald for choice plants and flowers, and frequently sites for statues of soldiers, sailors and statesmen. Still others cover extensive territory. Rock Creek Park contains more than eighteen hundred acres ; the Zoological Park has nearly two hundred acres ; the Mall stretches from the Capitol to the Po- tomac. By-and-by there will be another great park. For years man and machinery have toiled to change the once-noisome and pestilential river marshes into u pleasure ground, and the bulk of the work has been done. Inclosed within a strong sea-wall the old river- "bed has been transformed into tree-growing soil until there is a vast expanse of high ground which in the near future will be placed in the keeping of landscape gardeners to the end that the public may be pleased, •edified and physically bettered. Suburban Washington is extremelv beautiful. It ;s E le ctr i c a I Handbook l)eaiitiful even when compared with the city. It jibounds in feasts of landscape, in liighland sites and woodland retreats, in superb drives, crystal streams, tine travel facilities and the host of good society. From the swift-flowing and disturbed Potomac on the west, over the hills and valleys of the north and east, around tt) tile now broader and majestic river on the south, there is a continuous chain of subdivisions within the links of which the new-comer may find enough of picturesque variety to puzzle him when he desires to make choice. Here is an attractive field for the inves- tor. Washington's growth is no longer a matter of surmise. Diversity of architecture is one of the reasons why AVashington is such a desirable place of residence. Years ago many cities became enamored of certain styles of architecture, and it .seemed almost impossible for any considerable number of people to depart from the designs which pleased their fathers and grand- fathers. There has never been any such formalism in Washington. No long rows of undistinguishable houses precisely alike in every external and internal detail, and monotonous at all times, destroy Washing- ton's claim to municipal individuality. Architectural independence is the rule and it has worked admirably. Instead of wearisome lanes of red bricks, white door- steps and green blinds are the esthetic products of modern brains and sympathetic hands. This quality is by no means confined to the great mansions: in fact, it is more common in the less pretentious homes. Household art is a notable Washington characteristic. VIT.VL FICURES. Some figures are confusing. Some are untruth tub Some are unattractive. The vital statistics of the Na- tional Capital are clear, accurate and gratifying. With a total population closely approximating three hun- dred thousand, in 1902 the white death rate was 15.92 per thousand inhabitants, the number of that class being about two hundred thousand, five hundred. The colored residents of the District of Columbia nuni- ■ered then something like ninety thousand and their Electrical II and b o o k It deatli rate was 29.13. The whole death rate was 19.99. Small as the rate is — swollen, however, by the much larger mortality of the negro — it lessens steadily. Twenty-four years ago the white death rate was 19.5-I, while the colored mortality was represented bj^ 40.7S. Since that time medical science and education have wrought wonders ; not spasmodically, but continuously and solidly. Shallow wells have been filled up, marshes drained and streets cleaned, water-supply increased, nn'lk carefully inspected, food adulterations sought ami located, surface drainage stopped and sanitation taught. Countless efforts to defend the public from itself and its hardly less active enemies have brought forth mar- velous results. A vigilant and etificient Health Depart- ment has so taken advantage of the broad highways and the natural sanitary conditions as to render the inhabitants proof against any scare of an epidemic. In no other city in the country is there less chance for the spreading abroad of any plague-like affliction. A common community weakness is boastfulness as to the local climate. Washington does not boast of its climate, but it extracts a great deal of quiet satisfac- tion from the fact that in the summer it is much cooler than are many cities to the north of it. Southern breezes of which so many centers of populations com- plain during the summer season reach Washington cooled by a thousand miles of intimacy with the At- lantic Ocean and more than two hundred of miles of close communion with the Chesapeake and the Poto- mac. Even when . the days are really hot the sun's heat has not that deadly effectiveness which is com- mon in more northern cities. The local record of sun- strokes and heat prostrations shows almost entire im- munity from fatal cases; a record which contrasts strongl}- with that made in the densely inhabited and narrow streets of such cities as New York, for in- stance. There have been times, too, when Washing- ton has luxuriated in warmth while regions much nearer the equator have shivered in the clasp of the ice king. There is probably no place in all the eastern 12 The Washington portion of the United States where the temperature is more nearly equa1)le than in the District of Columhia. Many invalids come to Washington during the fall and remain until it is time to visit the mountains or the seashore. The fact that Washington is situated ni the great peach-growing helt is proof conclusive as to the mildness of its climate. THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE COUNTRY. As an educational center Washington has many ad- vantages over other American cities. One in every five hundred of its inhabitants is a scientist of more than local repute. Nowhere in all the Western Hemis- phere can there be found such a vast store of educa- tional material. Here is the only place where the study of the Government of the great republic is possible. Here is the machinery which accomplishes so much. Here, all the year round, the executive branch puts in operation the plans committed to its keeping by that body which directly represents the people. Years might profitably be spent by students in observing the methods of presidents, cabinet officers, chiefs of bureaus, clerks and even the holders of humbler positions. Here Congress meets and affords ample opportunity for the careful investigator into our legislative methods. Hither come the politicians, the seekers after office, the manipulators of the "pulls," the statesmen without visible means of support, the claimants, the men who hope to be but never are. Object lessons, however, are not the only lessons taught in Washington. Here is the great Library of Congress, housed in a magnificent structure the decora- tions of which are the admiration of the art world ; a library that seems to lack little of comparative com- pleteness. Here are the government departments, each rich in material for study. Here is the Smithsonian Institution and National Museum. Here is the Cor- coran Gallery of Art, a great collection splendidly sheltered. Here are universities and colleges and schools in profusion. A public library, only recently established, will soon, it is hoped, be sufficiently de- veloped to supply the literary demands of this more Electrical Handbook 13 than ordinary intelligent community. The building in which this library has its home is a notable contribu- tion to architectural Washington. Washington has strong social tendencies, and these, combined with the refined cosmopolitan character of Washington's population, add largely to the city's at- tractiveness as a place of residence. Here may be found the best representatives of European, Asiatic and American civilization ; some of them prominent in the official world, others conspicuous in business af- fairs; still others content only on enjoying the fruits of their toil and the remnant of their days. Official Washington is notable. While Congress is in session there can not possibly be complaint of dull- ness. There are banquets at the Executive Mansion ; Presidential receptions to the Supreme Court, the Diplomatic Corps, the Houses of Congress, the Army and Navy, and the general public ; weekly receptions by members of the Cabinet ; Diplomatic Corps "at homes ;" dinners galore ; all the varieties of teas ; theater parties without number; and a judicious sprinkling of opportunities to be at once fashionable and charitable. It .should be understood, however, that Washington society is not wholly official nor is it al- together open to the possessor of any place in the Blue Book. Non-official Washington has a social circle in which may be found many delightful people whose qualities are solid and enduring; the best elements of all social life and worthy representatives of the men and women who have made the city what it is — a Capital of which the Nation is justly proud. Washington is well equipped with places of rational amusement. There are first-class theaters and second- class theaters and even third-class theaters. In the summer time there are continuous trolley excursions to glens and groves and lakes; river excursions many times a day; railroad trips to fre.sh, brackish or salt water ; and gardens devoted mainly to the sale of liquors which in certain seasons of the year are sup- posed to have cooling properties. Electrical Handbook lo Light manufacturing could not find a more congenial home than in or in the immediate vicinity of the Dis- trict of Columbia. At this time the enormous water- power of the Potomac is unused, but the day of such extravagant and inexcusable wastefulness is rapidly passing. A company is now planning to convert into electrical force the rushing torrents of the river at Great Falls and to convey that same force into the city for illuminating and propulsive purposes. That breach will probably result in the downfall of the wall which has until now shut out the industrious who have long grieved at their inability to turn to money- making use the hundreds of sites available for the less objectionable varieties of manufactures. There is a big local market for almost any kind of a factory product. Coal is brought directly by canal from the mines in the Cumberland district, and there is ample rail and river transportation. Steam communication with the north, south, east and west is maintained by the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, the Southern Railroad, the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Lme. Electric rail- roads operate as far south as Alexandria, Va. ; north to Rockville, Md. ; east to Laurel, Md., and west to Cabin John Bridge, Md. All the prominent suburbs are electrically connected with the city. Steamboat service is constant. Three of the finest of river boats are run between Washington and Fortress Monroe, Norfolk and Newport News. Other good boats run to Mount Vernon, Marshall Hall, River View. Glymont, Chapel Point. Colonial Beach, Piney Point, all the other Poto- mac landings in Maryland and Virginia, and up the Chesapeake to Baltimore. THE REPUHLIC I.V MINIATURE. Washington's future is assured. The day of doubt- ings, of fears, and of little things, has departed for- ever. President Noyes, of the Washington Board of Trade, put that very happily when he said "The ward of the nation will never again be starved and ill- treated by its guardian, once contemptuous, now grown 16 The W asking ton proud and affectionate. In the present partnership of nation and nation's city the former has endorsed the latter's promise to prosper as well as to pay. The swelling prospects of other places that attract men may collapse, mineral deposits may fail, tariff changes may ruin the husiness of a manufacturing town, fickle commerce may flow in other channels, but the fortune of the republic and its capital are inseparably inter- woven, and, while the States of the Union endure and flourish Washington as the nation's city will show forth the republic in miniature, responding in its own growth to the national development and prosperity." ELECTRICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. IT would not be unfair or unsafe to take the electrical development of a people, or the extent to which a nation uses electrical applications, as a gauge of its civilization ; and from this point of view the data herewith given as to the extent of the iidustries that are based on electricity in the United States maj' have more than a passing value. So far as is known, this ccnmtry is the only one in which a sustained effort has been made by the Government to submit to the statisti- cal processes of census inquiry the whole range of the electrical arts; but it is believed that in a few years similar figures will be obtainable fcr all portions of the civilized world. enal)ling- any country to measure itself with others as to its utilization of the telegraph, the telephone, the trolley, the electric light, the electric motor and other kindred appliances by means of which intelligence can be swiftly transmitted, distances be shortened, the darkness brightened, labor lessened, and sickness alleviated. While some figures have been avail- able as to certain branches of electrical \vork, in various countries, at different times, the rapid growth of this essentially modern department of discovery and en- deavor renders it highly necessary that every civilized country should now furnish for itself and others all these important bases of comparison. As to the United States of America, it seems only natural tliat with its time-consuming remoteness from the Old World, its vast natural resources, its energetic population, and its bent for industrial organization. 18 The Washington associated with an unusual keenness of the inventive faculties, there should have been manifested a swift ap- preciation of all the benefits that practical electricity could bestow. Hence, as a matter of fact, the average annual expenditure per head of the population in the United States of America is virtually not less for elec- trical current and supplies than for daily bread. Such a statement, which may at first glance appear astounding, is easily tested. The outlay annually on actual appa- ratus is equal to $2 per head. The toll paid to the trol- ley systems of the country is $3 or better per head. The earnings of the electric light companies are just about $1 per head, while the value of the service given by iso- lated plants is reckoned as approaching the same amount. The earnings of the telegraph companies reach roughly 50 cents per head, and the telephone com- panies get slightly better than $1 per head. To these items must be added those due to the outlay on a long list of other services, including electricity in mines, in medicine, in elevators, in automobiles, etc., and it will be seen that a total, fully authenticated in all respects, is reached of at least $8.50 to $9 per head per year. Surely such an expenditure is not surpassed or even equaled in any other country in the world. It is equally certain, as thus demonstrated, that the American of to- day li\-es as much by electricity as l)y Ijread, The industrial branches of American electrical devel- opment may now be taken up in brief review, using the data chiefly that has been systematically collated since the last general census of 1900- 1 by the United States Bureau of the Census in Washington, when for the first time an investigation was made separately as to the pro- duction of electrical apparatus and supplies — an inquiry that will be repeated in the manufacturing census of 1905, as required by Congress. The average growth in such production is found to have been at the rate of 15 to 20 per cent, for the last twenty years. Hence the esti- Electrical Handbook IfJ mated output during 1903 was as follows, based upon the official returns of 1900- 1 : Dynamos $ 1 7.000,000 Transformers 5,000,000 Switchboards, for lighting and power 2,750,000 Motors, for all purposes 30,000.000 Storage batteries 4.500.000 Primary batteries 1.250.000 Carbons 2.000,000 Arc lamps 2.250,000 Incandescent lamps 5.500,000 Lighting fixtures 3,750,000 Telephonic apparatus 25,000,000 Telegraphic apparatus 2,000,000 Insulated wires and cables, submarine cables 30.250.000 Conduits, interior and underground 1.750.000 Rheostats, heating and cooking apparatus. .. 2.500.000 Annunciators 250.000 Electric clocks 150.000 Lightning arresters, fuses, etc 750.000 Pleasuring instruments 3.000.000 iNIiscellanecnis apparatus 19.000.000 $158,650,000 All these figures are, as noted above, predicated on the actual reports filed in the census of 1900-r, showing nearly $105,000,000 in that year, and check closely with the annual reports published by the leading manufac- turers. The capital and labor employed cannot be given with corresponding approximation, on account of con- solidations, new industries, greater use of automatic machinery, etc.. but it may be noted that in 1900-I strictly electrical manufacturers filed their returns with the census office to the number of 580. These concerns and individuals employed 45,877 persons and had $83,- 130,943 capital engaged in the business. The ratio of increase in these three items has not been quite so high as in output. An industry that has attained a produc- tion of $150,000,000 in manufactured goods must ob- viously stand high among the leading occupations in 20 The W ashing to n the country. It must, moreover, be recollected that all of this apparatus serves as an underlying constituent of great public service systems and plants for railway work, lighting, telephony, telegraphy, etc. ; so that in the whole industry the actual increase in investment, in- clusive of real estate, buildings, line construction track, engines, waterwheels, etc., would represent not far short of $750,000,000. The annual increase in capitalization in the street railway field alone is now about $450,000,000; although, of course, capitalization is not to be taken as synonymous with investment. The Telegraph is the oldest public service industry in the United States of America, as it is elsewhere, but, as the figures show, it is also the smallest. Indeed, each new industry has apparently rolled forward with a big- ger wave, the telegraph, telephone, electric light and electric railway each being larger than its predecessor in strict order and succession. Whether this relation of magnitude will be maintained, cannot be foretold, but it has persi-stea for some years, and encourages thoughtful speculation as to the place that electric power is now taking universally for the propulsion and operation of mills, factories, mines, docks, printing plants and a thou- sand other kinds of industrial establishment. It is all, however, evolutionary from the telegraph. The Director of the Census has issued a preliminary report on the commercial telegraph systems of the United States for the year ending December 31, 1902. The report includes only commercial telegraph com- panies owned and operated within the United States, which were in operation during any portion of the year, no statistics being given for foreign telegraph com- panies operating in the United States. Number of companies 2\ Common stock : ( i ) Authorized, par value $104,383,075 Issued, par value 99,870.225 Gross income 37.55-.450 Total expense 28.490,219 Dividends and interest on bonds 6,084,919 Net surplus 2,977,312 Electrical Handbook 21 Miles of wire operated i,24 795 Commercial or private . 173,502 167,709 5.793 Public 211,706 166,704 45,002 Incandescent lamps - Total number 18,006.521 16.429.060 1,577,461 Commercial or private.. 17.552.756 16,058.111 1,494,645 Public 453,765 370.949 S2.S16 These figures are subject to the correction or enlarge- ment of the 118 street railway companies noted above. These companies showed an aggregate of $6,469,726 from such service, of which $4,074,684 was from com- mercial lighting and $1,417,985 from public lighting, while no less a sum than $768,040 was earned from motor service. This income was derived from the oper- ation of 33.863 arc lamps, of which 2,582 were open and 13.603 enclosed, in commercial use ; and 10,868 open and 6.860 enclosed, in public use. In the way of incandescent lighting there were 1.442,685 lamps in serv- ice, of which the vast majority, or 1.313.303 were of 16 candle-power : while all but 19.026 of the larger number were in commercial as distinguished from public use. As to motor service, the street railway companies report supplying current to 10,049 stationary motors of 35.688 horse-power capacity. There were also 56,601 meters on the circuits. As has been noted, these are the figures given by 118 companies keeping separate accounts that enabled the compilation of these detailed statistics. There were, however, 252 companies which generated current for sale for light and power purposes. In addition to the equipment shown above, there were employed in the central stations 193 boosters, with a capacity of 17,911 horse-power, and 132 rotaries. with a Electrical Harid b o o k 31 capacity of 63.cSt7 horse-power. As to sub-station ap- paratus, the number and horse-power of storage battery cells, transformers, rotary converters and miscellaneous equipment in sub-stations were required to be reported separately. The totals are summarized in the following table: ,p . , Private Municipal ^"^'- Stations. Stations Kind of equipment. On = Oq " "^^ Storage battery cells 8,388 25,284 8,388 25,784 ... Transformers 2,525 420,667 2,490 419,368 35 1,299 Rotary converters 163 85,556 162 85,546 i 10 Miscellaneous 140 21,443 '35 21,269 5 174 In addition to the 8,388 storage battery cells in sub-stations, with a capacity of 25,284 horse-power, there were 6,881 cells, with a capacity of 16,355 horse- power, reported for the main power plants, making the number of cells for all classes of storage batteries 15,269. with a capacity of 41,639 horse-power. It will, of course, be understood that the capacity of the storage batteries cannot be taken in definite horse-power, that depending so much on the rate of discharge ; but the figures here given were such as are justified by the reports from the central stations as to battery output of current, al- though it was not found feasible to reduce this to horse- power-hours, the rate of discharge varying somewhat indefinitely. In addition to the 2.525 transformers in sub-stations, with an indicated capacity of 420,667 horse-power, there are 207,151 on consumers' circuits, with a total capacity of 922.774 horse-power, making an aggregate of 209.676 transformers, with a capacity of 1.343,441 horse-power. The miscellaneous equipment consists largely of motor- generator sets and boosters. As to the output noted, it is natural that some diffi- culty would be experienced in eliciting it. especially with plants carrying chiefly an arc light load, or un- checked by consumption meters. There were reported, however, 582,689 consumers' meters, of which 98.7 per cent, were electro-mechanical, the others being chemi- cal. Each station was required to report its kilowatt- hour average per day and the total for the year, and also the horse-power of the current average per day and the total for the year. In the majoritj' of the stations no record is kept of the output of current, and the amounts reported are largely estimates based on the voltage and amperage of the machines with reference to the hours of operation. The average kilowatt-hour out- 39 The Washington put of current per clay for all stations is 6,814,074, and the total for the year 2,453.502,652. The horse-power- hours of current, average per day, is 9,097,796, and the total for the year 3,270.162.309. The stations operated under private ownership reported 92 per cent., and those under municipal control only 8 per cent, of the total kilowatt and horse-power-hours of current. The total dynamo capacity of central stations was 1,624,980 horse- power, or, roughly, ahout 1.200,000 kilowatts. As the aver- age kilowatt-hour output of current per day is shown to have been 6.814,074, it appears from this that the elec- tric light -Stations are on a basis of average daily opera- tion for six hours, or. approximately, 25 per cent, of their possible capacity of production of current. As the gross earnings from operation are shown to have been slightly over $84,000,000. and the total production of current for the year to be 2,453,502,652 kilowatt-hours, it appears that the earnings per kilowatt-hour were not quite 4 cents. On the other hand, it is not to be under- stood that the central stations are able to sell all the current that they produce, as the inevitable losses be- tween the switchboard and the consumers' lamps and motors reduce the apparent earning capacity. The following statement shows the number of arc and incandescent lamps reported by private and munici- pal stations as used for commercial or other private and public service, and also the total annual income from each variety- of lamp, with the average income per lamp : Arc L,ainps. Incandescent Lamps. o - > o ^^ Items. iSS ,1 y H vtj ^ v Private stations: 5o> ^^ Uo> (S^ Number of lamps .... 168,180 166,723 16,243,853 372,740 Total income 18.220,154 $13,871,646 .?39,o39,557 $2,257,927 Average income per lamp J48.88 $83.20 $2.40 £606- Municipal stations : Number of lani) s 5,793 45, 002 1.494,531 82.920 Totalincorae $240,166 $3,149,079 $2,868,296 *$49i.322- Average income per lamp $41.46 $69.98 $192 $5 9S * Estimated value if paid for at prevailing rates. K le ctr i c a I II a n d h o o k 33 There were 99,102 stationary power motors of all kinds connected with a capacity of 619,283 horse-power, reported as being in operation by private stations, and 1,962 with a capacity of 5,403 horse-power, in operation by municipal stations, making an aggregate of 101,064 stationary motors, with a capacity of 624,686 horse- power. No inclusion was made, however, of fan mo- tors, nor of the 2,370 railway motor cars served. As to the circuits employed in the industry, the fol- lowing t'lgurcs were reported: Items. C8,0 -_0 'u O Total : :-H c ■;;; ^ -^ Mains 107,263.63 93.352.95 13.910.68 87.0 13.0 Feeders 17 8.S0.51 16,452.28 1,428.23 92.0 So Underground — Mail's 5.^47-71 .5.40S.53 43916 925 7.5 Feeders 2,276.55 2,262.02 14 53 99 4 o.6 t)verliead*— Mains loi. 3.^3.76 87,91313 13,47063 86 7 13.3 Feeders 15.592-59 14,18175 1,410.84 91.0 90 Submarine — Mains ,'^216 31-27 089 97.2 2.8 Feeders ir.37 851 2.86 74.8 25.2 * Includes 79 50 miles of mains and 120 26 miles of feeders for elec- tric railway service owned by lighting company. As to the circuits employed, there were 125,144.14 miles of main and feeder wires reported for both pri- vate and municipal stations. Of this total, 109.805.23 miles, or 87.7 per cent., were reported by private sta- tions, and 15,338.91 miles, or 12.3 per cent., by municiprd stations. The mains and feeders for underground cir- cuits measured 8,124.26 miles, or 6.5 per cent, of the total, and the overhead circuits 116.976.35 miles, or 93.5 per cent. Comparatively few sta- tions have a record of the actual length of the wirer strung and ready for service, l)ut the amounts re ported were careful estimates prepared by, or under the direction of, the management of each station. In several instances it was found that electric light stations supplied current to electric railway companies, and that, in the majority of such cases, the railway companies owned the tnain and feeder wires over which this cur- 3A T h e W a .s Ji i a g t o n rent was supplied. There were, however, 199.75 miles of mains and feeders for electric railway service owned by the central stations. These quantities were included in the statistics presented. The next and largest branch of electric industry to be reviewed is that of street railways. The general data of the Census Ofifice report for 1902 are given in the tables below for some 987 companies, of which 817 were "operating" and 170 lessor. The first table shows the nature of the systems as compared with 1890, when the first and only previous street railway' census was taken : 1902. 1890. Percent, of increase. CHARACTER OF POWER. Number of companies. Miles of single track. Z CI "o * 1 (-"O Miles of jj-i : °£ single — S ; vZ track. E =■ 1 5 M 1 United States... 849 ♦22.589.47 761 8,12302 i 11.6 178.1 Electric 747 67 26 9 121,920.07 259 10; 240 69 169.61 126 506 55 74 1,261.97 1 Aai2.a I fii7.o 5,661.44 ! 186.8 t95 4 488.31 ; :52 7 :5o.7 711.30 11^87.8 I76.2 Cable Steam..- * Includes 12 48 miles of track duplicated in reports of different companies. f Includes 6 06 miles operated by compressed air. J Decrease. The following table reveals the vast growth in capital- ization : ITEMS. 1902. Funded debt out.CK) de- grees C. the Bureau possesses some specially designed platinum resistance thermometers, both of the compen- sated and potential lead type, together with resistance bridges and other apparatus designed to afford the highest accuracy and convenience in working. As secondary and working standards in the interval 100 degrees C. to 550 degrees C, the Bureau has a num- ber of mercury thermometers constructed of French hard glass and of Jena borosilicate (59'") glass. Those intended for work above 300 degrees C. have the space above the mercury t'llled with dry X or CO., gas under pressure. In the interval o degrees C. to — 200 degrees C. the standard scale of temperature is again that of the hydrogen gas thermometer, and here also the platinum resistance thermometer serves to define the scale. A,^ secondary and working standards in this interval the Bureau has a number of toluene thermometers and copper-constantan thermo-couples ; and in addition some petroleum-ether and pentane thermometers for use as low as — 180 degrees C. The scope of the testing work in this held, which is rapidly increasing, is somewhat varied. It includes the certification of precision thermometers to be used in scientific work, the certification of standards used by makers of thermometers, of thermometers used in im- portant engineering tests, and of special tj-pes of me- chanical thermometers used in industrial operations. The testing of clinical thermometers forms an important part of the work of this section. Special apparatus ha . been designed and constructed to enable this work t • be carried on with the greatest rapidity and precisio -. Special facilities have been provided for high tem- perature testing, such as the standardization and testir..r of nearly all kinds of high temperature measuring i - struments, including thermo-couples, platinum resistan:.' thermometers, expansion and optical pyrometers ; t" t- determination of the melting points of metals and al- loys; the determination of specific heats and coefficie i:s 66 Tli e W as h I n g to n of expansion at high temperatures, and the determina- tion of the calorific value of fuels. For this purpose the laboratory has been equipped with gas blast furnaces : electric furnaces which will maintain for hours temperatures as high as 1400 or 1,500 degrees C, constant to within a few de- grees ; electrically heated black bodies ; and the neces- sary accessory apparatus, such as potentiometers, spe- cial resistance bridges, recording pyrometers, etc. As primary standards for work in the interval 600 degrees C. to J, 600 degrees C, thermo-couples obtained from various sources are used. These couples are re- ferred to the scale of the nitrogen gas thermometer by measurement of their electro-motive force at known temperatures, viz., the melting or freezing points of some of the metals. The high temperature scale used by this Bureau is based on the melting and freezing points of the metal? as determined by Holborn and Day, and is a reproduc- tion of the high temperature scale used by the Physi- kalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt. Division I— Section 3. Light and Optical Instruments. — The work of this section has recently been inaugurated, but it cannot be fully developed until the Physical Building is oc- cupied. Investigations on electrical discharges in gases, to de- termine among other things the conditions necessary for producing a given spectrum by such a light source, and a careful study of polariscopic measurements, with spe- cial reference to the accurate determination of the per- centage of pure sugar in a sample, have been carried on during the past year. The Bureau has also undertaken, at the request of the Treasury Department, to super- vise the work of polariscopic analysis of sugar in all the custom houses of the country. Division I— Section 4. Engineering Instruments. — The work now being done in this section includes the testing of gas Electrical Handbook 67 meters, water meters, pressure gauges, speed indicators, cement testing, and testing the strength of materials, using for the latter purpose a 100,000-pound testing machine. This work was begun comparatively recently-, but is progressing rapidly. The range of the work will be extended beyond that indicated above as fast as possible. Division II— Section 1. Resistance and lilcctroiitofifc Force. — In addition to standard resistances and standard cells, this laboratory also tests precision resistance boxes. Wheatstone bridges, potentiometers, precision shunts, etc. Specific resistances, temperature coefficients and thermo-electric properties of materials are also deter- mined. A considerable part of the work of this section consists in the verification of apparatus of this kind for the other sections of the Bureau. For the present all resistance measurements of the Bureau are referred to the mean of a number of i-ohm manganin standards, which are reverified from time to time at the Physikalisch-Technische Reichanstalt. and are therefore known in terms of the primary mercurial standards of that institution. The construction of secondary mercurial standards, which after suitable aging change less than wire stand- ards, has been begun and in time will be of service in fixing with the greatest possilile accuracy the value of the i-ohm working standards. It is intended as soon as possible to construct a number of primary mercurial re- sistance standards. The set of manganin resistance standards of the Bu- reau consists of ten i-ohm coils and four coils each of the following denominations: 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000. 100,- 000; .1. .01, .001. .0001. .00001. besides two 2-ohm. three 3-ohm, two 5-ohm coils and two megohm boxes, this giving in most cases two reference standards and two working standards of each denomination. Special efforts have been made to secure the accurate comparisons of the i-ohm coils with those of the other denominations, bearing the ratios of i, 10, 100, etc. Electrical 11 a a d boo k 69 iMir directly determining the ratio of two nearh- equal coils a special set of ratio coils and a four-dial shunt hox has been constructed wliicli enables the ratio to be read off directly to parts in a million, the dials reading respectively .i per cent.. .01 per cent.. .001 per cent., and .OOOF per cent. Other special apparatus has been built or is under way for making precision measurements with a niininumi of labor in the observations and com- putations. .\ considerable amount of testing has been done by this section, chiefly resistance standards and resistance bo.xcs. but including also a variety of other apparatus. Division II — Section 2. Mciiiiu'tisiii cind .Ihsolutc Mcasiirciiiciit of Citrroit.— The work of magnetic testing, recently inaugurated, is about to l)e enlarged. Two important researches. uamel\\ a study of tlie silver voltameter and a rede- termination of the electro-chemical equivalent of silver and of the absolute value of the Weston and Clark standard cells, have been under way during the past year. .\ new absolute electro-dynamometer is being built for the latter investigation. Division II— Section 3. Induclaiuc mid Cuf^acity. — .\ careful study of mica and paper condensers has l)een made, including the measurement of their capacities by different meth- ods, the effect of time of charge upon their measured capacity, and the determination of absorption, leakage and temperature coefficients. Condensers have been pur- chased from various makers in England. France, Ger- many and America, and comparisons made with a view of determining the best performance to be obtained from both mica and paper condensers when used as measures of capacity. Some very interesting and valuable results have thus been obtained. Two large air condenser.s have recently' been constructed to be used as standards. A new form of rotating commutator for use in deter- mining capacities in absolute measure has recentlj' been completed in the instrument shop and has been used in this work. 70 T }i e Washington A considerable number of standards of inductance have been acquired and a great deal of work has been done in comparing inductances and determining their values absolutely. The Bureau is now in a position to make accurate measures of both capacity and induct- ance and to compare and test condensers or inductance standards for the puljlic. A considerable amount of testing of this kind has already been done. Division 11— Section 4. Electrical Mcasioiiig, Iiistntiiiciits. — This section includes both alternating and direct-current in- struments (including instruments for measuring heavy current and high potential), except those pre- cision instruments included in Section i. Some testing of ammeters, voltmeters, wattmeters and watt-hour meters has been done for the public, but the principal work done so far has been preparatory. ]Many instru- ments have been purchased from the best instrument- makers at home and abroad, and other instruments have been designed and built in own our shops. Much of the apparatus purchased has been tested, and in some cases altered and improved, and methods of measure- ment have been investigated. In addition to direct-current generators and storage batteries, the following equipment of generators for al- ternating current has been acquired : 1. A small 120-cycle alternator, single-phase, suitable for voltmeter or condenser testing. 2. A three-phase i20-cycle alternator driven by an in- verted rotary used as a motor and itself capable of giving a three-phase 6o-cycle current. 3. A pair of 6o-cycle three-phase revolving field alter- nators (direct-connected to a driving motor), of which one can have its armature rotated by a hand wheel while running, so that its current is displaced in phase with respect to the other. Using one of these generators for the main current (which by use of transformers may be multiplied at reduced voltage) and the other for the potential current, an\- desired power factor maj' be ob- tained and wattmeters and watt-hour meters conveniently Electrical Handbook 71 tested up to a capacity of i.ooo amperes and any desired voltage. 4. A pair of two-pliasc alternators, surface-wound, and giving currents of nearly sine wave form (direct- connected to a driving motor), one alternator giving 60 cycles and the other iltages, currents and power. These latter quantities are measured by means of instruments which admit of accurate calibration with direct currents and electromotive forces, the latter being measured by potentiometers, using standard resistances and Weston cells, the e. m. f. of the latter being, of course, known in terms of the standard Clark cells of the Bureau. Thus all current, voltage and power measurements, both direct and alternating, are referred to standard resist- ances and standard cells. The alternating instruments employed are as free as possible from errors due to inductance, eddy currents and capacity. Corrections are applied for the effects of small residual inductances when necessary. The alter- nating generators employed are driven In motors oper- ated from storage batteries, enabling the speed and volt- age to be maintained very uniform and measurements to be made with great precision. Thus frequency, volt- 72 The Washing ton age, power factor and wave form are controlled and varied as desired, and every effort is made to secure accurate measurements. The Bureau is now prepared to test alternating volt- meters, ammeters or dynamometers, wattmeters, watt- hour meters, phase and power factor meters, frequency indicators and other similar apparatus. In the testing of direct-current instruments the Bu- reau is now prepared to handle apparatus of capacities up to i,ooo amperes and i.ooo volts. A larger storage batterj' is being installed which will give currents up to 5,000 amperes at 4 volts, or 10,000 amperes at 2 volts, and a high potential battery of several thousand volts will 1)0 installed in the near future. Divfson II, Section 5. Pluttoinctry. — After doing considerable ])reliminary work, the Bureau is now prepared to test and cer- tify incandescent lamps to be used as standards, and has already done a considerable amounut of testing of this kind for manufacturers and others. A considerable number of incandescent lamp stand- ards have been obtained from the Reichsanstalt, the ratio of the candle to the Hefner unit being taken as ! to .88. These reference standards are, of course, only occasionally used, and the mean of the values of several i6-candle power lamps is taken as the standard of the Bureau. Exact copies of these will be added from time to time, so that if a change in any lamp is detected it may be discarded without impairing the completeness of the set. The current and voltage employed in testing lamps are measured by a potentiometer and can be maintained very constant. Working by the substitution method, it is possible to make very accurate comparisons and thus to secure very exact copies of the standards of the Bureau. The purpose of the Bureau is not to undertake, at least for the pre.sent, the conmiercial testing of incan- descent lamps (apart from the testing done for the gov- ernment), but to verify lamps to be used as standards and to make special investigations of lamps submitted E I c c t r i col II !e to supply his needs at much less cost than they could ])e supplied liy himself. To-diiy no residence is ])uill without provision being made in its construction fur those applications of electricity which give light and heat and which otherwise con- tribute to the comfort that is now a necessity. Compared with otiier cities of the United States, Vi'ashington may fairly be termed "wireless." Through telegraph wires are still in existence on a few thorough- fares, and occasionally one may get a sight of tele- phone, electric light, police, fire-alarm or messenger service wires securely pole-strung, but within a very short period of time all wires owned by the telephone and electric light companies will be underground, leav- ing little more than the municipal copper overhead. That would not be so could the local authorities secure from Congress funds sufficient for that useful purpose. The steady abandonment of overhead construction by the telephone and lighting companies is altogether voluntary. There was a time when it was necessarily not so, but now both of these corporations can afford to indulge in such operating luxuries (and ultimate economies) as conduits, and they are doing so just as 100 Tlic. Washington rapidly as any reasonable person could desire. Local public sentiment has expressed itself very strongly on the question of wires — ranging from the man who ob- jected to them "because they make the English spar- rows' feet sore" to the men who advance the best of reasons why the ol)structions should be interred — so the corporate pride i)f Washington is doing large share of that work of i)u])lic improvement which will soon make the nation's cajiital beautiful beyond compare. Electrical Ha n dbo o k 101 THE SYSTEM OF THE CAPITAL TRACTION CO. THE first street car scr\icc in Washington was be- gun in July. iS(u, wlien the Washington and Cieorgetown Raih-oad Company ran its first horse cars on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Pennsyl- vania Avenue line has been operated without interrup- tion since, and as the public's needs for service in other sections were manifested, they have been met by the other lines and various extensions. When it became apparent that the Imrse car was not adequate, in the later '8o's, the company considered what form of mechanical system would best meet the con- ditions. The overhead trolley system, then just begin- ning to be generally u.sed, was properly not allowed in Washington, and the cable, the only other successful method of jiropulsion then axailable, was adopted. '! lie Seventh Street line was first equipped, and immediately after that was put in operation, in 1890, work was begun on the other lines, so that August, 1892, found all the Washington and Georgetown Railroad's system operated by cable. This system continued to give satisfactory service until September, 1897, when the burning of the company's large central power station, at Fourteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, put all the lines ex- cept Seventh Street out of commission. The fire oc- curred after i.i at night, but the disabled cable cars were hauled oflf the street and the trail cars started out with horse power on a regular schedule the following morn- ing. In the meantime the conduit electric system had been de\eloped and pro\'en satisfactory on the .Melro|)()litan Railwaj- Company's lines in Washington and also in New York, so the company's directors decided not to re- build the cable power station, l)ut to equip the entire road with that system. Fortunately, the concrete cable conduit was well adapted to the electric system, and work was soon begun on the track, power station and 5SE 9.0 o s Electrical H a n dh oo k 103 cars, so that both the Pennsylvania Avenue and Four- teenth Street lines were electrically operated from t!ie company's own power station in April, 1898. Parts of the lines had heen run some months before that time. The Seventh Street cable road was also rebuilt, the work l)einf4 done witliout interrujjtion to the cable sys- tem, whicli was driven by a separate station, now aban- doned. In September, 1895, the Wa.shington and Georgetow-n Railroad Company and the Rock Creek Railway Com- pany were consolidated under tlie rame of the Capital Traction Company. The Rock Creek Railway Comjjany built its line from Chevy Chase Lake, Md., two miles beyond the District line, to the corner of Eighteenth and U streets, in 1892. using the overhead trolley. A year later it built an ex- tension along U Street to Seventh Street, using the Love conduit system. This was among the first conduit elec- trical roads l)uilt and was probably the first to be regu- larly operated. It consisted of cast-iron yokes. 4 feet 6 inches apart, supporting the wheel and slot rails, and connected by a 19-inch conduit formed by cast-iron plates. The conductors were bare copper wire, sus- pended by composition insulators from the yokes, under U-shaped slot rails. The current was collected by an under-running two-wheel trolley. This road w-as oper- ated until March. 1859, when it was rebuilt with ihe standard con.duit electric system. It was operated m a fairly satisfactory manner, the difficulties being htrgely due to the flimsy construction of the road and the un- substantial in.sulation. The Capital Traction Company's system comprises the Penn-sylvania Avenue, Fourteenth Street, Seventh Street and Chevy Chase Lines, fifteen and one-half miles of double track, conduit electric, and five miles of double track, overhead trolley line. These several lines operate between 90 and 125 trains, each train being usually com- po.sed of a motor car and a trailer. Elc ctr ica I 11 a ad ho o k 10 J Road-bed Construction. Tlic conduit system is practicall\' tlu' same as that in nse by tlic New York surface lines and tlic other lines in Washington. Power for the entire conduit system is furnished from a power station of 2,625-kilowatt capac- ity, located on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, between Thirty-second and Potomac Streets northwest. Power for the overhead line is furnished by a station situated at the northern terminus of the Chevy Chase line. The conduit system embraces two standard types, one, including twelve miles of double track, is a reconstruc- tion of the calile road, and the remainder was built es- pecially for the electric system. The first (shown in Fig. I) consists of a concrete conduit 36 inches deep with 6-inch wheel rail and slot rail supported on cast- iron yokes, spaced 4 feet 6 inches center to center. The T-shaped conductor rails, weighing 23 pounds to the yard, arc supported by porcelain insulators whose cast- iron caps are bolted to the lower flange of the slot rail. The conductor rails are 31 feet 6 inches long and are supported at each end and in the center. Their joints are bonded with two 0000 flexible copper bonds. In reconstructing the cable road for the electrical sys- tem it was thought best to provide a drip under the slot rail, so that surface water would fall to the ground at the slot between the conductor rails, instead of follow- ing the lower surface of the slot rail and falling on the conductor rails. To provide this, a small angle iron was riveted on the under side of the slot rail while in its position in the street. All sections of slot rail rolled especially for the conduit electrical system are provided with this drip rolled on the rail. The only differences between the com])any's present standard construction and the reconstructed cal)le road are in the details, the depth being 25 inches instead of the 36 inches which was necessary for the cable road, and deeper rails are used, 8-inch for wheel rail and 7- inch for slot. The deep conduit has unquestionably con- siderable advantages, due to better drainage facilities and less Habilitv to short circuits from wires or other ? FA ectr i cal Handbook 107 iiietallic wastes from the street. Tlie standard construc- tion as built for the electric system is shown in Fig. 2. The conductor rail insulation has proved very satis- factory in the six years the Capital Traction Company's system has been in operation. The insulation is not high, there being an appreciable leakage over the sur- face of the porcelain insulators, particularly during and after rains, but it is quite substantial and there is no rec- ord of an insulator l)urning out except from mechanical injury or an arc forming near enough for the heat to crack the porcelain. Power Station. Tlic Grace Street i)()\ver station, which furnishes cur- rent for all the urlian lines of the Capital Traction Com- pany, is located on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, on which the coal is delivered in canal boats, and which furnishes water for the boilers and jet condensers. The building is a long, narrow one. not very well suited in shape for this purpose, but was in the company's pos- session at the time of the destruction of their cable power station, and required only minor alterations. It is of brick, with slate roof, and has one brick cross wall dividing it into two main compartments, one containing the boiler plant and coal bunkers, and the other the en- gines, electrical equipment and accessories. Coal is de- livered in canal boats at the western end of the building, where it is hoisted in buckets and deposited through a weighing hopper and crusher to the coal conveyor and thence taken to the coal bins over the boiler room. Pro- vision is also made to unload coal directly into two stor- age yards adjacent to the station building. The coal conveyor was built by the Steel Cable Engi- neering Company, of Boston, ]\Iass., and consists of four endless steel cables, ->^-inch in diameter, to which are clamped at intervals of one foot cast-iron attachments which form axles for the wheels carrying the conveyor, and to which are bolted the pans and buckets, the latter swinging on pivots. The conveyor is carried on wheels 3 inches in diameter, running on a two-foot gauge track. The conveyor is dri\en 1)_\- a shunt-wound 12 horse- power, 500-volt motor, and is used to remove ashes from 108 The Washington under the boilers, as well as placing coal in the bunkers. The coal bunkers are divided into three parts ; the main bin is V-shaped and runs the entire length of the boiler room, delivering coal through measuring hoppers and chutes directly to the hopper over each grate ; the smaller coal bunkers are also V-shaped and are situated over the back of the boilers. They are only used for storage purposes. The coal bins are supported on trusses erected on columns at the side walls and a row of col- umns down the center of the fire room. The bin walls consist of arches sprung between I beams. The arches are of concrete formed with a flat interior surface on corrugated iron arch plates, with a thickness of concrete at crown of arch of 3 inches. The total capacity of the coal bins is about 2,000 tons, with additional storage capacity of about 2,000 tons in the yards. Boiler Equipment. The boiler plant consists of eight boilers, arranged in four batteries. Each boiler is of 330 nominal horse- power and is of the Babcock & Wilson horizontal water tube type, manufactured by the Aultman & Taylor Ma- chinery Company. Each boiler has a water heating sur- face of about 3,300 square feet, with grate area of 75 square feet. They are operated under a normal steam pressure of 140 pounds, and the tubes were originally tested under a hydrostatic pressure of 300 pounds. The gases from all boilers pass through brick flues to a cen- trally located steel stack 150 feet high by 9 feet internal diameter, lined with red brick. The chimney is anchored to a brick foundation built down to bed rock. Locke damper regulators are provided on each flue. The coal is delivered through hoppers in front of each boiler into Roney mechanical stokers, driven by small Westing- house engines. These stokers have proved very satis- factory with the George's Creek semi-bituminous coal, giving good combustion, with practically no smoke com- ing from the stack under ordinary circumstances. Steam and Water Piping. The boiler feed water is taken from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, flowing alongside the station, into a concrete well under the engine room, thence it is lifted Electrical H and boo I: lO'f by an automatically controlled tank pump into a 4,000- gallon tank situated back of tbe boilers. From this tank the feed water ])asses through two Loomis-Manning fil- ters having a capacity of 300,000 gallons in twenty-four hours, and from there it is forced by Deane boiler pumps through the heaters into the boilers. Provision is made for supplying water from the city mains into the tank, and ail emergency water feed line is placed back of the boilers, supplied by two Metropolitan injectors. The exhaust from each main engine passes through its own Berryman feed water heater to its own Deane jet condenser, thence through a cast-iron discharge pipe into the canal. An independent 14-inch spiral riveted exhaust pipe is also provided for each engine. The ex- haust from the condensers, pumps and lighting engine all pass through a large Berryman heater situated in the boiler room. .A space was left in the boiler room for an economizer, Ijut none has as yet been installed, the flue gases passing directly to the chimney. The average temperature of the feed water after passing through the different heaters is about 181 degrees F. The main steam pipe line is on the loop sj'stem, a main 12-inch header running the entire length of the building on the north side and an au.xiliary lo-inch one on the south. These are connected at each end and also by an 8-inch equalizing main run along the dividing wall between the engine and boiler rooms. All bends in the steam mains are made on a long radius, and it was unnecessary to provide any expansion joints. Gate valves are provided in the headers, so that any unit, either engine or boiler, can be cut out and repairs made without interfering with the steam sujjph-. Engine Room. The main generating units are live in number, each consisting of an 800 horse-power engine, direct con- nected to a G. E. 525-kilowatt, 600-volt generator. The engines are 20x40.x42-inch tandem compound, running at 100 revolutions per minute, made by the E. P. AUis Company, with the well-known features of this type. no The WasJiington Tlic generators are standard General Electric, eight- pole machines, compfunul wound, giving a voltage of 550 at no load, and Ooo at full load. As two of the feeder lines are quite long for direct- current work, their pressure is increased hy motor- driven boosters. Three of these booster sets are pro- vided, placed in the engine room lietween the main units; each consists of a 600-volt, 6-pole shunt motor, direct connected to a series generator, with a capacity of 550 amperes and 180 volts, giving a straight line char- acteristic from o to 100 volts when operated at a speed of 600 revolutions per minute. The switchboard is about 50 feet long and is situated along the south side of the engine room about 5 feet from the wall. It consists of a standard panel for each generator, a total output panel containing wattmeter and ammeter; two panels for each pair of feeders; panels for each booster motor : two panels with switches, allowing either of the three boosters to be thrown on either of the two feeders whose pressure is to be raised: a rheo- stat panel ; and a panel controlling the 600-volt lighting and power circuits about the building. As the system fed is a metallic circuit with neither side grounded, equal switching facilities are provided for each pole of each feeder, and double-throw switches are used, so that the polarity can be reversed on each cir- cuit. This is done to provide against short circuits which might occur from grounds occurring on different sides of two different circuits. In addition to the 600-volt units, there is a direct- connected 50-kilowatt, 125-volt lighting set. This pro- vides lights for the power station for the company's shops, which are situated across the canal, and also for the main office building and car barn a few blocks away. The station is well lighted naturally by numerous win- dows and artificially by numerous arc and incandescent lamps. Incandescent lamps on both 600-volt and 125- Tolt circuits are distributed over the whole buildina:. E lee tr i ca I Handbook 111 Lul)ricatinn nf the 1)earings is taken care of l)y a gravity oil sujiply fed from a twelve-barrel tank sus- pended near the to]) of the end wall in the engine room. Cylinder oil is sn])])Iied to eacii cylinder under jircssurc tiirough sight feed hihricators. The engine room lloor is of hard pine, laid on con- crete arches, supported on 1 beams, which are in lurii supported b_\' the machine foundations and cast-iron col- unuis. All foundations for main units and accessories are of l)rick extending to bed rock. A 15-ton, hand- operated crane sjians the engine room, running the full length of the room. The station, in addition to furnishing power for the company's entire city .system, also furnishes heat and power for the shops. Distribution System. The distribution system consists of alxnU 67,' _> miles of cables, having 3-16-inch paper insulation, protected by a 's-iiich lead sheath. These cables, twenty in all, pass in racks under the engine ro(]m lloor o\'er the boiler room to underground conduits. The conduits are for the most part laid between the tracks and are part terra cotta an.d part cement ])ipes, with a sheet-iroi, covering. 'l"he latter have, however, proven very unsatisfactory and have given considerable troulile, due to corrosion of the lead sheaths of the cables. This has been especially marked through the low jiarts of the city, and recently about 3.000 lineal feet of terra cotta conduit has been laid to take the place of cement pipes. A chloride storage battery is placed in the upper floor of the JNIount Pleasant car barn, at the extreme end of the Fourteenth Street line, which is fed liy a booster. This battery is of 320-ampere discharge capacity and consists of 260 cells, each cell having 9 plates with a tank capacity of 17. It is floated directly on the line without the intervention of a booster or any rotary ma- chinery, and has l)een found in the two years it has been in service to be very economical to maintain and has satisfactorily served its purpose of taking care of the extreme temporary overloads which occur on this line. HI ! y^;^:. ^..r^- ■ .V ■;«■- •■ • ' mm- -.*-». '■-. '.■'■•*v' -.. .. ••• Standard Plow— Capital Traction Co. Fig. 4. Electrical Handbook 113 Car Equipment. Tliis company lias not followed the practice of many of the American cities in using long eight-wheel cars, hut their city equipment consists entirely of 20 to 26- foot cars, operated in trains of one motor car and one trailer. A complete equipment is carried of open and closed cars, both motors and trailers, and it has proven quite satisfactory on account of the flexibility of the service. Open trailer cars can be operated through a considerable portion of the mild winters Washington usually has. and they are quite popular with the road's patrons. This would, of course, be impossible with sin- gle cars, as a complete open unit w^ould not be desired or permitted. The trailer system also makes it conve- nient to quickly change the service from open to closed cars at times of heav}- summer rains. It has also been found that the train of two light cars is more economi- cal of power than the heavier single cars, the average consumption on the whole line being 1.81 kilowatt-hour per train mile at the station switchboard. A view of one of these mixed trains is shown in Fig. 3. All motor cars are mounted on "Lord Baltimore" trucks, each truck being equipped with two 35 horse- power G. E. 1. 000 motors. All cars are lighted electri- cally and the closed motors heated in the same manner. One of the most important parts of the equipment of the conduit electric system is the device used to convey the electricity from the conductor barns to the car, known as the plow. The plow used b}^ the Capital Trac- tion Company is the General Electric Company's Form 8, with several improvements suggested by experience. This plow is shown in Fig. 4. The two cast-iron shoes are pressed against the conductor rail by steel leaf springs. These springs are supported by iron yokes which are fastened to the maple plow bottom. This ma- ple and a sheet of soft rubber give the necessary insula- tion. The current passes from the inner side of the shoe through a short piece of lamp cord used as a fuse to the lower end of the lead. The leads are continuous strands of copper wire running from the connector on V ii E lectr ica I Handbook 115 top to the fuse at tlic 1)ottom. Tliis wire is flattened out and reinsiilated wlicre it passes through the steel shank plates. Rcnio\al)le liankiicd steel plates are placed to take the wear where the shank passes hetween the slot rails. The plow is hung nn two steel hangers attached to the truck, and is free to move laterally to allow for curves, etc. Should the plow take the wrong slot in passing over a switch, it slips off the end of the hangers, the connectors pull loose, and the ])]inv may be removed without seriously delaying the movement of cars. Shops and Barns. The shops of the company arc situated, as noted he- fore, directly opposite the power station on the Chesa- peake and Ohio Canal. They comprise three buildings, one of which is a storage barn containing a wheel- grinder and pits for removing wheels and overhauling and removing motors ; another contains the wood-work- ing and paint shops, and the third the forge room and machine shop. All motors are overhauled in the .shops about once a month while in regular service, and all cars are thoroughly overhauled in all shops every year. All repair work is done in these shops, and occasionally new cars are built there. Car service on the city lines is maintained from four barns, one at each end of the Pennsylvania Avenue line, one at the north end of the Fourteenth Street line, and another at the south end of the Seventh Street line. The Georgetown barn is three stories high ; the other three, two. All are served by electrically operated car elevators and have suitable rooms for the train men and shops for minor repairs, as w'ell as car storage facilities. The company's suburban line, running from Cincin- nati Street and Rock Creek to Chevy Chase Lake, is a double-track overhead trolley road w'ith center pole con- struction, fed by a 750-kilowatt station at the northern end of the line. This station also furnishes lights for the village of Chevy Chase. An amusement park at the Chevy Cha.se Lake fur- nishes an attraction for excursion traffic on this line during the summer season. Electrical Handbook J 17 THE TELEPHONE PLANT OF WASHINGTON. Wlll^.X the Washington telephone plant was first constructed, the whole conception of the scope of the service was verj' different from the present. Telephones were for the use of large firms, arid for a few of the very luxurious in their residences. For the ordinary person it was an emer- gency service, to be used very much as the telegraph, when it was essential to communicate cpiickly. A great department of the Federal Government used only two or three stations, and, indeed, thought they needed no more. Public pay stations were few and far between, and it was often necessary to walk half a mile to reach one. The plant required for such a system was extremely simple, judged by present standards. Ten years ago the prospect of more than one exchange for Washington had not even been contemplated. Except for a few of the main leads, nothing but open wire on pole lines was thought of. Even after the long distance lines were opened to W^ashington it was not expected that the aver- age station would need to be equipped for such service, as the subscriber could go to the long distance office for the very exceptional out-of-town call. The old carbon-button or Blake transmitter, with one cell of Le Clanche battery, was in general use; and the line, except for the short length in ca])le, was of iron and grounded. The magneto switchboard, w-ith its large drops and jacks, was necessarily of small capacity. The drops were self-restoring, however, that is, the shutter was automaticalh" closed when the operator an- swered, and as late as seven years ago this was consid- ered the height of switchboard development. Within the past decade, however, the whole concep- tion of the use and place in our life of telephone service has undergone a complete change. The business had been developed along the old lines until the limit .seemed 118 Til e W a s h i ng to n .0 be reached, and for a time growth was ahnost ar- rested. Then quite suddenly there was what might be called a renaissance in tlie telephone business. Pioneers here and there Ijiazcd the way, and showed a new place for the service in the affairs of men. Lower rate schedules were developed; the old, inflexible flat rates were superseded by equitable message rate schedules, under which each subscriber paid for what he got, and it became possible to offer rates which would appeal to the small user. The demand for telephone service then grew faster than the plant could be provided. The idea was gaining ground that telephone service was for all classes just as distinctly as the mail service or the gas and water sup- ply. The man who could not afford even the bottom rate should have access to a pay station within half a block and the privilege of calling for a nominal charge. This new idea demanded an enormous and very complex plant. A number of exchanges were required with pro- visions for trunking between ; and as it became imprac- ticable to carry the increased number of lines overhead, the subway system had to be greatly extended and en- larged. The old magneto station-battery plant could not be adopted to meet the new conditions. The engineers, designers and makers of apparatus had kept pace with the development, and were ready to fur- nish new equipment of wonderfully improved character and most exquisitely adapted to the purpose in hand. It remained, however, to lay out a plant with due regard to present and future needs, and then construct it ; and all this has taken, naturally, a good deal of time and money. It was necessary to plan as far ahead as pos- sible, and then to build in such a way that no matter how or where the future development might come, in stations or in traffic, additions might be made as integral parts of the existing system and without sacrificing any part of it. The study made as a basis for these plans was most thorough and very interesting. First, a large map of the city was carefully blocked off in various colors, each indicating a certain grade of business, residence or ofti- Electrical Ha n dh o o J: 1J9 cial property. Tlie mimbor of existing telephones in each square was then set down, and a conference was lield of a lialf-do7.en people, each especially well equipped either from a ])usiness. a telephone, or a real estate standpoint. Xo determine the probable ratio of in- crease for each s<|uare during the following ten years. On the basis of tlie probable development so ascer- tained, assuming that 24,000 lines and. say, 60,000 sta- tions would be reciuired. the city was laid out in five ex- change districts and u subway system planned whicii would be good for all time. The conduits which have already ])een Iniilt in accordance with this information reach nearly every improved square in the city, and in all congested districts are continued directly into the buildings, giving a house-to-house distribution entirely beyond the reach of storms or other disturbing influ- ences. The ordinary practice in the residence section is to continue the underground cable to a cable box on a stout pole in the center of the square. From here it is distributed by short spans of twisted weatherproof wire to the rear of the houses. The short lengths of the spans and the fact that covered wire is used make line troubles almost unheard-of. In four of the five city districts new exchange build- ings have already been erected. Each has been de- signed especially for central office purposes, in accord- ance with the best telephone practice. All are of the most substantial fireproof construction, and heavy brick walls have been used in preference to the modern steel frame construction. The buildings have been designed, moreover, to l)ear the extraordinary weight of terminal apparatus, cables, generators, etc., on the top floor, and also to permit the erection of additional stories, if the growth of the business should require it. Unusual precautions have been taken to insure dry walls, not only by courses of asphalted burlap in the foundations, but also by painting the inside with as- phalt and then applying hollow terra cotta furring be- fore plastering. Each building is amplj' supplied with well-designed outside fire escapes, and fire protection is everywhere ])rovided. There is at least one stand-pipe V20 T h e Wa s h ing ton extending to the roof of each building. Normally the stand-pipe is connected with large tanks on the roof, kept full by electric pumps, which are automatically started the instant the water pressure becomes reduced. Sand buckets are plentifully supplied around the ex- change and terminal rooms, and elsewhere in the build- ing chemical extinguishers of the most improved type are at every turn. The main exchange builcling. located in aljout the cen- ter of the cit}-, is the last to be completed, and contains the company's general offices, as well as the central of- fice, with a capacit}- of 10.500 lines. It is a six-story and basement building, about 50x150 feet in size, and is built of granite, white brick and terra cotta. The North exchange building, situated about one and a quarter miles north of the Main exchange, is of about the same dimensions and materials, except that it is only four stories high. The East and West exchanges, as tl;c names imply, cover East and West Washington re- spectively. Each is of two stories and basement, and is built of brick, with stone trimmings. The fifth central office, which is not yet built, is planned to be located about one mile north of the pres- ent North office, on the heights, where there is so much of present and prospective increase in residence service, and \y here, the city must push out in the future. A brief description of the North exchange, which seems in every way a model of central office and engi- neering construction, will suffice for all. On the first floor of the building is an up-town busi- ness office, where patrons may pay their bills, make ar- rangements for service, etc. The entire second floor is used as a terminal room, and its generous dimensions, with ample light on three sides, make it unusually well adapted to the purpose. The steel frames, racks and cable runs were put in for the ultimate capacity of the switchboard during the construction of the building, and are bolted to the iron floor beams and to the ceiling beams above ; they are thus virtually a part of the build- ing and will carry the maximum weight and strain with- out sag or vibration. The 12 kilowatt motor generators Electrical Handbook IJ 1 for charging the storage hatteries, and the ringing ma- chines, hoth in dupHcate, arc as solid and free from vibration as if built on rock. In the terminal room the underground cables come up through a long, narrow brick shaft along the side wall to the base of the "main frame." In a fireproof trough under the floor, each cable is pot-headed and twisted and rubber-covered wire spliced on. These conductors are then led in a Inmch along an arrester strip on the "main frame," where provision is made to carry to the ground any excess or foreign current which might come from the line. The wires are here cross-connected — in other words, their arrangement, which was geo- graphical as they came from the underground cables, is changed to correspond with the numbers they are as- signed in the switchboard. They are then carried in switchboard cables over light steel framing to the "in- termediate distributing frame," which permits the dis- tribution of lines for answering purposes among the various operating positions of the switchboard in such a way as to maintain a proper load at each. Obviously the rate of calling in any group of lines is subject to great fluctuation, and it cannot be expected that the same numl)cr of lines which constitute a fair load to-day may I)e a fair load a month or six months hence. It is therefore necessary to have some method of giving part of the lines to another operator to an- swer without change of numbers, or, in other words, without altering their position in the multiple part of the board. This is accomplished through the inter- mediate. When it is considered that a uniform degree of high efficiency of operating is expected during the busiest hour of the busiest day in the year, it can be realized how important it is to provide a method for continually adjusting the number of the lines answered from each position. In the terminal room are also located the racks of relays which operate the various lamp signals in the switchboard ; tlie message registers which record the number of completed calls made by each message rate subscriber : the various generator units, and power Electrical Handbook 123 switchboard ; the storage battery which supplies all cur- rent for signalling the exchange, for operating the vari- ous switchboard signals, and for energizing the trans- mitters at the subscribers' stations ; and the thoroughly complete test board of the wire chief and his assistants. The tloor above the terminal room is given up to op- erators' quarters, where every provision which careful thought can suggest is made for their comfort. A large, well-ventilated room is provided, with individual lockers of open metal work, in wliich each operator keeps her wraps and belongings, and where she leaves her indi- vidual telephone and transmitter when going off duty. Across the front of the building is a large lounging and reading room, well provided with easy chairs, and couches. The tables are furnished with the latest maga- zines, and the operators on relief liave full opportunity to refresh themselves in mind and body. Adjoining this room is a comfortable dining room, completely equipped with table service and with attractive buffet arrangements, from which tea. coffee and milk are served without charge. The company has taken ac- count of the trying nature of the operators' work, and with the realization of the necessity for a contented, loyal body of employees, is leaving nothing undone which could contribute to the desired end. Another room on this floor is now being used for an operators' school, which is in itself a very interesting institution. Of the many applicants for the position of operator, a few of the most promising are accepted as students and are given a thorough course of theoretical and practical training in this school. After graduation they are well equipped to take a place at any of the company's switchboards. On the fourth floor is the exchange proper, and with its huge dimensions, lofty ceilings and abundant light, it would be difficult to imagine a place better adapted in any particular for the purpose for which it was designed. The switchboard, which is planned for an ultimate of 10,500 lines, is now equipped for 4,500. It is of the latest type of "relay" or "common battery" board, and strikes one as being almost human in its workings. 12^. Tlie Washington While frankly a manually operated board, it is so nearly automatic in its functions that the work of the operator has been reduced to the mere act of making the connec- tion with the desired number and pressing the button. At the cable turning section, where the cables come up from the intermediate frame, the board starts around the room in two directions, the "A" board, or subscrib- ■ers' sections, proceeding to the left, and the "B" board, or incoming trunk sections, going to the right. The ex- tent of the '■.\" sections will naturally depend upon the number of operators' positions required to answer the full number of lines provided for, which in turn depends largely upon the average of calling; but the growth of the '"B" sections will depend upon the development of other exchanges and the consequent increase of volume -of incoming traffic. The familiar principle of multiple switchboards, which requires that every line shall appear in its approx- imate jack once in every section, or within the reach of ■every operator, tlierc being three operators to each sec- tion, naturally fixes the limit of size of the switchboard in accordance with the size of the jacks and the com- pactness with which they can be placed in the board. The smallest jack now in use must be placed with in- credible compactness when one considers that at least three wires must be soldered to springs in the rear of each, to permit the operator to reach ten thousand of them. The process of operating, identical with that in all recent Bell exchanges, is briefly as follows : When the telephone is lifted from the hook at the subscribers" station a tiny lamp is lighted just above the "answering jack" with which ii is associated. The op- erator takes one of a pair of flexible cords and inserts the plug at the end in the answering jack indicated, automatically e.xtinguishing the light, while with her other hand she has thrown a "listening key" connecting her with the calling party. In much less time than it takes to tell it she has ascertained the number wanted, tested the line to see if it was in use by touching the tip Electrical Handbook 12i7 of the other pUig to tlic rim of the jack called, inserted the plug, pressed the ringing key in line with the cord nsed. and cleared out to handle another call. In the key shelf, or horizontal part of tlie switch- board, there are two supervisory lamps for each i)air of cords. When the operator plugged in to the called sub- scriber's jack, the lamp corresponding to that cord im- mediately lighted and remained so until the called party answered. When both parties hang up their receivers both supervisory lamps burn, and the operator discon- nects both cords. If only <>nc lamp should light, the operator would know that while one party was through talking the other still desired attention and would .ict accordingly. Selective ringing is provided for two and four-party lines, and the operator, by pressing the appropriate but- ton, can call any station on the line without ringing the other bells. By an ingenious device the last button in a series to be pressed is indicated, so that if the operator finds it necessary to ring again she docs not have to de- pend on her memory to know wliich station on the line was wanted. When a party in some other exchange is asked for, the operator presses a small l)utton, which connects her through what is known as an "order-up"' circuit with the "B" operator in the called exchange, and repeats the number. The "B" operator tests the line called for, and, if not in use. connects it with an idle trunk line be- tween the two exchanges, at the same time calling back the number of the trunk so assigned. The "A" operator then connects the calling subscriber with the designated trunk, and the connection is complete. The "B" op- erator presses the appropriate ringing key. which is held down by a magnetic clutch, causing the bell at the called station to ring intermittently until the lelei)hone is an- swered, when the mere act of lifting the receiver off the hook releases the magnetic clutch and stops the ringing. Abundant provision is made in the exchange for the manager and chief operator's desks, which are minia- ture switchboards in themselves and for the "informa- tion" and monitor operators. .Ml manner of informa- Electr i c a t Hand h o o k 127 tioii is kept posted up to the hour, and all inquiries as to new subscribers, changed lines, toll calls, etc., are promptly handled. Records arc kept of every station alphabetically according to subscribers' names, numer- ically, according to the call nmnbers, and l)y street ad- dresses. Each group of eight o])erators is in charge of a super- visor, who is constantly on the alert behind her group, seeing that all calls are promptly handled, and taking over from the operator any troublesome matter which may arise. Tn charge of the supervisors is the chief operator, who in turn reports to the manager, who is held responsible for the efficiency of the exchange at all times. The company's outside plant, as already indicated, is almost entirely underground. The cables are of the standard paper-insulated, lead-covered type, with usually 400 pairs of wires each. Each pair of wires is twisted at different intervals, and the separate pairs are laid up in a spiral fashion, the number of turns in a given length being determined with mathematical accuracy. Many of the cables terminate in multiple, so that any number of conductors may be used at any one of the several termi- nals, thus requiring a minimum of idle plant. In some sections, where the requirements arc still light, the lines are run in aerial cables of from 25 to lOO pairs, and these also open in the multiple at various points, in this way requiring very little open line even in the outlying sections. All station eiinipment is of the latest Bell type. A very large proportion of the stations are equipped with desk stands, and this attractive and convenient form of apparatus is seen wherever one goes. The desk tele- phones are usually wired as extension stations from the main telephone, which is centrally located for gen- eral use. It is frequently desired that all calls shall be received at the main station, and that the extension sta- tion shall only be signalled when the individual there is wanted. FAectr ica I Hand b o o I: 129 From one or two extension telephones the service natnrally grows to a private branch exchange, or, as a recent writer termed it, "a satellite exchange." In this system the principle of the exchange is applied to the subscriber's premises. As many stations as may be re- quired, on or ofif the ])remises, are wired to a small switchboard, which in turn is connected with the public exchange by two or more trunk lines. The whole is ideally flexible and can l)e adapted exactly to the sub- scriber's particular needs in every direction. The operator at the private branch exchange is one of the greatest business aids of the day. She not only facilitates outgoing trafiic. but acts as a most admirable selector and distributor of incoming calls. The advan- tage of having these calls always answered by a cour- teous, trained teleplione clerk, instead of ]\v any one who happens along, is being more and more generally appreciated. The internal traffic between the several stations of a private branch exchange is also of very great value in the conduct of any business. Private brancli exchange .service is seen everywhere in Wash- ington. Hotels and apartment houses are practically all so equipped, and, indeed, a telephone has come to be as much expected in a hotel room or in an apartment as electric light and steam heat. Thirty per cent. (30%) of all telephones in Washington are connected with private branch exchange switchboards. This proportion is ex- ceeded in only one city in the world. An interesting feature of the business in Washington is the .service supplied the Federal Government. Fach department has a complete private branch exchange sys- tem, designed especially to meet its various and indi- \i(lual requirements. In some cases the situation is met b}' a large numl)er of telephones, all connected to one .'witchboard ; in other departments there is one main switchboard with se\eral subsidiary switchboards in the various bureaus, each connected direct to the exchange of the telephone company, and all tied together with in- lernal trunks. The residences of some officials are con- nected with tlieir department boards. There are also direct lines IrdUi the various private branch exchanges 130 The Washington to the office of the long distance company, thus securing direct connection for long distance calls. The various departments of the Government are also connected with •each other by "tie lines." The result is a great self-contained system of over two thousand telephones, ideally meeting every possible demand for departmental and inter-departmental com- munication, as well as for local and foreign telephone service. The President can sit at his desk and be in instant communication with any member of his Cab- inet or with some one a thousand miles away. The head of a department can confer in a moment with his lieutenants in Washington or at distant points ; and clear down the line to the lowest clerk, business can be e.Kpedited in a way which was not dreamed of ten years ago. It might almo.st be said that the telephone wires are the nerves of the Government, enabling an impulse at the head to be felt instantly at the very ex- tremity. For the stranger, for the passer-by, for the man who cannot afford service, pay stations are everywhere, vary- ing in facilities from a single telephone in a corner drug store or grocery, attended by the proprietor, to the large installation in hotels, railway stations and other public places, equipped with several lines and booths, and attended b\- tb.e company's operators and messen- gers. In the country surrounding Washington a number of small exchanges have been established, with the object of completely covering the telephone field not onh- by meeting everj- present demand, but bj" placing facilities in advance of the requirements. To exchanges located outside of the District of Columbia a small toll charge is made. No additional charge is made, however, for calls to any exchange located in the District. Ample fa- cilities are provided for talking with all long distance points, and thoroughly efficient service at moderate charges has made the familiar phrase, ''Don't travel — telephone," a household word. Electrical Handbook 131 The company's rate scheme has gone tlirough a grad- ual evolution, and now seems as reasonable and flexible as can be expected under the present conditions. Busi- ness service is rendered only on the message basis, now universally regarded as the one equitable plan. The rate per call decreases as the number increases up to four thousand messages a year, which is considered the maximum number of out-going calls which can be sent, with due regard to the use of the line for incoming service. Flat rates are still offered residences, as the use of residence telephones is never excessive, and there is no danger of the line being used continually for out- going traffic to the exclusion of incoming calls. The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company is working constantly and with unceasing energj' to sup- ply a thoroughly efficient service at reasonable rates for every possible demand, and at the same time it is dili- gently preparing amply for all future requirements, no matter how rapidly they may develop. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (long distance) has its Washington offices at the corner of Fifteenth and F streets northwest. At these offices the company maintains, in addition to its operating room, a group of paj- station telephones, each telephone in a sound-proof booth, for the use of the general public. The company also has trunk lines connecting its switchboard with the different exchanges of the Chesa- peake and Potomac Company, thus enabling the sub- scribers to the Chesapeake and Potomac .service to get long distance connections at their own telephone sta- tions. August 19, 1904. U. S. Patent Office. Electrical II a n d b o o k 133 ELECTRICITY IN THE ARMY. VUX MOL'I'KJ-: lias said tliat war is tlic only science that lays under tribute all other sci- ences. Among all the other sciences used in the art of war, possibly none has had as ex- tended an application in recent days as that of elec- tricity. The electrical service of the army is divided into the service of communication, which includes all devices and apparatus for transmittin;^ intelligence — the cable, the telegrai)h, the telei)h()ne, and wireless teleg- raphy. In the fortifications light is needed for the magazines and galleries, searchlights to illuminate the channels and cover the torpedo fields and for night sig- nalling, and power to move the heavy guns, work the shot-hoists and all auxiliary machinery in the compli- cated plant of a modern fortification. After the various appliances and plants have been installed by the dif- ferent supply bureaus of the service, the artillery is charged with their operation and with the working of the submarine mine fields. The Engineer Corps of the army constructs all the gun emplacements and mining casemates, builds and installs the power plants, and furnishes motors and accessories for operating the shot- hoists and the searchlights. The Ordnance Depart- ment, in addition to furnishing the armament, provides motor-controlled systems for elevating and training the guns in azimuth ; and the Signal Corps of the army provides all the complicated apparatus for the system of fire control and direction of the liatteries in addition to its work of being charged with the general system of field communication for the army. The engineering conditions under which electricity is applied are essen- tially the same as in commercial practice, but are prose- cuted under conditions which of necessity must be more exacting and difficult. Efficiency and certainty of op- eration outweigh in the problem of design the cost of installation and economy of operation. Many ingc- 181^ The Washington nious means and metliods of the application (jf elec- tricity to the military service have been devised from time to time, but a large number proved of little value, as they have been either too complicated or too deli- cate. No device or apparatus which cannot survive lack of attention and skilled supervision, exposure to weather, rough handling in transportation, or the ef- fect of the blast of heavy guns, will prove of value at the critical moment of its use at the time of actual battle. Unfortunately for efficiency, the technical corps of an army is a very small proportion of its total strength, and the pay of the enlisted men is not sufficient to prove an inducement to men skilled in the use of electricity, who are much better paid for the same work in civil life, to enlist in our service. One of the greatest lim- itations of its development in the service has been lack of appreciation by Congress of its importance, and the conseciuent lack of necessary appropriations. The Signal Corps of the army is charged with tiie construction, repair and operation of military telegraph lines, and the duty of collecting and transmitting infor- mation for the army by telegraph or otherwise. While the importance and value of I'apid means -^f communication in the commercial world have been dem- onstrated by the experience of over one-half a century. and the enormous amounts of capital invested in the telegraph, telephone and cable, such means of com- munication are absolutely essential to success in mod- ern war. where time is one of the most important of controlling factors. Electricity is the most potent agent in our control to effect such a saving of time. The service of communication in the Signal Corps is divided into field and fortress work. For field work the telegraph, telephone, cable and wireless telegraphy are now employed. The Signal Corps of the army is at present operating a system of 3,000 miles of land line and 2.000 miles of cable in the Philippine Islands. 1,540 miles of land line which have been constructed in the past two years in face of the tremendous climatic and topographical dif- K lectrical II a n d h o o k 135 llctilties of A!ask;i, 600 miles of cable whicli connects the Alaska system with the United States, and opened on the 17th of Angiist of this year a wireless station across Norton Sound, which connects St. Michael with Cape Nome. The Signal Corps has developed a wire- less system of its own. Beginning in 1900. it had in operation the first successful system in tlie United States, and has succeeded in working the distance be- tween St. Michael and Cape Nome, no miles, after sev- eral failures of the commercial companies. In the .American armies, both of the North and the South, in the war of 186 1 to 1865, was the first applica- tion of the telegraph under war conditions. The ad- vantages and results proved so satisfactory that nearly all of the foreign ])owers have followed our methods, and the present modern system of field communication is but an amplification of the results obtained in that war. taking advantage of the engineering progress and the recent developments in the arts of telegraphy, tele- phony and cable working. The telephones used in fortress service are modifica- tions in design alone of the standard commercial types. Portability, simplicity, and mechanical strength are the essential features covering the design of all field tele- graph and telephone apparatus. While great progress has recently been made in the application of wireless telegraphy for the exchange of messages over water, its value for land communication, except in very exceptional cases, is quite problematical. The distances which as yet have been covered in land working are of comparatively short length, and its cer- tainty of operation without interference is as yet un- proved. The existing methods of communication have proved sufficient, especially as a field line, under ordi- nary circumstances, may be erected at the rate of from one to three miles an hour, depending upon the character of the ground. Whenever absolute syntonic working is achieved and interference by the enemy can be prevented, wireless telegraphy may have a valuable 136 T lie W a s hinrjio n field on land in the futnrc. but, at the present outlook, it is much more suited to the operations afloat than ashore. Before the outbreak of the war with Spain the cable operations of the Signal Corps were confined to main- taining the limited systems of cable communication be- tween the various forts in the harbors of this country. When the expedition arrived off the coast of Cuba, near Santiago, the French cable leading to that point was cut, and, to avoid delicate questions of neutrality, the first war cable ever laid by our government was run from Guantanamo to Siboney by the Signal Corps and connected with the military line to Shafter's headquar- ters, so that the White House was only twenty minutes in time away from the firing line in an enem>'s country. As soon as the Philippine Islands were occupied, inter-island communication became so essential that the Signal Corps was called upon to take up the question of deep-sea calile engineering. Apart from its value as a means of communication, the establishment of the Philippine cable system gave the American manufac- turers an opportunity to engage in the production of deep-sea cable, and has resulted in the establishment of such plants as will in future enable us to obtain at home this most important war material, and not place the government at the mercy of foreign producers, whose friendly interest cannot always be counted upon. In the earlier emplacements and batteries designed for sea-coast defense no provision was made for using elec- tricity, not because the desirability of its use was not considered or understood, but from a desire to mount as many guns at various localities as possible, using the very limited appropriations received from year to year for this purpose rather than for purposes not absolutely necessary. As the works for defense advanced, small available balances were expended for lighting batteries already completed or nearly so. Where the emplace- ments offered available room, such plants were installed in the battery; when such was not the case, small power-houses were constructed near the batteries for the purpose, and in some cases two or more batteries Electrical Handbook 137 were lighted from the same plant, hut this was rather unusual. Such plants were necessarily small, operated in some cases hy steam power, when the smokestack or steam escapement could give no possihle clue to an en- emy, hut in the majority of cases they were operated hy a gas engine. The lamps ranged in voltage from 80 to 100; generators, switchhoards. etc., were arranged to suit the particular conditions at the battery under con- sideration and the money available. These plants were provided with a small storage battery as a reserve, to obviate the necessity of operating the entire plant every time the lights were desired, and in their entirety were so simple that an intelligent enlisted man was able to operate them. The number of such plants installed was compara- tively small, and the suliject had been regarded as rather in an experimental stage, but sufficient experience had l)een had to warrant a serious consideration of the sul)ject, with a view to applying electricity in all gun batteries for furnishing light and also for supplying power to raise the projectiles of the larger calibred guns from tiie level of the magazines or shot rooms to the gun platforms. Thus far, it must be understood, the emplacement lighting and the power for operating the ammunition hoists were alone considered, so that the conditions that such installations were designed to meet were : Intermittent service, inexpert and non-contin- uous attendance, and exposure of the generator and switchboard apparatus to the moisture of the emplace- ments, since complete protection against all kinds of fire from a hostile fleet was advisable. While centralization was considered desirable, it was not to be carried beyond the limits within which the standard voltages of all parts of the system could be maintained with a reasonable expenditure of copper, so at some posts where the batteries were considerable distances apart there might be two or more plants. The power-houses were to be in one of the batteries, if room were available, or in a bomb-proof structure built for the purpose and to be divided; For steam 138 The W a shin (J to n plants, into rooms for l)oilcrs. for engines and genera- tors, and for accumulators ; for oil engines, into rooms for engine and dynamo, for cooling tanks, if required, and for accumulators. The oil engine has given con- siderable trouble where used, because the engine did not accommodate itself quickly to fluctuations in the load, and on account of the impossibility of securing men in the immediate vicinity competent to take care of the engine and to make repairs in case of an acci- dent or injury. Consequently the steam plant was ad- vocated. The considerations governing the problem are as fol- lows : 1. The greatest probability that the plant would be ready for service at any future time, having in view simplicity of design and freedom from deterioration. 2. Uniformity of methods of operation and of meth- ods of construction, so far as the latter involved the former. 3. Econoni}' of operation. 4. Economy of first cost. 5. High commercial efficiency. A vertical boiler and a generating set. consisting of a vertical high-speed engine direct-connected to a direct current, compound-wound, multipolar dynamo, the en- gine and dynamo resting on a common bed-plate, are adopted for all future installations. Reserves in the form of accumulators \yere installed in all batteries of 6-inch calibre guns or greater, their capacity to be de- termined by the lighting load only, without reference to the power load represented by motor-driven ma- chinery, as the hand-operating devices are in themselves a satisfactory reserve. Reserves for the batteries to the smaller guns are made portable. The reserves are distributed so that a single accident or injury will not disable both the generator and the reserves at the same time, and also in order that any injury to outside wir- ing leads to the central generating plant could not dis- able the reserves. Under these conditions the reserves are distributed among the various batteries, the reserve Electrical Handbook 139 for eacli battery beiiiy sufficient in capacity for the lighting load of the particular battery with which it was connected. While uniformity is considered desirable in all parts of the installation, it is the general opinion that the identical arrangement and operation of all switchboards is so very desirable that it will be insisted upon in all future constructions. The chief reciuirements are a dry and clean situation, high insulation and protective ap- pliances, and the reduction of the number of manipula- tions required to the lowest possible limit. Overhead wires are advocated wherever they can be oI)scured from the enemy's view, and for this purpose ordinary weather-proof wire WMth high-grade insulators on stout poles is the practice. Tf the conditions of the ground are such tiiat an aerial line cannot be concealed from view, tlie cables are placed underground, carried in well-laid vitrified conduit at a depth sufficient to give ample cover. The importance of the searchlight up to 1901 had not been fully appreciated, and though they were provided at the various defenses for the purpose of guarding the mine fields against a night attack, their use in connec- tion with the batteries had received but little considera- tion. As a result of maneuvers, the necessity of search- lights as an adjunct of defense was established and an- other factor was introduced. Future plants would have to furnisli sufficient power not only for emplacement work, but also for searchlights, and this addition re- quired an increase in the capacity of the machines to meet the greater demand. Thus far the plants installed were used for emplace- ment work only, the storage batteries were charged and discharged at stated intervals and, as noted above, the service was intermittent. The plants were in the hands of the Artillery Corps, and the officers desired to avail themselves of these plants for lighting their quarters and posts, thereby insuring, by their constant use, bet- ter care. .\s a result the War Deparement authorized the use of such plants, if of sufficient size to do this 14-0 Tlie Wa sliington work, by the Quartermaster's Department when author- ized by the Chief of Engineers, "provided that the needs of defense shall have precedence over post lighting or power supply in any case in which both uses are simultaneously desired." It was further ordered that in future, when funds permitted, the Engineer Depart- ment should construct such ducts, service wires, etc., as might be necessar\' to deliver current to the buildings and to the exterior lights. The Quartermaster's De- partment was to wire the buildings, furnish the exterior lamps and to supply all plants used for post lighting with the necessary materials and funds for their repair and preservation. A third service was thereby imposed. The Quartermaster's Department and the Artillery Corps desired for such lighting of posts low potential service throughout, mainly on the ground of simplicity and because of the character of labor that was to be employed in operating the plant ; a centrally-located plant, due consideration being had to protection against hostile fire, accessibility for supplies, etc. : that the plant be sufficiently large for doing all the work connected with the fortifications, and alternateh' for post and building lighting (in other words, the larger of these two services would govern the size, assuming direct- current machines to be used) ; that the generator unit be subdivided, thereby providing two engines and gen- erators, so that in case of injury to either half the other would be available for the more necessary purposes; and. finall\% that all wires be underground rather than overhead, in order to reduce the cost of maintenance. With these additional services the original conditions were changed. The fullest possible electrical demand at any military post will embrace, therefore : 1. Searchlight service. 2. Emplacement service. 3. Garrison service. And the engineer officer must design his plant for these three services. The searchlight service requires current for a number of searchlights to be used in conjunction with the bat- Electrical Handbook 1^1 teries placed in tlieir vicinity. The nunibcr and size of these lights for any particular post is definitely known in advance. The fortitication service requires current for lights in the various rooms of each emplacement, on each gun- platform, in the range-finding stations ; current for power to work the motors for ammunition service, for transferring, elevating and depressing the guns and to operate a machine shop for minor repairs to the guns and carriages, and, finally, current for the recently adopted telautograph system connecting the range- finding stations with each other and with their re- spective batteries. The garrison service requires current for lighting the grounds and buildings, including barracks, quarters, hos- pitals, store houses, etc.. which may be in close prox- imity to the batteries or at considerable distance from them, depending on the size and configuration of llio reservation. In general, the use of aerial mains and branclu-; for garrison lighting, in conformity with the prevailing prac- tice of low potential current distribution in all but the largest cities, is regarded as feasible in cases where un- derground mains would be unduly expensive. A system of submarine mines usually involves sta- tionary torpedoes planted under water, anchors fcr holding them in position, cables for connecting them electrically with the shore, and operating apparatus in a sheltered position on shore. By far the greater part of all submarine mines are electrically operated from the shore. This follows di- rectly from a consideration of the conditions to Le met in devising a system of mines. It is very desirable for a mine to explode automatically when struck by a hos- tile vessel ; but it is equally desirable for it not to ex- plode if it is struck by a friendly vessel : the defense should also be able to explode the mines at will from the shore, in case a hostile vessel comes near; but seems likely to miss them. All these things are rendered pos- sible by mines electrically operated from the shore. 14-2 The Washington Coming new to the electrical arrangements, if firing were bj' judgment alone, nothing would be needed but a circuit from the firing battery through the detonators in the torpedo to earth, with a firing key in the case- mate. Even very defective insulation would not inter- fere with the workings of the system, if the battery was enduring and sufiicientlj- powerful. It would interfere with the daily tests, however, because of the variations in resistance which would occur even if no leaks or other defects developed in the torpedo itself. If tiring is by contact alone, the necessarj- arrangements are a little more complex. In order to admit of daily electrical tests — which must include the circuit through the detonators to be of any value — -there must be a continuous circuit through the torpedo: it must be of high resistance; so that even if the tiring batterj- is on. it cannot fire the mine. There must be a circuit-closer in series with the detonators, and in parallel with the high resistance. When the mine is struck, the circuit-closer acts, and opens up a circuit of lower resistance through the de- tonators. It is assumed that the detonators are of the tj'pe having a continuous bridge of fine wire, surround- ed by some fulminating substance, and designed for a relatively large current under moderate e. m. f. This is the most certain and reliable form, and is always easy to obtain. If the firing battery is on. the torpedo should explode when the circuit-closer acts. It is desirable, however, to know whether a torpedo is struck, or whether its circuit-closer acts from any other cause, even if the mine is not to be fired. ^lore- over, it is objectionable to keep the cables under such high voltage as is necessary in a firing battery. It therefore becomes desirable to have another battery of very constant e. m. f. always on the circuit. Its e. m. f. and all the resistances in circuit should be so propor- tioned that normallj- a tiny current is always flowing; but when a circuit-closer acts, this current should in- crease to such a point that it will drop a signal, show- ing to which triple group the torpedo belongs, and also close ihe circuit ol the firing batterv through the cor- Electrical Handbook l^-J resijonding cal)le core. In case the torpedo is fired, tlic explosion may cause tlie circuit-closers of neighbor- ing mines to act. and tliu^ the whole system might go up, seriatim. To prevent this, some device is needed which will allow the firing current to flow long enough to e.xplode certainly the mine that is struck, hut which will break it immediately thereafter, and keep it broken long enough for neighboring mines to right themselves. It should be remarked here that if ground mines are used for automatic tiring, the circuit-closer must be carried in a buoy, similar in form to a buoyant torpedo, anchored to the ground mine, and having an electrical connection with it ; so that, with ground mines, the re- quirements are the same as with buoyant mines. It will readily be seen that to accomplish all the above objects a more or less complicated set of apparatus is required. It is a good plan so to arrange the signal drops that when they fall they will close a bell circuit, thus causing a bell to ring continuously until the signal is raised: it is also well for the device which cuts off the firing battery after an explosion to ring a bell as long as the firing circuit is open ; this gives reasonable assurance that a mine has exploded, even if in the noise of a battle the explosion itself is not heard; pilot lights would do as well as a bell. It is also well to have a very feeble battery for testing purposes only; thus it will be already seen that there may be as many as five separate circuits to provide for in the operating case- mate. In addition there may be one more ; if a tor- pedo is struck and fired, the end of the cable leading to it will form an earth which, if not cut out, might be sufficiently good to keep throwing the firing battery on ; it would so alter the resistances as to interfere seriously with the proper working of the system, at any rate. At the triple junction-box, a fuse could be inserted, able to carry the firing current, but susceptible of being blown by a more powerful one to be applied as soon as the other mines of the group have righted themselves. If now we assume that a small engine and dynamo are 7.^4 ^'^^ ^ W a s Ji i n g 1 n used in connection with storage batteries to supply cur- rent to the various circuits, it will readily be seen that the switchboard proljJem in the casemate is not a sim- ple one. If, in addition to automatic tiring, it is desired to use judgment firing, it should be possible to switch out the high resistance in the mine, or else have this resistance in the form of the primary of an induction coil, with additional detonators in its secondary- circuit; in this case, an intermittent or alternating current of high potential and small volume flowing in the primary would induce a firing current in the secondary. A whole triple group would then be fired, and the corre- sponding core of the multiple cable would be detached from the operating apparatus altogether, until such time as the mines could be replaced. In purely automatic firing, the high resistance might be omitted altogether, but then a break in the cable core would give the same indication as a mine in norm.il condition; and the torpedo itself might be filled witn water and sunk to the bottom without the fact being discovered. The daily tests consist in measuring the resistances of the various circuits and testing all movable parts in the operating casemate. Damage to the system always affects these tests, and the expert electrician in charge must learn to infer from his tests what is the probable nature of the damage. It will readily be seen that except for purely judg- ment firing, the insulation resistance of cables and joints must be very high, and must remain so. Details of ap- paratus actualh- in use have been omitted, because they are classed as confidential : but enough has been said to show to an electrical engineer that submarine mining presents some problems that demand serious attention. Not the least of these is the problem of junction-boxes which will allow of rapid jointing work of a quality sufficiently good to withstand submersion in sea water for months at a time. Another serious problem is the cable itself. It takes time to make it. If it is kept in store, either wet or dry, the insulation becomes brittle Electrical Handbook 7.^.7 and when the cable is unwound frr)ni tlie reels, in lay- ing, the insulation cracks. Hitherto the cable used for this purpose has been insulated, taped, and armored. While the work has been of a high grade, it seems to .some of the best authorities the army must soon come to the use of cable having a lead covering outside of the in- sulation and steel wire armor outside of the lead. Then, as long as the lead is intact, cracks in the insula- tion will be of no consequence. But this form of cable again will be heavier, harder to handle, more difficult to splice, and considerably more expensive than the ar- mored cable without the lead. Even after the details of a system of mines are sat- isfactorily worked out. the planting is a very serious matter and always will be, unless we discover some way of controlling and firing the mines by induction, without electrical connections from the shore, thus eliminating the cable. Perhaps the development of wireless telegraphy may ultimately make this possible. Dome of thk Capitol. Electrical Handbook 1/^1 ELECTRICITY IN THE NAVY. TJIIC use of electricity aboard modern naval vessels is so extensive that to interrupt the supply dur- ing action would mean certain defeat for a ves- sel were she matched against any vessel which approached her equal. The best manner in which to convey an adequate con- ception of the extended and important application of electricity aboard naval vessels is to give a general de- scription of the c(|nipnicnt of a modern battleship. The Connecticut and Louisiana, the two i6,ooo-ton battleships now under construction, the former at the New York Navy Yard, the latter at the works of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, represent the latest type of battleship, greater in dis- placement than any heretofore designed for our navy and carrying heavier armament than any warship now afloat, either in our navy or abroad. The main battery consists of four u-inch, eight 8-inch, and twelve 7-inch breech-loading rifles. The 12-inch guns are mounted two each in a forward and after tur- ret, the 8-inch guns two in each of four turrets arranged one at each corner of a rectangle, or what is commonly known as quadralateral turrets, the 7-inch guns are each in a separate armored compartment on the gun deck. The secondary battery consists of twenty 3-inch (14- pounder) rapid-fire guns, twelve 3-pounder, seven auto- matics, and numerous guns of smaller calibre. These battleships have been designed to carry two complete and independent electric plants each capable of handling the entire load which may be required in ac- tion. The electric applications aboard ship are divided into three distinct classes: (i) Illumination, (2) power for driving auxiliaries, (3) signalling or communication. The lighting system is installed as two distinct sys- tems, each having separate feeders and mains and known l-ffS The Wa s king t on as the "Battle Service" and "Lighting Service."' The battle service comprises all lights below the protective deck, including those in engine and fire rooms, maga- zines, store rooms, and the like; all lights at guns, am- munition hoists, winches, cranes and other auxiliaries whose operation may be required during action: signal- ling lights, the ship's running lights, and only sufficient other lights in passages to afford convenient access to the various portions of the ship. When necessary to install a light in a location which might render it visible by the enemy, a "battle lantern" is used, this lantern being fitted with a sliding screen which allows the light to shine only over an arc of about 90 degrees, and can be entirely screened if required, this feature being identi- cal with that of the ordinary bull's-eye or dark lantern. The battle service will efficiently light all parts of the ship subject to access during action, and all other auxil- iaries whose manipulation and operation during action is essential, but at the same time to shield all lights against external visibility. The lighting service includes all lights not included in the battle service, such as lights in state rooms, offices, mess rooms, crews' spaces, and the like, and also sup- plies current to the desk and bracket fans in officers" quarters. To efficiently light each of these vessels re- quires the use of eleven hundred fixtures, of which about 730 are on the battle service, the remainder being on the lighting service. The fixtures used are simple in design and neat in ap- pearance, the types most used being the steam tight globe and the ceiling fixture. These consist of a casting which has a boss into which the conduit carrying the wires taps, and a knuckle thread into which the glass globe screws, the lamp socket being secured to the cast- ing by machine screws, a rubber gasket intervening. The steam-tight globe is protected by a stout metal guard, as shown in the illustration. This type of fixture is made in three t3'pes, differing only in the method of support ; that shown in Fig. i is the bulkhead type and is secured by a bracket cast in one with the conical -cap, the other types being the drop type, which is supported by the con- Electrical If and book J//9 diiit alone, and the deck type, in which the conduit en- ters the fixture from the side instead of the top, the fix- ture l)einfi' supported l)y a I)racket cast across the top of the conical caj). The cei!in,u' fixture is use'd in passages arf)und the of- ficers' quarters, in recepti(^n cabins, mess rooms, and the like, and is the standard overhead light for all locations, in which the fixture is not liable to injury. The steam- tight globe is used in engine and fire rooms, ammunition passages, store rooms, and is the standard fixed light for all locations where the fixture is subject to injury. Six hand-control projectors, or search-lights, will be installed. These will be located, one on a platform at the base of the fore topmast, two on the ("lying bridge, one on a platform at the base of the main topmast, and two on a platform on the mainmast well above the after bridges. Each projector will be equipped with a hori- zontal lamp designed for both hand and automatic feed. Each light will operate on a 125-volt circuit in series with a regulating rheostat, with 60 volts across the arc. Motors will be used for the following purposes: (a) To drive ventilating fans and blowers, (b) carrying am- munition from magazines to hoists, (c) hoisting ammu- nition, id) turning turrets, (e) elevating and depressing gun. (/) ramming .shells into the breech of guns, (g) to operate deck winches, ( /; ) to operate boat cranes, (/) to whip ammunition from the main deck to the bridge and military tojis. ( k ) for laundry machinery, (/) for driving tools and in machine shop, (hi) for op- erating automatic power doors, (») for operating fresh water pumps and sanitary pumps, (o) for driving air compressors for charging torpedoes. The ventilating system comprises thirty- three fixed fans, varying in size from those requiring a fraction of a horse-power each for their operation to 80-inch steel plate fans requiring 11 horse-power each. Each of the above fans will be driven by its own independent shunt- wound electric motor, direct-connected, the control panel containing the usual starting resistance fitted with automatic overload and no voltage release. All fans are designed to deliver their specified amount of air at a 1'50 The Washington pressure of i ounce when running at normal speed, but are capable of being driven at about double normal speed, in which case the air is delivered at a pressure of lyz ounce. The speed control is effected by varying the resistance except for the smaller fans, in which case re- sistance in series with the armature will control the speed. In addition to the above, each ship will be supplied with six small portable electric fans, each consisting of a J4 horse-power series motor mounted on a common shaft with an exhauster which it drives at a speed of about 2,200 revolutions per minute, causing a delivery of about 500 cubic feet of air per minute (free exhaust). These sets are very compact, the overall dimensions being about 18x18x12, and weigh approximately 100 pounds. They are used for temporary ventilation when necessary to work in such localities as are not reached by the main ventilating system, such as double bottoms, in- side of boilers and the like. Each of these sets is sup- plied with two 25-foot lengths of canvas hose with couplings permitting of attachment to inlet and outlet of exhauster or to attach together, forming a 50-foot length, which can be connected to either the inlet or the outlet of the exhauster. The officers' quarters, wardrooms and the like are lib- erally fitted with desk and bracket fans, the former being 12 inches in diameter, rated at 1-12 horse-power, the latter 16 inches in diameter rated at 1-6 horse-power. Forty-five of the former and eight of the latter will be installed on each vessel. At a comparatively recent date a ship's ventilating system consisted of a few large-sized blowers, generally located in pairs with large main ducts having many turns, bends and with branches leading to the various compartments This system required an excess in air pressure at the fan in order to maintain a certain head at the discharge outlet, owing to the loss by friction of the pipes and to the indirect leads of the main ducts. Many of the principal water-tight bulkheads were pierced by the ducts and this necessitated the use of valves so installed as to be of convenient operation. Electrical Handbook lol which could lie closed in an emergency to maintain the water-tightness of the various compartments below the water line. All leads through the protective deck re- quired armored bars or gratings in the openings. The ventilating systems of the Connecticut and Louis- iana are so designed as to minimize the number of leads through the protective deck, and in no instance is any one of the principal water-tight bulkheads pierced by a ventilating duct. The flexibility of this system employ- ing a number of small units as compared with a few large ones, possesses many advantages which are at once apparent, and the installation of such a system is only rendered possible by the use of the electric drive. Conveyor motors are used for carrying ammunition from the magazines, along the passages to the base of the ammunition hoists. Four conveyors will be installed, two leading aft from the forward magazines, one on the port side and one on the starboard side, and two leading forward from the after magazines, one port and one starboard. Each conveyor will be about 80 feet long and will consist of two endless sprocket chains with metal aprons and stiflfeners at suitable intervals. Motors, one to each conveyor, will be shunt wound, reversible, of about 5 horse-power, and will drive through gearing. Twenty-six endless chain ammunition hoists, each driven by a 3 horse-power motor, will deliver the am- munition from the lower passage to the /-inch guns and secondarj' battery. These are in addition to the ammu- nition hoists for the turret guns. All the main battery guns will be supplied by hoists leading direct from the lower passages. Init certain guns of the secondary bat- tery are so located as to require the ammunition being hoisted first to the berth deck, then carried along to other hoists and raised to the upper deck at the gun locations. The new arrangement of the main broadside battery, wherein bj' means of a center line armor bulkhead on the gun deck and suitably located transverse armored bulkheads, each of the twelve 7-inch guns is located in a separate armored compartment, renders imperative a separate ammunition supply for each gun. On former 152 T h e \V a .s Ji i n g t o n vessels llic main hroaclside haltcry was installed in a more or less open compartment, which would render possible the supplying- of ammunition to more than one gun from the same hoist, 'idle new arrangement in which a gun would he temporarily rendered hors de combat hy a failure of its individual ammunition hoist adds to the importance of this electrical application and the reliance which must be placed in the electric motor and in the ability of the ship's plant to furnish the neces- sary power under any and all conditions. Each amnumiton hoist motor will be shunt wound, reversible, enclosed, dust and moisture tight, with suit- able openings (fitted with water-tight covers) to allow inspection and adjustment to brush rigging and the like. Motors will be geared to the ammunition hoist sprock- ets, each armature shaft being litted with a solenoid brake, which will set automatically and prevent turning of the armature in case of failure of the line voltage. Each of the six turrets with its respective pair of guns will be equipped for electrical rotation. This wdll be done by fitting each turret with two motors of equal capacity, either one of which will be capable of operating the turret in case of failure on the part of the other, al- though normally they will both operate in parallel. For the i2-inch turrets two motors of not less than 25 horse- power will be installed in each, and for the 8-incli tur- rets, two motors of not less than 15 horse-power will be installed in each. The Ward Leonard system of control will be used. A motor-generator, designed for comparatively high speed and consequently compact and not over-heavy, will be installed in the barbette of each turret. The motor end will be connected direct to the main power bus-bars of the main switchboard. The generator terminals are led direct to the turning motor terminals, the field of the generator end of the motor generator being led through a variable resistance, the latter being controlled by the turret operator. It will be readily seen that the motor, having a separately ex- cited field, will run at a speed proportional to the im- pressed armature voltage, the latter being dependent on Electrical H an d bo o k loS the I'lold curre'iit of the generating set, wliich is con- trolled hy the turret operator; and furthermore, the motor speed will he delinite for any fixed position of the controller handle, and that speed will he maintained iigainst any and all variations of load, due to friction, listing of the ship, the impact of a shell, up to the point where ,i fuse hlows or a circuil-hreaker is thrown. Each turret gun is moimted on trunnions and elevated or depressed to the proper angle hy means of an electric motor. As the gtuis are halanced on the trunnions, the elevating or gun training motors merely have to over- come the friction load ; or in case a shell is inserted in the hreech of the gun prior to the elevation of the gun to the proper angle, the training motor is suhjected to a load in excess of the friction load in depressing the muz/le, and a load smaller than the friction load if ele- vating the muzzle, luich 12-inch gun will he equipped with a 5 horse-power gun-elevating motor, and each S- ir.ch gun with a J. 5 horse-power gun-elevating motor. These mo::rs will be shunt wound, reversible, enclosed, waterproof, with the usual hand holes for inspection. Rheostatic control will be used. For rannning the shells into the I)recch of the 12-inch and cS-inch guns, a "rammer motor" is installed, one for each gun. These motors are series wound and subject to loads which are largely in one direction. They oper- ate the rammer through a friction drive so adjusted that in case the shell is set home before the motor is stopped, the clutch will slip before the motor draws sufficient cur- rent to throw the circuit-breaker. F.ach 12-inch gun will be equipped with a 7 horse-power rannner motor and each 8-inch gun with a 5 horse-power rannner motor. Each turret gun has its individual ammuniton hoist, which works on the principle of cables or hoisting ropes winding on and off a drum which is actuated by an electric motor. The motors will be operated through a controller with a single handle which will allow sudden reversal ; the carrying of the load in either direction ; the automatic locking of the drum against rotation in either direction, when the current supply is cut oflf, and the operation of the motor when under any load on each of 7.74 The Wa shi n (/ton five speeds, l-'or the 12-inch guns the motors must han- dle a load of a))out 3,200 pounds, and will l)e of about 30 horse-])o\ver each. For the S-inch guns the motors must handle a load of about 1,000 pounds, and will be about 8 horse-power each. Each ship w'ill be fitted with six double-headed winches, two forward on the main deck, two on the up- per deck in the waist of the ship, and two well aft on ihe quarter deck. These winches will be used in coaling ship, handling anchors and in stowing cargo. Each winch will be operated by a 25 horse-power motor. These motors will be series wound, reversible, enclosed, w'ater-tight, and designed to withstand strains due to in- crease of speed on sudden removal of the load. The two forward main deck winches must each be capable of hoisting a 2,200-pound load at a speed of 300 feet per minute, and the same load at a speed of 30 feet per minute ; the tw-o upper deck winches to hoist 2,2iyj pounds load at a speed of 300 feet per minute, the quar- ter deck winches to hoist a 2,200-pound load at 300 feet per minute, and a 13,200-pound load at 50 feet per min- ute. Specifications allow an option between gearing and electric devices for obtaining the necessary speed varia- tions. Two l>oat cranes will l)e used to handle the ship's boats and launches, of which each ship carries a suffi- cient number to float her entire complement of over 800 men. The cranes will be electrically operated with sep- arate motors for hoisting and for rotating. Crane re- quirements specify a hoist of 33,000 pounds at a speed of 25 feet per minute, and a rotation at the rate of one revo- lution per minute, while carr^'ing the above load and with the sliip lieeled to 10 degrees. Motors will be en- closed, water-tight and reversible, the hoisting motor being series wound. Hoisting motors will be about 50 horse-power each, and rotating motors about 30 horse- power each. Both motors will be located on a platform which revolves with the crane. The revolution em- bracing a complete rotation, it will be necessary to lead the electric wires to the crane motors through contact Electrical Handbook 155 riiijj^ rind hrii^lics; the former will pmhahly lie on the rotating crane, the latter heing the terminals of the feeder. Laundry machinery will be electrically driven hy an enclosed motor of about lO horse-power. The machinery workshop of each vessel will include a 48-inch extension gap lathe, a 14-inch lathe, a 15-inch stroke column shaper. a vertical drill press, a 16-inch sensitive drill, a universal milling machine, a combined hand punch and shears, an emery grinder with two 12-inch wheels, and a 30-inch grindstone. All the machine tools will be elec- trically driven, either direct-connected or through shaft- ing, and will require from 10 to 15 horse-power. All doors leading between boiler rooms, between en- gine rooms, between boiler and engine rooms, from boiler rooms into bunkers, at the ends of the main am- munition passages and the like, and the main hatches through the protective deck, both fore and aft — in all forty-two doors and five armor hatches — will be worked on a power system. Each such door or hatch will be capable of operation on the spot^ by hand or by power, from either side of the bulkhead or deck, and all must be capable of being closed by power simultaneously from an emergency station, which will probably be located in the pilot house. If electrically operated doors are used, a I horse-power motor will be installed at each door and hatch, forty-seven in all. If pneumatic power is used, a motor-driven air compressor will supply the energy-. In the latter case the motor will be automatically stopped and started by pneumatic operation of the controller. An indicator at the emergency station will enable the operator to determine wliether any door or hatch is open or closed. Two 2 horse-power motors, driving centrifugal pumps. will be used in connection with the fresh water system for circulation between the distiller and the various tanks. Motors will be automatically stopped and started by means of floats operating the controllers. Two 6 horse-power motors, driving centrifugal pumps, will be used in connection with the salt water sanitary service or flushing. UPHRATING Room, Wireless Telegraph Fig. I. Elect rica I Ha n d b oo k 157 A wireless telegraph outfit will be supplied of the latest and most approved type. A typical operating room is shown in Fig. i, the arrangement of apparatus being perhaps somewhat more compact than would be followed in shore installations ; but, as all space on a battleship is at a premium, a more liberal assignment of room for this equipment cannot be made. The "aerial" can be seen coming through deck overhead through a heavy ebonite insulator. The "ground" is obtained by connect- ing direct to the hull of the ship. An extensive application of electrical apparatus will be found in the systems of communication aboard these vessels. About ninety voice pipes will be installed, most of which will be fitted with suitable electric calling de- vices in the shape of push l)uttons. bells, buzzers and annunciators. A liberal disposition of push buttons in the officers' quarters allow the calling of the various pantries, order- lies, messengers and the like, to the various state rooms, cabins, officers and mess rooms as required. A telephone system comprising some twenty-five lines, running to a central station, will be installed. In addition several pri- vate lines are installed, such as between navigator's stateroom and djmamo rooms, between chief engineer's state room and engine room, between surgeon's state room and dispensary, and the like. In the various living spaces of each ship, single-stroke electrically-operated gongs, 12 inches in diameter, are installed. These gongs can be operated all simultaneous- ly, from either the captain's state room, pilot house, conning tower, or executive officer's state room. The circuit closers are automatic in operation and ring the gongs continuously for thirty seconds when set in mo- tion. These signals, known as general alarm gongs, are used for calling the men to quarters. Located in spaces below the protective deck and at the main hatches leading below this deck, warning signals, or water-tight door alarms, are installed. These consist of solenoids operating a plunger in such a manner as to force air through a whistle, which gives forth a shrill sound. These warning signals are all capable of being 158 T It e Washington operated either from the quarter deck or the pilot house. They are used to give the signal for closing all water- tight doors and hatches, which is done when danger from collision or other cause is imminent. Thermostats are installed in all coal hunkers and magazines and all storerooms containing comhustible material. They consist of a helical metal coil having a high temperature coefficient. This coil is mounted with one end free, in such a manner that the torsional efifect produced by a slight rise in temperature causes a slight displacement of the free end. This closes an electric circuit, which leads to a drop on an annunciator located under the eye of the captain's orderly. These thermo- stats are enclosed in a heavy composition case and are sufficiently strong to allow their installation in any por- tion of a coal bunker. It is customary- to install them well down in the bunkers at about the depth which ex- perience dictates is most subject to spontaneous combus- tion., Coal bunker and store room thermostats are set for 200 degrees F., and magazine thermostats for about 100 degrees F. A total of 171 thermostats will be in- stalled on each vessel, of which about 70 will be in coal bunkers and 67 in store rooms, each group being on a separate annunciator. Electric revolution indicators will be installed in the pilot house and conning tower for signalling the number of revolutions of each main engine shaft. These indi- cators will be of the "tick-tack" type, each revolution of the shaft closing the circuit through an electric magnet on the indicators, which in turn draws down its arma- ture and causes a pointer to vibrate through an angle of about 30 degrees. Each indicator has a pointer and magnet for "ahead" and "astern," corresponding to "for- ward" and "reverse" rotation of the engines. Electric engine telegraphs located in the pilot house and in the conning tower, with indicators in each engine Electrical Handbook 159 room, will ]>crniit slij^ht variations in speed to be sig- nalled. These inNtriiments are of the "lamp" tj'pe. and consist of 5 candle-power electric lamps arranged in separate compartments, over the face of which are brass templets with the desired order cut through. By illu- minating the lamp in any comi)artment, which is done by closing the circuit at the transmitter, the light shines through the letters or figures on the dial or the brass templet and indicates the desired order. Helm order telegraphs located in the pilot house and conning tower, with indicators at all steering stations, will permit of electrically signalling to the helmsman the desired helm angle. These instruments are similar in construction to the engine telegraphs, except that the markings and the number of indications are different. Electric rudder indicators of the lamp type, located at all steering stations and connected to a transmitter on the rudder head, will indicate the angle at w'hich the rudder is set, and acts as a check in determining if an order transmitted to the helmsman hy the helm order telegraph has been carried out. For each turret ammunition hoist an indicator will be installed which will .show the operator in the turret when the ammunition car is loaded and ready for hoist- ing, and also during the lowering of the car, when it is approaching the lower limit of travel. These indications \\\\\ consist of lamps in view of the turret operator, which are automatically lighted and extinguished by contacts operated by the passage of the ammuniton car. The top of each mast will be fitted with a double truck light, which consists of two 32 candle-power lamps mounted one in a red and the other in a white lens. Both truck lights will be controlled by one "double- truck light controller" located on the forward bridge. This controller permits the illumination of either light on either truck, which light can be pulsated by means of a pulsator on the side of a controller. These lights are 160 T Ji e W a s hi n r/t on used to signal when cruising in squadron formation. A white light signals "steaming ahead." a pulsating of white light "slowing down ;" a red light, "engines stopped;" a red light pulsating, "going astern." Each ship will carry two night signalling sets. These sets consist of four douljle lanterns suspended on a lad- der from an outrigger near the truck of each mast. Each lantern consists of two ^^2 candle-pnwer lamps mounted in pressed glass Fresnel lenses, one lamp of each double lantern being mounted in a red lens, the others in a white lens. The lanterns will be spaced 12 feet apart. By means of a suitable keyboard on the bridge, the red or the white light in any or all lanterns or any combination of red and white lights on the four lanterns (only one light on each lantern) can be illu- minated. By means of a pre-arranged code of signals, messages can be transmitted to any station within range of visibility of the lights. The use of two night signal- ling .sets, one suspended from the foremast swinging outboard to port, the other from the mainmast swinging outboard to starboard, permits signalling to any station regardless of its bearing to the ship's head ; whereas with only one night signalling set the relative location of the ship and the station to which it is desirous of signalling might be such that the mast from which the lanterns are suspended would intercept the path of the light and ren- der the signal indiscernible. The keyboard is mounted on a pedestal and is enclosed in a case with a hinged cover. The apparatus is similar in appearance to a type- writer keyboard, and the depression of a single key dis- plays the desired combination of lights. A cable of 16 conductors running to the lanterns enters the keyboard through a detachable water-tight coupling. A summation of the electric auxiliaries on each ship with the probable maximum current required by each group, both for "in action" and for "cruising efficiency" is given in the following table. In estimating current required for the various motors, efficiencies varying from 80 per cent, up have been assumed, depending on the size of the motor : Electrical Handbook 161 Name oi" Appliance. Incandescent fixtures Arc lamps 30-inch search lights Hans, 1-12-H. P Fans, I 6H. P Port. vent, sets i^-H P.... Interior communications. I .^ I (13 ^ Total. Main vent blowers Amraunitioii carriers Ammunition hoists, chain ... Ammunition, turrets, 12" guns Ammunition, turrets, 8" guns Gun elevating motors, 12" guns I Gun elevating motors, 8" guns Gun rainmermotors.i2"guns Gun rammer motors, b" guns Turret turning motors, 12" guns Turret turning motors, 8" guns Smoke blowers Deck winches Boat cranes, hoisting Boat cranes, rotating Whip hoi.sts Laundry motor Machine shop motor Powder door and hatches Fresh water pumps Sanitary pumps .Air compressors -% to 10 4 3 30 8 2Y2 7 5 Total. c - 3-- 800 01 10 O O I 700 550 4001 270 35 35 2| 450 450 45 23 S' si 6' 18 25 O C8 z o 4 26 4 8 4 8 4 8 4 8 12 ■■■■■(S 2 .....^ 2 I 47 2 2 2 1 8851 630 33 950 950' 6301 120' I20| I50I 570! 570 ■ ' 800 800 450 450 285 140 140 70 i6o| 160 80 2001 200 * 280 280, * 670 335 1 70 840 420 210 50 50 25 1000 660 400 1301 130 65 70 70 35°! 35°; 120 30 80 840' 840; 840 194 178 49'9969'5i93l3450 * Rammer motors not operative during hoisting of ammunition. The entire electric equipment of each ship aggregates 9,969 amperes, wliich, at the standard voltage of 125, corresponds to 1,250 kilowatts; and the total power re- quired by auxiliaries which are operative in action, cor- responds to 885 amperes, or 110.6 kilowatts for the light- ing and projector load, and 5.795 amperes, or 724 kilo- watts for the power load, making a grand total of 8,^4.6. 16S The Washington As many of the liattle auxiliaries are of such a nature as to be subject to intermittent service, the probable maxi- mum battle load is well below this figure, the estimated values being as indicated in the next to the last column, viz.: 630 amperes or 78.8 kilowatts for the lighting and projector load, and 3,450 amperes or 431 kilowatts for the power load, making a grand total of 510 kilowatts. As previously stated, two independent power plants will be installed on each ship, and are designated as the forward dynamo room and the after dynamo room. Both will be located beneath the protective deck on a platform whose level comes between the upper platform and the lower platform, this special platform being nec- essary to secure sufificient headroom to install the gen- erating sets. The forward dynamo room is located be- tween the forward magazines and the boiler spaces, the after dynamo room between the boiler spaces and the main engine rooms. Four lOO-kilowatt, 125-volt generating sets will be in- stalled in each dynamo room. These sets will be direct- connected, the engines being vertical cross compound, of the enclosed t3'pe and fitted with forced lubrication. Each dynamo room is capable of handling indepen- dently the entire battle load. This arrangement was considered imperative in view of the extended applica- tion of the electric drive to the important battle auxil- iaries and in view of the danger of the electric plant being rendered inoperative from the following causes: (a) Dynamo room rendered uninhabitable by break- ing of a steam pipe, (b) Dynamo room rendered un- inhabitable bj' flooding of the compartment, (c) Gen- erators or engines being damaged by heavy short cir- cuits, id) Damage to compartment by shell from the enemy. Distribution of energ\- to all battle service when one dynamo room is out of commission and uninhabitable necessitates either duplicating the wiring to each auxil- iary, viz. : one current leading from each dynamo room with a throw-over switch at each auxiliary: or wiring from distribution boards which are located external to and yet capable of electric connection to each dynamo Electrical Handbook JO-J room at will. This latter scheme has been adopted, using two main distril)iition Ijoards, one adjacent to each dynamo room, and in addition dnplicate wiring has been specified for certain of the more important circuits. Convenience dictates that the switchl)oards for control of the generators he located in the respective dynamo rooms, and that tiie distril)ution boards be located adja- cent to the dynamo rooms. These distribution boards are, furthermore, each in its water-tight compartment, these compartments being each provided with a water- tight door leading direct into the adjacent dynamo room and with another door permitting access to the com- partment independent of the dynamo rooms. Provision is made for the supply of energy to the lighting .system and the projectors from a separate gen- erating set ; the ordinary assignment in action with one dynamo room in use would be one generating set to the lighting system and the projectors and three generating sets in parallel on the power system. The arrangement of main switchboards will, however, permit the opera- tion of any or all generators in either dynamo room in parallel on the entire ship's load. On ships so powered as to occasion the assignment of generating sets of 50- kilowatt capacity or less to the lighting system, it has been the custom to make provision for supplying the projectors from a generating set independent of the lighting system ; but in the present r.istance any gener- ating set is of ample capacity to handle the combined lighting and projector load. As the power required by each projector is less than 10 per cent, of the capacity of a generating set, several projectors could be thrown in circuit simultaneously without causing a material "dip" in the intensity of the incandescent illumination. Two main switchboards and two distribution boards are used. Two sets of feeders, one for lighting and pro- jectors, the other for power, are run from each main switchboard to each main distribution board. In gen- eral, the forward distribution board supplies all circuits forward of the amidship portion of the vessel, and the after distribution board all circuits abaft the amitlships portion of the vessel. 10. 'f T he Washington Under normal conditions during action each distribu- tion board will be energized only from its adjacent dy- namo room ; but in the event of one dynamo room being put out of commission, throw-over switches on its adja- cent distribution board will enable this distribution board to energize from the other dynamo room. This pro- vision permits the operation of every electrical auxiliary aboard the ship, although either dynamo room may be out of commission. As a further safeguard, the feeders for certain of the circuits which are of maximum importance during action will be wired from each distribution board with a throw- over switch on the far end of each feeder, i. e., at the location of the auxiliary which the feeder supplies. This arrangement permits the operation of these auxiliaries even with one dynamo room and the adjacent distribu- tion board out of commission, or with one dynamo room the remote distribution board wrecked, the latter case, however, being highly improbable. The turning motors of each turret are, as stated pre- viously, operated from a motor generator located in the turret barbette, the motor generator for each turret be- ing supplied and controlled from a panel located in the barbette, this panel containing a throw-over switch and wired with a feeder to each distribution board, as out- lined above. As heretofore stated, each turret is equipped with two ammunition hoist motors, two gun-elevating motors, two rammer motors, and two small smoke-blower mo- tors. These various motors are supplied from auxiliary distribution boards located one in each turret, these boards in turn being supplied with a throw-over switch and wired with a feeder from each distribution board. The incandescent lights in the engine rooms are wired from two mains, one for each engine room. By means of throw-over switches and a feeder from each distribu- tion board, the lights in either engine room can be sup- plied from either distribution board. A similar ar- rangement is provided for lighting the boiler spaces. All other circuits are wired to but one distribution board, the forward distribution board controlling 41 cir- cuits, this number including one-half the circuits which are wired with duplicate feeders as outlined above. Of Electrical Ha nd ho ok 105 these, 9 circuits are for lighting, 3 for searclilights, and 29 for power. The after distribution board supplies 42 circuits, 8 on ligliting, 3 on searchlights, and 30 on ])Ower. The dynamo leads from the generating sets to the generator will be of 1,200,000 centimeters run in two ca- bles of 600,000 centimeters each. The lighting feeders, running from each main generator board to each dis- tribution board will be of 1,000.000 centimeters each. The power feeders from each main generator board to each distribution board will be of 3,000,000 centimeters each, run with three 1,000,000 cables. Generator switchboards located one in each dynamo room and controlling the four loo-kilow'att units in that dynamo room wmII each comprise a generator panel, a power feeder panel, and a lighting feeder panel. The generator panel will be so arranged that all the appa- ratus for controlling each unit will be in a vertical line and will consist of a single-pole circuit-breaker, a volt- meter, an ammeter, field regulator, a single-pole switch permitting the connection of one lead of the machinery to the lighting bus-bar, a similar switch for connection to the power bus-bar, and a switch to the common nega- tive bus and a switch to the equalizer bus. The lighting feeder panel will contain a recording ammeter, to meas- ure the entire load on the panel, the feeders, one to each distribution board, each leading through double-pole switches and circuit-breakers. The power feeder panel contains similar apparatus, but of the requisite capacity. With the exception of certain through leads in the lower passages, the entire installation will be wired in steel enameled conduit. Wiring between generators and switchboards within the dynamo rooms, and the through leads mentioned above will be installed on porcelain in- sulators, metal strapped and secured direct to hull. All wire of and under 60,000 centimeters will be twin conductor; sizes in excess of 60,000 centimeters will be installed as single conductor, a separate conduit being used for each leg of a circuit. The installation, exclusive of interior communications, will require approximately 44,000 feet of wire weighing 27,000 pounds. Electrical H andhook J 67 THE GOVERNMENT TESTING TANK FOR SHIP MODELS AT THE WASHINGTON NAVY YARD. THE value of towing experiments upon small scale models of ships for the purpose of de- ducing the resistance of a full-sized ship from that of the small model was demonstrated by the late Mr. William Froude, who, at his own expense, built a small tank for such experimental work at Tor- quay, England, about 1870. The English Admiralty subsequently recognized the value of his work and as- sisted him in it, later building a larger basin at Haslar, near Portsmouth, which is now in charge of his son, Mr. R. E. Froude. Other governments, notably Italy and Russia, were induced to establish model basins, which were largely copies of Froude's basin; and one firm of private builders, Denny Brothers, of Glasgow. Scotland, was sufficiently enterprising to build a basin for its own use. The basin is located in the southeast corner of the Washington Navy Yard, and is enclosed by a suitable brick building. This building is 500 feet long and about 50 feet wide inside, the only openings being the doors and the windows in the monitor. The water surface in the basin is slightly shorter than the building, being about 470 feet long. The deep portion is about 370 feet long, the south end, from which runs begin, being nar- row and shallow. The water surface is 43 feet wide, and the depth from the top of coping to the bottom of the basin is 142-3 feet. The basin is considerably larger than any other in existence. The nature of the ground was such as to render the construction of a thoroughly tight and stable basin somewliat difficult, but owing to the small space available at the Washington Yard, it was necessary to locate it upon its present site. The bottom of the basin proper is made up of a layer of broken stone about 12 inches thick, upon which is a 168 T h e Was king to n thin la\fr of concrete (aljout 3 inches), tlien a lialf incli of Neuchatel asphalt, then about 9 inches of concrete, in sections 16 feet long, the keys between the various sec- tions being filled with Bermudez asphalt, and the whole inside surface covered with the asphalt. The he^vy side walls are 6 feet thick at the bottom, 6 feet deep, and about 41/' feet thick on the top, not counting the molded stone coping. They are in 40-foot lengths, with a square keyhole between adjacent lengths filled with Bermudez asphalt. The side walls rest upon a double row of piles, and in addition there is sheet piling completely around the deep part of the tank. The shallow part of the tank at the southern extension is also carried on piling, as it actually overhangs the water. The law authorizing the construction of the model basin also authorized experiments to be made for pri- vate shipbuilders, provided they defrayed the actual cost of the same, it being understood, of course, that such experiments should not interfere with naval work. This being the case, it was necessary to lay out the plant with a view to the rapid and economical turning out of rou- tine experiments, and to this end the endeavor has been throughout to use machinery for as many of the opera- tions as possible. The foreign tanks invariably use par- affine for the construction of models, and generally make them from 10 to 14 feet long. The climate of Washing- ton, however, is so warm in the summer that it was found impossible to obtain paraffine that would retain its rigidity satisfactorily, and, moreover, it was the desire of the Bureau to make the models as large as possible, thus eliminating one source of inaccuracy in applying the model experiments to full-sized ships. For these reasons wood was adopted as a material for the models, and after some difficulty a satisfactory varnish was found which rendered the surface of the wood to all in- tents and purposes absolutely water-tight. The standard length of model used is 20 feet. A model 20 feet long may not seem much larger than one 12 feet long, but when it is remembered that the displacements of these Electrical Ha ndhoo k 109 two are respectively as 8,000 and 1,728, it will be seen that the 20-foot model is nearly five times the size of the 12-foot model. The method of building the models is as follows: The "lines" of the vessel's hull as developed by its designers invariably include a body plan giving sections at mod- erately close intervals. From this body plan new sec- tions are drawn to the proper size for a 20-foot model, by means of the eidograph or large pantograph. These sections are cut out of paper, and then transferred to wooden boards which are sawed to shape. These boards are then erected in their proper relative position upon the erecting table, each board section being clamped in a vertical plane. They are then covered with battens about Y2 inch thick, and tapering from amidships to- wards the end. making a "former"' model, the surface of which is planed smooth. In cutting out the sections, al- lowance is made for the thickness of the battens, which have to be nailed upon them. ISIeanwhile a rough block of such shape and dimensions that the finished model can be cut from it has been prepared, by gluing together under pressure in a large hydraulic press pieces of plank roughly cut to an appropriate shape. This block is placed upon the upper table of the model cutting ma- chine, the "former'' model being placed upon the lower table. The model cutting machine works upon the principle of the Blanchard lathe, a roller traversing the surface of the "former" model and saws or cutters working upon the surface of the model proper. The bulk of the material is removed from the block by means of the saws, which are shifted along a short dis- tance at a time. Rotary cutters are then applied which finish the surface of the model very close to the desired shape. The model is then removed from the cutting ma- chine and finished by hand; a very small amount of hand work, however, being found necessary. It is then ready for varnishing, and the attachment of any appen- dages, such as bilge keel, struts, etc. It is finally taken to the measuring machine and careful measurements are made of its exact form and shape which not only enable 170 T Ji e Wa shin g to n the staff to dclcniiinc whether tlie model represents the lines desired, but gives an exact record of the actual shape. The model is now ready for the towing experiments. The carriage runs upon eight wheels and spans the full width of the basin. The platform in the center, carry- ing the recording apparatus, can be raised or lowered at will. Electricity is used to drive the carriage, and it maj' be mentioned incidentally that it is used for all mechanical work in connection with the model tank. The speed of the carriage is varied not only by making various combinations of the four motors — one to each pair of driving wdieels — but by controlling the output of the generator in the power station, which is, perhaps,. lOO yards from the tank. This control is on the Ward- Leonard system and is very similar to that used to con- trol the motion of heavy turrets on board ship. By means of a resistance box on the carriage the current through the field coil windings of the generator is in- creased or decreased at will. The revolutions of the generator being kept constant by a delicate governor, tlie amount of current generated varies with the amount of current through the field coils of the magnet. The whole of the current generated is passed through the motors, and in practice it is found that a very exact regulation of speed is obtained by this combination. The carriage itself, with its fittings, weighs in the neighborhood of 25 tons, so that it alone forms a kind of flywheel and is not subject to sudden variations of speed. The speed of the carriage can be varied from i-io knot an hour, or 10 feet per minute to 20 knots an hour, or 2.000 feet per minute. The principal difficulty in connection wnth the use of high speeds, which, while not necessary for the bulk of the experiments, will be of great value in certain special experiments, is to stop the carriage when it is once under way. The electrical con- trol acts as a brake, because when the current is shut off the motors become generators, but this could not be relied upon for high speeds, since the sudden rush of current due to possible unskillful manipulation, might throw the circuit breakers, thus opening the circuit and Electrical Handbook 171 cutting off the current entirely. For these reasons tliere is at the north, or terminal end of the basin, a double system of brakes to catch and stop the carriage. The first is a friction brake consisting of two strips of iron on either side pressed together by hydraulic cylinders. Those are forced apart by a slipper on the carriage about 10 feet long, which, as well as the brake strips, is kept thoroughly oiled, so that the coefficient of friction for stopping, though low, is fairly definite, and sudden jerks are avoided. The pressure in the hydraulic cylin- ders is controlled by an accumulator and a pump driven by electricity. Great care has been taken in connection with this part of the installation that it may be always in working order, and any trouble or breakdown, ex- cept that of the pump itself, which runs all the time, will simply result in setting the pressure at a max- imum. This maximum is 600 pounds,, but it has been found by actual experiment that with 500 pounds pres- sure the carriage is brought safely to rest when it enters the 1)rakes at a speed of 20 knots. It is not expected in practice to repeat this often, since even for the high speed runs the electrical brake will be used to reduce the speed of the carriage before the friction brake is used. In addition to the friction brake there is what is called the emergency brake, so that in case the friction brake fails for any reason the carriage would still be caught. This brake consists simply of a piston about 16 inches in diameter, working in a cylinder which is submerged in the water of the tank and connected by wire cables to a hook which takes hold of the carriage. The head of the cylinder has a round hole, and the piston rod is tapered so that as the rod is drawn out by the motion of the carriage the hole is gradually closed, the whole being almost exactly upon the principle of the hydraulic gun recoil brake. An escape is provided for the water around the piston when it starts from rest, to avoid sudden acceleration of the whole mass of water in the cylinder. The dynamometric apparatus is designed to avoid en- tirely the use of multiplying levers or other devices in- volving the possibility of friction, and here again elec- 172 The Washington tricity is enlisted. The recording drum is, as usual, fitted with apparatus for recording the time and dis- tance. The resistance is measured directly by a spring arrangement, which is placed underneath the carriage. The forward end of the spring is attached to a bracket which is screwed forward or back by an electric motor, and a rigid arm runs up from the bracket, with a pencil recording its position on the drum. The record then is of the position of the forward bracket. The after end of the spring takes hold of a small cross-head, to the other end of which again is attached a towing rod, which takes hold of the model. This cross-head has a very slight play between stops in the after fixed bracket, and when it touches either stop closes an electrical con- tact, which again throws an electric clutch, by means of which the motor, running all the time, screws fir ward or back the forward bracket, thus increasing or decreas- ing the tension of the spring until the contact i> opened again. There are many refinements which cannot be indi- cated in this brief description: for instance, tie operator can throw either clutch at will or set them to work automatically. In practice, when about to make a run. the operator works the bracket forward to the imme- diate vicinity of the position which he knows it will assume during the run, the approxiate speed of which he knows. The carriage is then started, and after a uniform speed has been obtained, which, for speeds up to 12 knots, is done within 50 feet, he throws in by a single motion of one handle the automatic appliances which start the drum, and record time, distance and re- sistance. In this way the resistance pen has to move but a small distance to reach the position of equilibrium and almost immediately becomes steady. It will be seen that with this device friction is eliminated. The accu- racy obtainable depends upon the closeness with which the automatic stops at the after end of the spring can be set. In practice it is found that those can be set to give a play of about 1-50 of an inch, and as the springs will extend 10 inches, the results obtained are practically exact as indicating the pull of the spring. Electrical J la n d boo k 1 / 3 It now remains to describe the method by which the amount of this pull can be determined in any instance. There is fitted at the starting end of the basin a kind of weighing machine with one vertical and one horizontal arm. This is delicately balanced, and when the model has been connected up and is ready for towing, a cer- tain spring being in use, the vertical arm, or rather a knife edge which bears upon the vertical arm, is con- nected to the model. A known weight is then put into the scale pan attached to the horizontal arm. The auto- matic attachment in connection with the dynamometer spring is thrown into gear and the weighing machine is screwed forward or backward until it is in perfect bal- ance, and the record pen recording the position of the spring is at rest. It is evident then that the pull of the spring is exactly equal to the weight in the scale pan. There are a number of pens which can be shifted par- allel to the recording pen and set in a definite position to record upon tlio drum. One of tliese pens is set to correspond to the position of the resistance pen, then another weight is put into the scale pan. a second pen set to record the resistance, and so nn. It is evident then that when the run is made the.se lixed pens mark off upon the paper a scale for resistance, avoiding all complications of corrections for temperature of spring or anything else. A complete double outfit of springs is already provided for measuring resistance from i up to 500 pounds, and for special work additional special springs will be obtained. In connection with the question of temperature, it is impossible to avoid a certain variation of the tempera- ture of the water, but as ample heating facilities are provided, as indicated in the pictures of the building, where the heater pipes are shown, it is not expected that the variation of temperature during the year will be sufficient to necessitate correction in the results of experiments on this account. The basin is filled from the water system of Washington, and will hold 1.000,000 gallons. Two electrical centrifugal pumps are provided, the larger of which will empty the tank in about four hours. The smaller pump is a 4-inch pump used for 17 J/. The W a s ]i i n g t n draining the last water from the basin and also for pumping the water from outside the basin to avoid the possibility of undue pressure upon it in case it is left empty for some time. This is necessary, since the basin is but a short distance from the Potomac River, and extends 8 or 9 feet below mean low tide level. A gauge indicates the level of the outside water, which is found to be, as a rule, about 6 feet below the water in the basin. The leakage from the basin, which is very slight, and the evaporation are made up with filtered water, an ani- mal bone filter being installed with a capacity of from 50 to 100 gallons per minute, depending upon the tur- bidity of the water. In practice a small stream of fresh filtered water is kept running into the basin all the time, and the level is maintained wherever desired by an ad- justable overflow. Electrical H a n d h o o k 175 ELECTRICITY IN THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. NOT only with respect to external dimensions and lloor si)ace. but in regard also to number of em- ployees and extent of output, the Government Printing Office in this city, is fully en- titled to claim the distinction of being the largest printing office in the world. To the visiting electrical engineer it is more than gratifying to note how with remarkable boldness, but with corresponding judgment and discretion, electricity has been called upon to dis- charge all the vital functions of light and power, as well as to furnish heat in a novel and convenient manner. The display of the flexibility and resourcefulness of •electricity in all parts of the plant is, indeed, a fasci- nating study. The work here is done in such a way as would have rejoiced the heart of him w'ho was at once this country's typical printer and pioneer master elec- trician — Benjamin Franklin himself. Standing in a section of the capital otherwise devoid of large buildings, the huge office is a notable land- mark. It is of red brick, with terra cotta and sand- stone trimming, has a 175-foot front on North Capitol Street and a 408-foot front on G Street, and has a height of seven stories, exclusive of a deep basement and loft. The stories are 16 feet apart from floor to floor. It is liuilt around a 30xi67-foot court, which is closed at one end with the power house. Over 12,000,000 pounds of steel were used in the framework, which is covered chiefly with fire brick, and the substratum of all the floors is brick concrete. Only in the main entrance is there any magnificence of decoration. Here is orna- mental work in gold, tile and mosaic, marble panelings and stairways, with a pedestal to be occupied probably by an heroic bust of Franklin. Elsewhere in the build- ing everything is severe and strong in construction, for nse. not show. ] 76 T }i ('. I V a s li, incjton The annual expenditure of $6,500,000 seems fabulous until we have seen an analysis of the work done and the stock carried by the office. When we find over 4,000 employees, to say nothing of visitors and business call- ers, we appreciate the necessity for the eight electric passenger elevators, all of which could handle the whole crowd from the first to the top floor every twenty min- utes. When we learn that the annual consumption of paper, for book printing alone, is 100,000 reams flat, and iio,- 000 reams in rolls ; that 3,000,000 sheets of Bristol and cardboard are used; that 1.700 reams of cover paper, 35,000 reams of writing paper, 1,700 reams of typewriter paper, 4,700 reams of manila and tissue paper, and 10,000 reams of coated book paper are used each year — then we grasp the utility of the five big freight elevators, all electric. One of these at the sidewalk, to carry paper from the basement to the first floor, will lift 6,000 pounds 100 feet a minute. Another of the freight ele- vators has a capacity of 10,000 pounds 150 feet a minute. The other three will handle 5,000 pounds 350 feet a minute. It will be seen at once that the office in ele- vators alone has the capacity of a good-sized electric railway for passengers and freight and needs it all. From the standpoint of output, the facts are again ex- traordinary. From 30 to 35 tons of paper are consumed by presses all run by electric motors. Some 700,000 volumes of departmental reports are carried in store. An incidental item is "The Congressional Record," with a present daily circulation, which is being in- creased, of 23.000, while Congress sits, a single is- sue having reached 192 pages. This must catch the mail trains at al)Out 5.30 A. M. Then the office is in constant readiness for sudden demands made by Congress. The famous report of the blowing up of the Maine is an instance. Consisting of 298 pages of text, 24 full page engravings and one lithograph in col- ors, the manuscript was received at 6.30 P. M. one day, and the printed report lay on every desk in the Senate and House next morning at 10. Besides other period- icals, such as "The Patent Office Gazette," arc the mil- Electrical Ha n d b o o k 177 lions of pamphlet reprints from tlie "Record," which the law-makers so generously scatter among their constitu- ents. Then there are the bills and resolutions, of which the Senate during the last session ordered printed 8,025 and the House 18,420; of these only 1,384 became law*. The Printing Oflfice has had at one time twenty tons of tine type and rule work standing for the Census Office. The storage vaults under the sidewalks have a capacity of 2,000,000 electrotype plates. On almost every floor special electric circuits have had to be run to some piece of apparatus or line of ma- chines. Thus for complexity of distribution it would be hard to match the electrical equipment of the office, whose daily consumption of current compares with that of a large central station. Power Plant. The power i)lant of the Printing Office is tfanked by the old and new wings, which together form the presevit establishment. The power-house is a brick building 112x134 feet in plan, and is divided longitudinally be- tween the engine and generator room and the boiler room. While in a sense of evolutional growth, the plant is essentially a well-planned unit as it stands. The iirst plant was put in some years ago in the old building, and proving successful, but outgrown, it was abandoned and a new power-house was erected. The work of moving was a difficult undertaking, as it had to be done without interfering with the operation of the plant. It was effected, however, very snK)othly by tlie chief electrician and electrical engi- neer, and the chief engineer. The plant then installed was adequate to the requirements of the old office and consisted of one 300 kilowatt, 125 volt generator, running at 150 revolutions per minute, and one 125 kilowatt generator of same voltage and speed, both generators being built by the Crocker- Wheeler Company, and both engines by the E. P. Allis Company. When extensions to take care of the new office came up, one of the most important problems was that of continuing the 178 The Washington lower voltage or of adopting 250 volts. It was finally decided to adhere to the old pressure of 125 volts, and the additional contract was placed for two more Crocker- Wheeler generators of 600 kilowatt capacity, 100 revolu- tions per minute, and two engines of corresponding capacit}'. These generators, of the multipolar type, were required to he over-compounded 5 per cent., at full load, with series coils so proportioned as to over-compound by regular equal increments proportional to the output between one-quarter and full load, with a maximum variation at generator terminals not exceeding i^ volts when running within lYz per cent, of standard speed, this over-compounding being reduced in the regular op- eration of the plant to 3 per cent, by the use of German silver shunts to the series fields. The compounding is also so arranged as to permit the generator, after having "built up" and when running at staindard voltage, being thrown in circuit and taking its proper proportion of the total load. The generators have a guaranteed ef- ficiency of 94 per cent, at full load, and will withstand an overload of 25 per cent, continuously for four hours, as well as momentary overloads of 50 per cent. At 25 per cent, overload the efficiency is 93V2 per cent. The four engines are all cross compound direct-con- nected, the smaller ones being respective!}' 10x19x30 and 16x30x30; while the two new larger ones are of the same size, namely, 22x44x42. The small machines are arranged to run 150 revolutions per minute, and are supplied with steam at 125 pounds pressure, exhausting into barometric condensers. The engines are fitted with automatic valve gear, and have separate eccentrics for operating the steam and exhaust valves on the low- pressure side. The regulator is of the standard heavy weight t3'pe, operating the cut-of¥ cams of both engines, and having in conjunction a safety stop, which guards the engine in case of the breakage of the governor belt. A variation of less than 2 per cent, is guaranteed be- tween no load and full load. In addition to the governor belt safety stop, there is provided an extra governor which operates a stop valve placed above the throttle valve in the steam pipe, so Electrical Handbook 179 tliat if the engine reaches a speed of five revolutions al)ove normal, this valve is released and closes, thus shutting off all steam to the cylinder. As will he noted, all these handsome gen- erator units are generously spaced with plenty of elbow room within the brass rail that divides them off from the rest of the spacious hall and from the switchboard, a view of all being commanded by a broad galler}' from which stairs run down to the main floor. Each generating unit foundation contains an opening by which an attendant can reach the anchor bearing plate and end of the bolt ; and, indeed, the clear basement space affords freest access all around the foundations, which, by the way, are solid to a degree and remarkably free from tremor. The receivers between the cylinders of the engines are in the basement, but the piping con- nections of the low-pressure cylinders are, as will be noted, largely above the engine floor. The exhaust pipe lietween the high-pressure cylinder and receiver is also in the basement, but rises into the engine room, where the passage of steam to the low-pressure cylinder is controlled. The live steam comiection to the low-pres- sure cylinder leads into this pipe and has a stop and reducing valve. The exhaust pipe line from each engine runs in the basement to the partition wall and rises in each case to an independent condenser above the roof, being fitted with a back pressure relief valve for the es- cape of steam in case the corresponding condenser should be out of commission. A syphon condenser is used, with 27-inch \acuum, and there are thus three lines of piping that rise against the wall at the rear of each engine — one the exhaust, one for the injec- tion water from the District supply lifted to the con- densers by the supply pressure, and one for the dis- charge from the condenser, going to a hot well tank in the basement, whence it is pumped to six attic tanks for house and toilet flushing, an aggregate capacity of some 4.000 gallons being thus furnished. Direct Connected Matrix Trimmer, Government Printing Office. Electrical Handbook 181 Boiler Room. Before passing to consider other details of the gen- erator room, note must he made here of the hoiler plant, which is of somewhat unusual type in this class of work, and which comprises eight 300 horse- power marine type Scotch boilers. These boilers arc built for a working pressure of 150 pounds, under the direction of United States supervising inspectors for steam boilers, and steam is supplied through an 8-incli dry pipe and nozzle to the main line of steam pipes. Switchboard, Etc. The main features of the hoiler. engine and generator equipment having been considered, it is time to speak of the other not less important parts of the plant, such as the switchboard, which itself constitutes a striking element of the ensemble. It will have been gathered from what has been said that the Printing Of- fice is one of the show places ofc Washington, and the power-house is a part which visitors always take in. The handsome .skylighted room is very light, not only because of the glass monitor roof, but on account of *he interior lining of glazed white brick to a height of 9 feet, with red-faced brick above. The gallery floor and that of the engine room in front of the switchboard and around the side is of marble mosaic in figured panels; while within the brass railing around the generating units the floor is composed of cast-iron plates. The roof trusses and the traveling crane are painted in an agree- ably cool shade of green, and the total effect of the room is excellent, the machinery and the switchboard being set off in artistic relief. The crane is an electric one of 25 tons capacity and supported by columns of 6-inch heavy wrought-iron pipe filled with concrete set about 14 feet apart. The girders are braced to the structural framework of the building, and these lateral braces sup- port the .steam header in the room. The switchboard is of a pinkish gray Ten- nessee marble. ^2 feet long and 9 feet high, standing aliout 6 feet from the wall and accessible from both ends. There are two sets of bus-bars, one for light and 18'^ The Was king to n one for power, and this subdivision of service is main- tained throughout the building, although the generating switches are double-throw, so that any generator can take care of either set. These switches are also double- pole, the equalizer switches being separate. A 5.000 ampere tie-in switch has also been provided of the circuit-breaker type without the automatic tripper, for connecting the two sets of busses together. There is likewise a large single-pole, single-throw switch for connecting together the light and power equalizer busses, in case two generators should be operating one on light and the other on power with the tie-in switch closed. Each of the feeder switches is double-pole, double-throw, so that they can be independently thrown on either set of bus-bars. The board is virtually in two sections, the latest section, for control of supply in the new building, consisting of nine panels, with a length of 34 feet — two generator panels and seven feeder. Here the feeder switches are in two rows. One set of busses ex'tends along the middle of the panels in the rear of the board, with connections to feed both rows of switches, the upper ones when the switches are in the down position and the lower ones when the switches are in the up position. The other group of bus-bars is subdivided into two sets, one for the upper position of the upper row of switches and the other with less cop- per being installed only as a safety provision for the lower position of the lower row. All the feeders are protected by circuit-breakers mounted on marble panels at the rear of the board, and the generators also are protected by circuit-breakers behind the board, which can be thrown by means of push buttons on the front of the board. These breakers consist of two 5,000- ampere double-pole circuit-breakers ; 28 double-pole breakers of 300 amperes ; and 28 double-pole 600-ampere breakers. The contract on the new board called for the two 5,000-ampere, double-throw knife switches ; two 5,000-ampere double-pole single-throw knife switches : one 5,000-ampere, single-pole, single-throw, and 56 600- ampere double-pole double-throw knife switches, all of Electrical handbook 18S which are of special design, hand tinished, while the clamping nuts, hus connections, etc., have ground con- tacts. The new section alone of the hoard carries about 25,000 pounds of copper exclusive of the measuring in- struments, which include two illuminated dial volt- meters 0-150 volt; one illuminated differential volt- meter; two illuminated ammeters 0-6,000 amperes; one illuminated ammeter, 0-5,000 amperes; 20 round pattern ammeters, 0-500 amperes; and 8 round ammeters 0-750 amperes. The leads of the two large generators are also brought out to two Thomson recording wattmeters, each with a capacity of 5,000 amperes, at 125 volts. A tell-tale panel of all wattmeters is placed also in the office of the chief electrician, who has spacious quarters, with filing cases and other adjuncts, on one of the main Hoors near by. A daily log is carefully kept of current output, based on 15-minute readings, and checking up eacli 1)ranch of supi)Iy. Some idea of the work done can be formed from the fact that the recent daily load in December, when the new building had hardly got into shape, has been from 8,200 to 8,900 kilowatt-hours daily, and that during November the to- tal output was not less than 167,000 kilowatt-hours. The board itself is bound by handsome heavy copper moulding, with iron framework, and angle-iron braces, cable carriers, etc., all of which were given two coats of the best asphaltum paint. Every detail of the board has been most carefully planned out for safety and perfect finish. No electrolytic copper was allowea, all being pure Lake rolled hard-drawn, or soft-drawn, according to the part. Bolts used in making the electrical con- nections are made from hard-drawn brass rod, with solid heads, and all flanged nuts are of pure cast copper. All finish on the front of the board, of switches, brackets and connections, is "drawn file finish ;" all surface contacts are made with ground joints, and all edges are champered 3-64 inch. Standard requirements in every respect pushed to their limit have been deemed none too good for the board and its accessories, in view of the impera- tive necessity of maintaining service at all times .under all contingencies. Electrical Handbook J So liack (if tlic hoard oxti.'niK a nililicr-covercd walk and a ladder drops down to the (.'n,u,ini' room hascnicnl, where the system of distrihiition from the hoard may i)c said to heg'in. Power Distribution. All extensive article could he written upon this suh- ject. invohing- as it does details of wiring, distrihuting hoards, conduit cahles, etc., in prohahly larger array than ft)und in an\- other huilding installation in the country. An idea of its magnitude is ohtained, how- ever, when we consider the material used in this elec- trical work, including 13.094 linear feet of terra conduit; 55,068 feet of fle.xihle metal conduit; 14,000 pieces of lead hushing for the flcxihle conduit; 1,822 from outlet and junction hoxes ; 8,248 pieces of enameled pipe; T45,- 811 httings of all kinds; 394,,y5 feet of wire of all classes, or ahout 75 miles; 1,649 C. S. switches; 91 dis- trihuting centers; 1,490 feet of lead tubing and 807 feet of ■>4-inch black pipe, 1,490 cut-outs; 2 automatic switches; and i,,3io castings of all kinds. Press Driving. The Government Printing Office was one of the tirst establishments to take up the direct application of mo- tors to printing machinery, and a more thorough study of the subject has proliably lieen made at this plant than at any other plant of the same character in the world. Before the purchase of the motors, a complete investi- gation was instituted by the Public Printer. As there were only a few establishments in which motors had been applied direct to printing machinery, a comparatively small amount of data could be gathered, and therefore many of the methods of application were original. The tirst speci- fications issued by the Government Printing Office cov- ered the furnishing of a lot of about sixtj' motors and four generators and a switchboard. The motors were wound for a pressure of 120 volts, this voltage being decided upon from the fact that a large part of the load was lighting, and it was desired not to have separate generators for operating the motors. 180 The W a sh i ng t on In the original installation the motors in practically all cases were geared to the respective macliines, this method of application being at that time considered the most advantageous. In the case of a numl^er of ruling machines, some spe- cial speed reducers were employed and the motors of one-sixth horse-power capacity were coupled direct to the reducers. There were about thirty of these com- binations installed at that time. In controlling the speed of the motors applied to the various presses and other machines where variation in speed was desired, resist- ance in series with the armature was employed, in most cases resistance being separate from the controller. The controller was placed in a position convenient to the operator. In a few instances it was found advisable to install a motor driving a group of machines such as that in the electrotype foundry. At that time it was not deemed wise to attempt to apply motors to individual machines where they differed in character to such :\u extent, and especially as to the question of speed. As a result of the benefits shown by the introduction of electric power, particularly from the point of in- creased output, motors were added from time to time until practically all shafting in the old buildings was eliminated. In some of the later installations direct- connected type motors were used in driving certain types of presses. In these cases the motor was mounted on the press shaft, the machine being bolted directly to the frame of the press. In some of these installations, field weakening, besides resistance in series with armature, was introduced and found satisfactory. The question of reliability being an important factor, instead of depend- ing on fuses to protect the motors in case of excessive overloads, it was decided to protect each motor with a circuit-breaker. This has been found to be an ex- cellent investment. The new office is the most complete and unique plant of its size in this or any country. The building alone contains over 600 motors in sizes from 1-6 to 100 horse-power. In the new equipment many novel methods of application have been evolved, this Electrical Handbook 187 being particularly true of the electrotype foundry, in wliich department every machine is individually driven as in the other departments. In the ap- plications of motors to presses, chain drives have been largely employed, each motor being placed inside of the press. In the new building there is absolutely no shafting, which fact strikes one very forcibly when making an inspection of the plant. The size alone is not the only feature in which the present plant diflfers from its predecessor. Many modi- fications have been introduced in the method of drive ; a large number of belts have been eliminated, and while at an earlier time gearing was regarded as the only method for positive driving, and was in all cases em- ployed where it was desirable to avoid slipping, to-day but few gears are seen, the greater per cent, of them being supplanted by chain connections. Perhaps the highest degree to which the perfecting has been carried is presented in the few cases where all forms of inter- mediate connection, whether belt, gear or chain, have been avoided by resorting to direct-connection %vith the motor spindle. There are cases, however, where such a scheme, commendable though it may be, is entirely out of the question. Oftentimes slipping is desirable, espe- cially if it proves to be the means of saving the motor or niacliine from excessive shock in ordinary running, or even more serious injury in case of accident. For such service there is nothing to replace the old- fashioned belt, nor, indeed, is there much to be said against it when the circumstances of the machine's con- struction or situation allow for a reasonably long dis- tance between pulley centers, for then the tension need not be excessive. A feature common to almost all the equipments is the placing of the motor in a location where it occupies the least useful floor space, but remains accessible for examining or repairing. It will also be seen that the motor is incorporated in some way or other with the machine it drives, being invariably supported indepen- dently of the floor, walls or posts, and usually on a bracket elevated from the floor. Still another feature is 188 The Washington the niountiiuT of the controlling apparatus where it !■; handy, and at the same time protected from mechanical injury or from contact with dirt, chips, or in short, any- thing that would interrupt or interfere with its proper operation. In the office are five two-revolution presses, which are remarkable for their compactness and neat appear- ance. The same quality characterizes the driving ele- ment and the manner in which it has been embodied. It consists of a 5 horse-power motor located just under the bed. so that the sprocket by which it drives through a silent chain to the machine is guarded by the steps and platform at the side of the press. The five presses are all of this type. One of a line of machines of a larger size that de- serves special mention is a flat-bed. two-revolution press, shown. This one is also chain-driven from a motor, in this case, of 7J/2 horse-power. The press has associated with it an automatic paper feeder, which is belt-driven by a i horse-power bi-polar motor. Both of these motors are located in out-of-the-way positions, and practically add nothing to the space required by the machine proper. Miscellaneous Printing Office Work. So much for press drive. While it constitutes the more important side of the plant operations and the greatest per cent, of the power load, it causes less per- plexity in the matter of arranging satisfactorily than many of the smaller though indispensable machines, such, for example, as the stitchers. These are connected by the belt with I/2 horse-power motors, mounted on brackets wdiicli are bolted to the supporting column of the machine near the base. The motor starter is mounted on the left-hand side of the column, so that the outfit is entireh' self-contained, and the floor about the base is easily kept free from litter. In the electrotyping departments two low voltage gen- erating sets supply the current. These consist of gen- •erators direct-connected to and mounted on the same Electrical Ha a d b o o k 189 base with 35 horse-power motors. Two rapid deposi- tors are also used for the same work. After the forma- tion of the electrotype plates it is necessary to trim and finish them. Most of the finishing apparatus is belt-driven, in all cases by motors. Each machine possesses merits of its own in the placing of the parts where they are out of the way and protected, yet at all times easily accessible. The advantage of avoiding overhead belts is strikingly indicated, where, if thej^ were to be group- driven, their number and close spacing would make the problem an intricate one. particularly since it would be necessary to limit their positions to allow for straight belt lines. Arrangements have just been made for a further important addition to the printing press equipment in the shape of the new Hoe press to get out tlie larger edition now required of the "Congressional Record." The machine is for printing and folding the "Record."' delivering tlie product in signatures of eight pages at the rate of 80,000 per hour, or sixteen pages at the rate of 40.000 per hour. It is constructed on the rotary principle, printing from curved stereotyped plates upon webs of paper supplied from two rolls, one at each end of the machine. After being printed the two webs are associated and led to a cutting and folding mechanism located midway in the length of the machine, from which the sheets are deliv- ered upon moving aprons. The entire length of the machine is 24 feet; height, 9 feet; width, 6 feet. The power required to drive the machine at speed is 30 horse- power, and a motor of standard type, making 825 revo- lutions per minute, is employed, placed below the fold- ing and delivery mechanism upon the bed plate of the machine. Another motor of 7^ horse-power, 875 revo- lutions per minute, is also used at times, when it is neces- sary to move the press slowly (about 6 per cent, of full speed), in order to "lead"' the paper. Electrical Handbook 191 Electric Heating Applications. Perhaps the application of the motors to the presses might l)e considered next to tlie elevators, hut there are one or two other hranches of service of equal interest if not equal scope which fall in place here for treatment. Most striking and noteworthy of these is the use of electric heating. Unless we are greatly mistaken, there is here in service one of the largest electric heating sys- tems in the world ; certainly the largest that is known in the field of printing and i)ulilication. The uses of electric heat in the office fall broadly into two groups or clas.ses. One of these embraces the foundry and includes matrix drying tables, wax stripping tables, wax melting kettles, case warming cabinets, "builders' up" tool belt- ers, case warming table, wax knife cutting down ma- chine, "sweating on" machine, and soldering iron heat- ers. The other class in the bindery includes embossing and stamping press heads, glue heater equipments, glue cookers, case making machines, finishers' tool heaters, book cover shaping machines. This is a remarkable range, but in addition and outside these divisions we find the pamphlet covering machines, the sealing wax melt- ers and some other devices. It is only when one sees such an equipment as has been devised for and brought together in the Government Printing Office that one grasps fully the idea of the extraordinary flexibility and utility of electric heating. Such heating may not yet take care of a big building, but in such special applica- tions as the.se it cannot be surpassed or equaled for efficiency and econom}-. The equipment of these electrically heated appliances in the office supplants gas and steam in all processes ex- cepting the stereotype melting pots, which are heated by gas. Practically all apparatus was made from new designs, with careful attention to me- chanical details, and with large factors of safety elec- trically. The specifications of the controlling appliances were rigid, and necessitated new switch designs giving great strength and durability. The switches are mounted upon slate slabs and protected 192 The Wa shington by iron covers, all connections being soldered to lugs. The slabs are mounted upon iron or slate bases, so that every precaution may be taken against accident. In cases where working temperatures are moderate, the apparatus is operated on 117 volts. Where high tem- peratures and rapid rates of impartivity are required, lower variable voltages are used. These are secured by translating appliances consisting of rotary converters and transformers with several taps on secondaries. The extreme ranges of energy density in various appliances are from 0.75 to 40 watts per square inch superficial area. The Matrix Dr\'i)ig Tables. — These are employed for preparing the matrices used in printing the "Congres- sional Record." The bed is supported upon a massive pedestal to which an apron is attached. The platen is controlled li.v a heavy doulile screw in yoke bolted to the pedestal. The lied and apron are heated, each having separate controllers. Great care was necessary to secure a uniform temperature over working surfaces. ff'fl.r Stripping Tables. — After the cases have been used to make electrotype shells they are put upon the stripping tables which melt the wax. The wax is col- lected in a gutter, which empties into the wax kettles. A variable temperature within moderate limits is desir- able, according to the amount of work to be done. JVax Melting Kettles. — The wax is collected in these from the stripping table and freed from graphite antl dirt and freshened and tempered. A pair of kettles are placed side by side and attached to a drip pan to facili- tate this process. The drip pan is attached to the strip- ping table on one side and to a pouring table on the other side. The heaters are arranged to give equal tem- peratures to the walls of the kettles and to prevent scorching and unnecessary destruction of the volatile elements in wax. Case JJ'aniiifig Cabinet. — Before the cases are put un- der hydraulic presses the wax is softened at a moderate temperature so as to give accurate impressions. The warming cabinet is a chamber with racks in which a Electrical Handbook 103 numher of cases may be put to soften the wax. Electric heaters are so distributed as to give a uniformly diffused heat throughout the chamber. Case Wanning Tabic. — In the case warming cabinet the wax is softened equally throughout. The case warm- ing table is designed to heat the case on the upper sur- face only so as to secure a firmer backing. A heated plate is placed horizontally above the table upon which the cases rest with the wax films upward. The heating is effected by radiation from a uniformly distril)utcd energy surface. Wax Knife Cittting-Doivn Machine. — .\fter the cases have been under the hydraulic presses the wax is uneven and ragged around the impressions. This machine has a movable bed up