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Electro Dynamic Company
| Name | Electro Dynamic Company |
| Ortssitz | Philadelphia (Penns.) |
| Art des Unternehmens | elektrotechnische Fabrik |
| Quellenangaben | [Philadelphia and popular Philadelphians (1891) 189] |
| Zeit |
Ereignis |
| 09.12.1880 |
Gründung |
| Produkt |
ab |
Bem. |
bis |
Bem. |
Kommentar |
| Elektromotoren |
1888 |
Beginn |
1891 |
[Philadelphia] |
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| ZEIT | 1891 |
| THEMA | Beschreibung |
| TEXT | The Electro Dynamic Company of Philadelphia was organized December 9, 1880, by well known Philadelphia capitalists and is the oldest incorporated company for building electric motors in the world. It commenced business with the manufacture of Griscom Double Induction Motor, the invention of W. W. Griscom, the President of the Company. It put out a large number of these for use with primary batteries for running sewing machines, fans, dental lathes and mallets, watch-makers' machinery and for all other purposes requiring small power. These motors were largely used in all parts of the civilized world. Soon after the organization of the Company the question of electric lighting began to assume importance, and the manufacture of dynamos both for arc and incandescent lighting was undertaken. These dynamos are now in use in all portions of the United States, in Government service, in mines and on shipboard. The machinery put out by the Company has been characterized by good workmanship and high efficiency, and the many improvements which have been introduced from year to year have kept it in the front rank of electrical progress.
Storage Battery Lighting.
The Company is especially known for its connection with the development of storage battery lighting. It was the first in this country to take up this subject and it alone has brought this ideal system to the successful position it now occupies. It has accomplished this against the most bitter opposition of competing systems. Storage battery lighting is now recognized as the only practical method of lighting country houses by electricity which can supplant a private gas plant, and it is by far the most economical method for lighting office buildings and hotels. Some of the finest residences in the country and many of the largest office buildings in the leading cities are now lighted by storage batteries. The advantages are apparent to any one and the economy, both in running expenses and maintenance, has been so thoroughly demonstrated that no one who has given much attention to the subject now disputes it. Much attention has been given to the subject of Central Station Lighting by storage batteries, and this branch of the business gives promise of rapid development in the near future. Suburban towns with residences scattered singly, or in clusters of two or three, over a district three or four miles in diameter can be as effectively and almost as economically lighted by this method as a compactly built town. The storage batteries are located at the houses where they light a single house or several in a cluster, and are charged by a wire connecting them to the dynamos at the station which is located at a central point. Each battery becomes a sub-station, which lights the houses within an area of from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet diameter. The power station which supplies all the batteries can be kept running throughout the entire day and night, the dynamos charging one set of batteries for a given period and then another, so that the highest economy of the steam and dynamo plant is secured. The batteries are ready at all hours of the day or night to supply current to the lamps, whether they are receiving charge or not, and during the two or three hours of the evening when the heaviest demand is made for current the dynamos and the batteries together feed the lamps. It is possible, therefore, for a power plant capable of lighting directly onlv one thousand lamps, to supply at least three thousand lamps in conjunction with the batteries during the hours of heavy load. The Electro Dynamic Company in the development of this system has devised many appliances for controlling the voltage at the lamps, for regulating the distribution to the batteries, for automatically connecting the batteries to the charging circuit and disconnecting them when fully charged. The results in actual practice have been most satisfactory, and as the field for such installation is a large one, the system must make rapid progress.
Storage Battery Street Cars.
Within the past three years the Company has brought out the "Edco System" of street cars. ("Edco" is an abbreviation of the Company's title and is the trade name applicable to all its manufactures.) To carry the power for propelling the car on the car itself, and thus make each car an independent unit, is beyond question the best method if it can be satisfactorily and economically done. To design a car which would be unobjectionable to the public, easily handled, entirelv controllable and of sufficient speed for the maximum demands of city traffic was the aim of the Company. After a long time spent in experimenting, such a car was put in commercial service on one of the roads in Philadelphia. It was found to meet all the requirements and sufficient data were obtained after a test extending over two years to demonstrate its economy over horse traction. The car as at present constructed, is of the ordinary street car pattern. It is propelled by two fifteen-horse-power motors with gearing enclosed in an iron casing and running in oil. The motors are placed one on each axle. The battery cells which supply the electricity are placed in long trays under the seats of the car. The current to the motors is controlled by a switch on the platform worked by the motor-man, by which the car can be run at several different rates of speed, from fifteen miles an hour to the slowest rate required in street traffic. Electric brakes are supplied in addition to the ordinary brake by which the car can be stopped, in case of emergency, within half its own length. The motion of the car is easy and there is no noise of machinery. Each car is supplied with two sets of batteries, one of which is in service on the car while the other is being charged at the station. It requires about one and one half minutes to change the batteries in the car for a freshly charged set. This
change is made by machinery. The power station thus has as many batteries receiving charge as there are cars in service on the road, and is therefore running with a constant load which insures the greatest economy of steam. Two railway lines, one in Washington, D.C, and the other in Dubuque, Iowa, have equipped their lines with these cars. Their success from an engineering standpoint is now unquestioned; from a popular standpoint it was assured from the first. While many have experimented with storage battery cars, The Electro Dynamic Company alone has made them a success thus far. This is in a measure due to its long experience in the use of storage batteries for other purposes.
Electric Motors.
Among the many styles of motors manufactured by the Company, one which has attracted much attention is the Drill Motor. The first one was built for the New York Navy Yard and was designed for use iu building armored and other iron vessels. It was a machine tool of two-horse-power made very light, weighing only one hundred and ten pounds, for running a drill at the end of a flexible shaft at varying speeds to drill holes in iron plates. This motor was so successful that orders for others rapidly followed. Other ship-builders soon saw the utility of the new tools and they are now in use in the yards of William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, the Pennsylvania Railroad shops at Altoona, and many other large machine shops. These motors are now made of all sizes and are iu use up to twelve-horse-power. The new square type "Edco" motor has recently been installed in the Inman Line steamships "City of Paris" and "City of New York" in connection with the refrigerating apparatus of those vessels. They are of twenty-horse-power and in duplicate, and are supplied with current from the lighting dynamos. They run without stopping from the time the vessel commences to receive its load of fresh meat until the end of the voyage.
Slow Speed Dynamos.
Similar in type to the last named motors are the slow speed "Edco" dynamos. The "Westernland" and "Noordland" of the International Steamship Company and the vessels of the American Line have been equipped with these dynamos. They run at a speed of three hundred and fifty to five hundred revolutions of the armature per minute, and are directly coupled to the shaft of a high speed engine. They are also in demand for use in connection with storage batteries in lighting office buildings. Thev are especially valuable in such locations, as high speed engines are not required iu storage battery lighting, and the slow speed of both dynamo and engine ensures a noiseless plant. The Company now controls a large number of patents covering inventions of W. W. Griscom and others, many of them in a field peculiar to itself; and its sound experience and the excellent results attained are rapidly establishing its reputation and securing for it the highest class of work. |
| QUELLE | [Philadelphia and popular Philadelphians (1891) 189] |
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