Development of automatic switching: Equipments in the United States and Europe

This paper gives a brief outline of the history and general development of automatic switching equipments in the United States and Europe, as applied to power equipment. A general review is made of the advantages of automatic equipments, consisting not only of a saving in operating expenses, but also of better operating characteristics as compared with manually controlled stations. The various designing problems, adherent thereto, are pointed out. A comparison based on personal observation is made between the conditions in the United States and Europe, which accounts for the less rapid development and less extensive applications of automatic equipments in Europe, and a brief review is made of the results obtained in the latter years. Mention is made of the more recent applications, such as to mercury arc rectifiers. A brief description is also given of supervisory control systems, the development of which has progressed hand in hand with the automatic equipments. The accompanying illustrations show some typical modern American and European installations.