Electrical Engineering

General Electric's President Wilson takes his cue from Emerson's essay, “The American Scholar,” in this article in which he points out to the engineer his responsibility, as a thinking man, to the society in which he lives. The professional man cannot, in good conscience, confine himself within the limits of his own technical sphere; he must learn to phrase his ideas in terms of the ... View full abstract»

IT IS GOOD to be able to attend the 1949 AIEE winter general meeting. It is always good to be in New York. With it comes a thrill, a thrill of greatness, a thrill of success, a thrill of accomplishment, a thrill of achievement, a thrill of work well done. In New York is our largest Section, nearly 5,000 strong, in itself a mighty power of electrical engineering achievement for great good. View full abstract»

Presentation of the 1948 Edison Medal to Morris E. Leeds “for his contributions to industry through development and production of electrical precision measuring devices and controls” was made on Wednesday, February 2, during the 1949 AIEE winter general meeting in New York, N. Y. The Edison Medal, one of the nation's highest engineering honors, is awarded annually for meritorious ach... View full abstract»

ICANNOT OVEREMPHASIZE my profound appreciation of the great honor which the AIEE has conferred on me by awarding me the Edison Medal. Reviewing the names of the 37 previous medalists and finding on the list such men as Thomson, Westinghouse, Brush, Bell, Pupin, and Millikan, and others like them, it is with wonder and gratitude that I take a place as a minor luminary in this galaxy of first magnit... View full abstract»

AS ELECTRIC CONTACTS separate, a molten metallic bridge forms between them and then breaks. A transfer of contact material, called bridge erosion, accompanies the rupture of the bridge. If the inductance in a d-c circuit is reduced sufficiently and if the battery voltage is below the minimum for arcing, the phenomena of the molten bridge can be isolated for study. Careful examination of contacts o... View full abstract»

THE PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS of speed governors on automatic extraction turbines as related to the performance characteristics of governors on straight condensing and noncondensing extraction turbines are affected by the characteristics of the turbines themselves. “Steady state regulation” and “overspeed” may require either special treatment or additional mechanism i... View full abstract»

With the advent of man-made electricity, still another contributing factor to the mortality rate comes up for consideration; in the utility field alone employee deaths ascribable to electricity currently average 70 to 80 per year. As a matter of general information for the engineer working with electric current, this article discusses the basic principles and data concerning electric shock and ind... View full abstract»

STEELS containing varying amounts of nickel and chromium have been found to be resistant to chemical corrosion and oxidation, and for this reason are grouped under the general name of stainless steel. Little thought was given to their adaptability in electromagnetic circuits, as it was a generally accepted fact that most of the nickel-chromium steels were nonmagnetic or relatively poor in magnetic... View full abstract»

Several thousand electrical engineers are engaged in the many problems associated with day-to-day production of electric appliances for the home so as to keep up with the public taste in style and appearance. This article deals with many of their highly complex engineering problems involved in designing and building these domestic appliances. View full abstract»

WOOD POLES and crossarms of overhead electric lines may become ignited and damaged when the surface of the insulators and wooden parts are contaminated by industrial dirt and exposed to fog or light drizzle. A few pole fires have occurred in the Chicago area under circumstances which gave a basis for further laboratory study. The circumstances surrounding these fires were peculiar in that on simil... View full abstract»

GROUPED CONDUCTORS, two or more parallel conductors per phase, have properties which allow their use in a-c power transmission at higher voltages, including: lower surface voltage gradient, directly contributing to lower corona losses; lower inductive reactance; higher capacitive susceptance. To determine by analytical methods the degree grouped conductors affect the conductor surface voltage grad... View full abstract»

THE BEHAVIOR of an induction motor under normal conditions of applied voltage and frequency is well understood. The purpose of this discussion is to investigate induction motor behavior when low-frequency polyphase voltages are impressed on its primary, and to consider a means of efficiently generating the required low-frequency voltages. Decreasing the frequency of the voltages impressed upon the... View full abstract»

This article describes the construction, characteristics, and behavior of the newly discovered device, the transistor. Used as a semiconductor amplifier, it works on an entirely different principle and is capable of performing the same tasks now done by the vacuum tube triode. View full abstract»

The success of the earlier types of transistors led to the exploration of other forms of similar amplifiers, one of which is the coaxial transistor. A description of its construction, characteristics, and many advantages are contained in this article. View full abstract»

A SYSTEM has been developed which permits synchronous operation of stroboscopic light sources with certain commercial, optically compensated, and shuttered high-speed cameras. While the use of pulsed light sources for making high-speed motion pictures is not new, it is believed that this is the first successful synchronous system which combines the desirable features of one-microsecond flashlamp e... View full abstract»

PUSH-BUTTON SWITCHING is a continuation of the development of reperforator switching in the handling of telegrams through central telegraph offices. It is essentially a mechanization project in which the human element is largely replaced with mechanical and electric devices. The desired goal was faster and more accurate transmission of telegrams at lower operating costs. All of these goals were ac... View full abstract»

CLIMATES having long dry periods allow considerable dust to accumulate on line insulators. The performance of these dust-contaminated insulators in fog-laden atmospheres constitutes a major problem. View full abstract»

The novelty of the present high-voltage aeronautical electric systems requires designers to realize their responsibility for safety in design, and the aircraft personnel to be trained in safe working techniques. The author describes many hazards and how they can be avoided through proper design and job safety training. View full abstract»

Industry has found a multitude of diverse applications for electrostatic precipitation. This article describes the functions of the various types of electrostatic precipitators in use today and points out their common characteristics, and in particular the similarities of their electric power requirements. View full abstract»