AC/DC

[gmatov]

BJ,

Why'd you close that one?

I swear, aside from the heat, it was one of the more entertaining OT threads we've had for a while.

Of course FOO said the hell with it, he was gone, but it was still getting pretty hilarious.

We don't have too many electrical injuneers, here, we should all learn a little when the occassion arises.

"Six months ago, I couldn't enen spell injuneer, and now I are one!"



Cheers,

George

Too much caffiene, tonight, I guess.

[holistic]

A very amusing thread from IgnorDoramius.
Mind you 115VAC@400Hz tickles....

[indolikaa]

220VAC at 1 ampere? After all my years working with electricity, I wonder if I'd even feel that.

I was disappointed nobody got the joke...

[gmatov]

Yeah, but the only place I ever saw that was in my engine room aboard ship, where we ran the MG set to provide "hi freq" to radar and the ship's gyro compass.

Elsewise, strictly 110/220, and stepdown t-former to charge batteies, with DC, I might add.

Ditzy said DC falls with the draw, more draw, less voltage. Actually, DC falls with distance, as does AC, but AC can be transformed, high voltage along the wires, transform to local use, if the transformer hasn't the capacity for that street or city block or whatever, everybody suffers, computers, in particular.

The sole reason we are ON the AC system is that Tesla and Westinghouse (George, not the company, per se ) knew that AC could be transmitted at hi-pot and transformed down to the local user's needs.

DC required that a generator be built every mile of the way, as it would not reach farther without either too high a voltage at the beginning of the run, or too low a voltage at the end of the run.
This is one of the reasons for the War of the Currents.Edison was convinced that DC was it, and Tesla convinced Westinghouse that his polyphase system was the dream come true.

They almost gave up on it because the W'hose engineers kept winding the generators/alternators, for 133 cycle, and Tesla had to convince old George that 60 cycle was the way to go. Eerything worked as he had it laid out in his head, and Westinghouse not only installed the generators at Niagara Falls, but had to find a new way to make light bulbs, as Edison, et al, refused to sell them his ground glass stopper bulbs.

So, the 1896 word's Fair was lighted by the newfangled Westinghouse current..

Edison didn't quit, though, he went all over the country exploding watermelons and even got States and jurisdictions to execute mnurderers with the new current. They were "Westinghoused", cooked, not that DC would not have done the job, but, hey, what's the fun in that?

Hey, I work on Electrical Overhead Cranes, which draw 2 to 3 thousand amps, when running both hoists. The hotrails have that current available to be drawn. You should see the flash when someone loses hold of a 3/4 inch steel wire rope cable, and it crosses both rails.. KABOOM, and a BIG flash of light. These things are DC, mind you, not AC, DC is directional, AC, you need sophisticated circuitry to reverse direction or rotation.

Ah, well, 1 AM, gotta go to bed, get back on them in the AM, and 6 is too early.

Cheers,

George