2007 IEEE CONFERENCE ON THE HISTORY OF
ELECTRIC POWER SCHEDULE/PROGRAM
The
Program is now available as a PDF!
FRIDAY 3 AUGUST 2007
OPENING SESSION 8:30 – 9:30
Welcoming Comments:
IEEE representative: Richard Gowen, Chair, IEEE
History Committee
NJIT representative: Atam Dhawan, Chair, NJIT
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
PSE&G representative: Rodney Dickens,
PSE&G, Vice President, Asset Management and
Centralized Services,
Opening address: Jack Casazza: Forgotten Roots
The talk will review the origin of the
electric power industry, the founding of the
electric power profession, and the importance of
electric power to our national development in
the 20th century. Four time periods
will be reviewed: 1885-1945, the Young
Profession; 1945-1965, the Golden Age;
1965-1990, the Changing World; and 1990-2006, the
Turbulence. Developments in the power
equipment manufacturing industry, the
utilities, in government, in the IEEE and in the
universities will be covered.
Break 9:30 – 9:45
EARLY POWER SYSTEMS 9:45 – 12:15
Marko Delimar,
Josip Moser,Aleksandar Szabo: First AC
Power Systems in Croatia
The development of electrical systems in
Croatia, at that time a part of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, started with first DC
systems around 1880. The first AC power
system in Croatia was set in operation on 28
August 1895, three days after the power plant on the
Niagara Falls. The two generators (42
Hz, 550 kW each) and the transformers were
produced and installed by the Hungarian company
Ganz. The transmission line from the power
plant to the City of Šibenik was 11.5 km long
on wooden towers, and the municipal
distribution grid 3000V/110 V included six
transforming stations. The system supplied 340
street lights and some electrified houses in
the town. Three years later after the first
Jaruga power plant, the construction of the second
Jaruga hydro plant began. Two three
phase, 50 Hz, 5.5 MW generators were installed.
A new transmission system was built and the
local grid enlarged. After Jaruga I and
II, additional power plants and transmission
lines have been constructed. It is curious
that Nikola Tesla, a pioneer of AC systems,
was born in Smiljan near Gospic, approximately
100 km north of Šibenik where the first power
plant in Croatia was constructed. It may
be a coincidence that in May 1892, Tesla held
a lecture on alternating systems in the City Hall of
Zagreb (the capital of Croatia) at the time of
the beginning of the preparations to construct
the Jaruga I hydro plant.
Moon-Hyon
Nam: Korean History of Korean Electric
Light and Power Development
In 1987 a ceremony took place at
Gyeongbokgung palace in Seoul to celebrate the
centennial of the first Korean electric light plant,
the First Electric Plant. The plant is
recognized as a historic milestone that
initiated the nation modernization process during
the late 19th century. In addition to its
original lighting service within the royal
residence, it eventually facilitated the successful
launch of the nation first electric business
corporation, namely the Seoul Electric Company.
This accelerated the nation modernization process by
extending electricity and power service to the
public. It managed to provide an integrated
service that included street-light, telephone, and
electric train--a new transportation system.
Today, the Korean government is planning to
reconstruct this earliest electric plant that had
been closed after the construction of its
successor. It is an effort to restore its
landmark facility that is significant both
historically and technologically. This paper
attempts to serve as an early research for
this project by providing a chronological overview
of the installation and development of
electric light and power. It will mainly focus on
the initial stages of the process discussing
the construction of two original electric
plants and the operations of the earliest commercial
electric company during the period of 1887 and
1901. The paper will also shed light on the
pioneer effort led by King Gojong, the reform-minded
leader who advocated the adoption of advanced
technology from the Western hemisphere. This
was an endeavor which had a basis to reinstate the
nation sovereignty that would frequently be
undermined by the neighboring countries at the
time. Furthermore, this paper will call for
world-wide attention and cooperation in
addition to the domestic effort among Cultural
Heritage Administration (CHA), History Committee at
the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
(KIEE) and Electricity Museum of Korea
Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
Short break
Sandhya Madan: History of Electric Power in India
(1890 – 1990)
This paper gives an overview of the
origins and development of hydroelectric and
thermal power systems in India. Most of the
early power generating stations, which were
developed when India was a colony of the
British, were hydroelectric in nature. These
pre-independence generating stations fed loads in
the urban areas, and the electrification of
the villages was done mostly after 1947. The
Electricity Supply Act of 1948 saw the emergence of
State Electricity Boards (SEBs). The
SEBs led to the rise of Regional Electricity
Boards, and efforts are being made to integrate the
various regional grids into a single national
grid. The latter half of the century saw
inroads being made into other forms of energy,
including nuclear and wind.
Mukesh Kafle: Electric Power in Nepal: History,
Experiences, and Possibilities
The history of electricity development
of Nepal began with construction of
Pharping Hydroelctric Plant ( 500 KW) in 1911.
Today, Nepal has an electric power of total
installed capacity 609 MW in Integrated Power
System with the major contribution from 25
hydroelectric plants. Out of the total
electric power, about 91 percent comes from
hydroelectric plants, thre remaining 9 percent from
diesel plants. Electricity demand in
Nepal has been increasing rapidly for many
years, with growth of industry and the use of
electrical appliances. During the Rana
Regime (1846-1951) few attempts were made for
initiating economic development until 1935, when a
development agency was constituted. In
1956 began the first Five Year Plan, and it
was been followed by nine other Five Year
Plans. Experiences prove that
electricity development in Nepal in the past has not
been smooth as planned. This is not only
due to lack of technology and dearth of
technical skills but also dependency on friendly
nations for investment.
Satoru Yanabu, M. Yamamoto: History of the Keage
Hydroelectric Power Station
Keage Hydroelectric Power Station was
the first hydroelectric station in
Japan. Water came from Biwako Lake to
Kyoto. There was a DC generator capable
of different voltages, a 50-Hz three-phase
generator, as well as single-phase and
two-phase generators. The transmission
system was therefore complicated. This station
led to a strong industrialization of the
area. At that time the Japanese Emperor
changed his residence from Kyoto to Tokyo, and the
governor of Kyoto was very eager to promote
industries in the Kyoto area. Before the
Keage Hydro Power Station, there were other power
stations to generate electric power by steam
turbine and some small private generators by
water turbine in Japan, but their scale was
relatively small, as Keage was first large
hydro power station.
Lunch 12:15 – 1:15
POWER DISTRIBUTION 1:15 – 2:45
W. Bernard Carlson: Nikola Tesla and the Idea of
Broadcasting Electric Power, 1890-1905
In 1890, after developing a successful
alternating current motor, Nikola Tesla began
investigating electro-magnetic waves. Within a
short time, he not only duplicated the
experiments of Heinrich Hertz but improved
upon the Hertz apparatus by developing a
high-frequency transformer which came to be
known as the Tesla Coil. Using this new
device, Tesla now faced the challenge of figuring
how this new phenomena—radio
waves—might be developed as a practical
technology. Unlike his later rival
Marconi who chose to focus on developing wireless
telegraphy, Tesla instead sought to use
electro-magnetic waves to improve the
distribution of electric light and power. In
this lecture, I will describe the evolution of
his vision for broadcasting power through the
earth and discuss the experiments he undertook in
Colorado Springs (1899-1901) as well as at
Wardenclyffe on Long Island (1901-1905).
In doing so, I will talk about what it means to
claim that someone invented
“radio,” but more broadly, we will
consider how individuals can shape scientific
phenomena in different ways and wind up with
significantly different technologies.
Hal Wallace: Decentralizing Power: Musings
on the Development of Distributed Generation
In 1880 Thomas Edison and his Menlo Park
team installed one of their new electric
lighting systems onboard S.S. Columbia, and
began putting another in the printing
establishment of Hinds, Ketchum & Co.
Simultaneously they planned the
construction of a centralized generating station on
New York’s Pearl Street that Edison
believed would provide electricity more
efficiently than stand-alone,
“isolated” plants. The two
concepts–central and isolated
power–have coexisted since that era.
During the first half of the 20th
century the former became dominant while engineers
found niches for the latter.
For
various reasons during the second half of the last
century, many people called into questions the
rationale underlying the dominance of this
system. Some pointed to the development of
generating technologies purported to make
isolated power plants more efficient (both
technically and financially) than centralized power.
A hybrid of the two, generically
referred to as distributed generation or DG, has
increasingly been discussed as a policy alternative
to address many conditions / problems of the
existing electric power system. The
current interest in DG technologies makes this an
opportune time to explore historical and
policy questions about technological change in
large infrastructures, the competing roles and
strategies of interest groups, and the
construction of differing definitions of the DG
concept. This paper will not present
research results, but will rather initiate a
conversation about pertinent issues and perspectives
that might be considered.
Fumio Arakawa: History of Power Systems
Development in Japan
There is similarity and difference
between history in general and history of
engineering. Since the study of engineering is
rather practical, the productivity of the
study will be essentially estimated to meet with
the needs of human life. This paper tries to
find some keys for the innovation by way of
historical study of engineering, suggesting
“The Repeat Model.” One of
effective ways to review the innovation is the
model study, as it will provide us with the
suggestion for innovative development of
technology. Taking the case of power systems
engineering development in Japan as an example, the
author finds such perspective for the future
as is given by the condition of deregulation,
social needs, and contradiction.
Break 2:45 – 3:00
THE SCIENCE OF ELECTRIC POWER 3:00 –
4:30
Jana M. Jilek: From Maxwell to Steinmetz: The
Development of Electric Circuits Theories
The late nineteenth century was the time
of birth and expansion of the electric power
industry. During this time, the process of
design of electrical systems and devices
changed from an empirical approach of trial
and error to using theoretical models.
Maxwell’s highly mathematical
theories of time variable electric and magnetic
fields were not widely known by the practicing
electricians of that time and were difficult
to apply to practical problems. However,
together with engineering graphical analysis
used by civil and mechanical engineers, they
became one of the building blocks from which
engineering analysis of alternating current
circuits was developed. The methods that we
teach to electrical engineering students in
introductory electric circuits courses were
developed in stages from these two diverse
intellectual backgrounds.
Kent Lundberg: Analog Computers and Non-Computing
Analogies in the Electric Power Industry
From the mechanical computers of
Vannevar Bush to the electronic systems of
George Philbrick, analog computers were the
workhorses of science and technology for
nearly fifty years. In the electric power
industry, a wide variety of analog machines
were built and used at MIT, General Electric,
and Westinghouse. The direct analog machines,
such as the MIT/GE network analyzers and the
Westinghouse Anacom, were basically scale
models or dynamic analogies of the systems under
study. The indirect analog computers,
such as the MIT Differential Analyzer and the
electronic analog computers that followed it,
directly solved differential equations.
This paper discusses the history, taxonomy,
impact, and legacy of the analog computers and
non-computing analogies in the electric power
industry.
Julian Reitman: A Series of Short Film Clips from
1904 of the Westinghouse Companies
The role of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase
Exposition in St. Louis in the era before
movies, radio, and television was both to inform and
to entertain. The Westinghouse Companies
expended considerable resources to inform the
engineering world of their product lines and some
efforts to entertain the general public.
Westinghouse was the Fair’s
electrical power provider, and their products were
among the great variety of electrical
machinery displayed in the Palace of
Machinery. Westinghouse had recently gained
control of Cooper-Hewitt, the manufacturer of
mercury vapor lamps. With these lamps
there was sufficient illumination to allow films to
be made under artificial lighting. With
this amount of lighting the Biograph Company
cameraman, Billy Bitzer, made films providing a
clear view as large electrical generators were
assembled and the physical efforts expended by
manual labor and the lack of safety features when
handling hot metal. There were 10,000 workers
in the factories including about 900 women.
Employees are shown as they worked, and as they
departed at noon on Saturday.
SATURDAY 4 AUGUST 2007
THE BUSINESS OF ELECTRIC POWER 8:30 –
10:00
William Hederman: The Influence of Electric
Technology on Policy and of Electric Policy on Technology
Electric power technology and public
policy have been highly interrelated since the
dawn of commercial electricity. This
presentation will explore how technology has
influenced public policy addressing
electricity and how public policy in energy has
influenced technology. This presentation
will use illustrative examples of intended and
unintended effects covering important technological
developments such as large scale hydropower, nuclear
power, industrial cogeneration, large scale
dispatch of power grids, high efficiency
generators, and others.
Frank A. Felder: The Role of Stakeholders in
Designing Wholesale Electricity Markets:
Comparison of New England, New York, and PJM
During the early 1990s, the U.S.
embraced competition for the generation sector
of the electric power industry. This
transition was from an integrated,
cost-of-service structure in which generation was
owned for the most part by vertically
integrated utilities to competitive wholesale
markets. In the case of the Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic States, the three power pools
– NEPOOL, New York, and PJM – were
transformed into wholesale electricity markets
administered and operated by Independent
System Operators (ISOs). Stakeholders were
intimately involved in the design of these new
markets. Despite a similar history and role
as power pools, each of these three regions
initially settled upon three different market
designs with a pronounced difference between NEPOOL
and the other two regions. Based upon
interviews of key participants in these market
developments, this paper traces the major steps in
the design of these initial markets to
understand the role of stakeholders and to
evaluate how they contributed to the design process.
Hyungsoo
Park: Historical Formation of Transmission
Systems and Large-Scale Blackouts
This paper explores the historical
formation of transmission systems and dispatch
control centers in relation to institutional
environments in order to investigate social
origins of large scale blackouts. Many
analyses of large scale blackouts focus on technical
issues, particularly weak interconnection of
transmission systems. However, large scale
blackouts are, in part, consequences of the
fragmented performance of the related
organizations and their control centers. In
examining two cases - the 1965 Northeast
blackout and the 1977 New York blackout - this paper
explains that the reason for periodically repeated
large scale blackouts is due, to a certain
extent, to fragmented coordination of human
performance between control areas. While
transmission systems have evolved historically
from small to interconnected large scales, the
coordination between control-centers has not been
fully developed because of the lack of
centralization-decentralization process in
organizing entire operation systems, and the
absence of reliability of culture among
control centers under the changing physical and
institutional environments. Better
coordination of performance among control centers
can isolate initial, small scale power outages,
thereby preventing large scale blackouts.
Travel to Glenmont 10:00 – 10:30
Tour of Glenmont 10:30 – 11:45
Travel back to NJIT 11:45 – 12:00
Lunch 12:00 – 1:00
FUEL CELLS 1:00 – 2:00
Eduardo I. Ortiz-Rivera: Understanding the
History of Fuel Cells
Fuel cells are one of the enabling
technologies for the future hydrogen
economy. For the last 20 years applications
for fuel cells have been as replacements for
internal combustion engines, providing both
stationary and portable power. But the history
of fuel cells is much longer than 20 years, in
fact, it is more than 150 years! This
paper presents the development of the fuel cell
through this long period, discussing the basic
concepts and the applications for the six main types
of fuel cells.
Matthew N. Eisler: Fueling Dreams of Grandeur:
Fuel Cell Research and Development and the
Pursuit of the Abundant Energy Machine, 1945-2000
The fuel cell presents one of the great
enigmas in the history of technology.
Despite over 50 years of concerted work since the
Second World War, researchers have largely failed to
deliver long-lived and affordable commercial
fuel cells to the marketplace. During
this period, expectations have tended to exceed the
knowledge base, largely because definitions of
"success" have varied according to context and
application. Drawing from my doctoral
dissertation, I argue that we should
understand fuel cell research and development
communities as central nodes of expectation
generation. They have functioned as a
nexus where the physical-material realities of fuel
cell technology meet external factors, those
political, economic and cultural pressures
that create a "need" for a "miracle" power
source. I argue that the economic exigencies
and distinct material practices of these
communities are important factors in producing
expectations of technological progress,
playing at least as much of a role in shaping
the resultant artifacts as the requirements of
actual and potential customers.
Break 2:00 – 2:15
THE SOCIAL MEANING OF ELECTRIC POWER 2:15
– 4:45
James Delbourgo: Electricity Shocks the World:
Enlightenment Contests over Global Electric Power
Scientific instruments played an
important role in projects to exert
metropolitan control over distant peripheries.
Experimental machines were a means of
exporting laboratory technique to discipline
experience in the world “outside.”
But, as with other philosophical
apparatus, the truths yielded by electrical machines
proved variable and unstable. As they
moved from Europe to the Americas and beyond, the
machines of enlightenment could inspire mistrust and
provoke resistance to European authority.
When eighteenth-century Americans became
experimental demonstrators, the politics of
enlightenment turned volatile. This was
in no small part because electrical machines
themselves were ambiguous in their effects: was the
experience of bodily electrification they
afforded one of discipline or indiscipline?
Did such experience constitute participation
in an orderly political cosmology uniting
colonial Americans with metropolitan Britons,
or did the electric fire’s shocks and sparks
conjure new understandings of nature, society
and religion that precipitated division? This
paper examines electrical machines as engines both
of unity and disunity in the
eighteenth-century – the era when electricity
first became a form of global power –
as imagined agents of imperial integration, racial
differentiation, and political separation in the
Atlantic world. It ends with an unlikely
machine that had lurked in the American garden all
along: the electric eel. In attempting to
handle the eel like an electric machine,
experimenters engaged with the central tension at
work in the global relation between
electricity and empire: could a world of
exotic natural phenomena be controlled as
predictable effects through experimental
discipline?
Giuliano Pancaldi: Interpreting the Early Age of Electricity
The paper will explore some interpretive
issues raised by the period from the
introduction of the first electric battery in 1800
to the Edison-dominated, Paris International
Electrical Exhibition of 1881. Using
William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and Britain as
examples, I will explore the interaction of science,
technology, industry, and public culture at a
time when the uses of electricity had not yet
crystallized in the forms that seemed obvious to
people of later generations. I will
especially consider how it happened that –
contrary to contemporary expectations –
electric communications (the telegraph),
rather than electric power, succeeded first in the
attempt to turn electricity into a major, new
industrial and cultural asset. Some of
the premises that have led historians to treat
science, technology, public culture, and
business as independent factors in the shaping
of the early age of electricity will be questioned.
It will be argued that there is much to
be learnt from treating these fields as all
contributing to the slow emergence of the age of
electricity.
Short break
Samir Saul: Recent Trends in French
Historiography on Electricity
An important body of research on the
history of electricity as a key aspect of
meodernity has developed in France in the past
quarter century. Work got underway in
the early 1980s, mainly at the behest of
economic historians specializing in the history of
industry, railroads, and public works.
Based on this collective activity, the
Association pour l’histoire de
l’électricité en France (AHEF) grew
out of an effort to favor interaction and
stimulate interest among graduate students.
The AHEF organized several colloquia and
sponsored the publication of monographic
studies on electricity. In 1983, it
began publishing a semestrial journal entitled
Bulletin pour l’histoire de
l’électricité, where
articles by confirmed scholars and younger prospects
disseminated the results of the latest
research. The major project was a
wide-ranging three-volume multi-authored synthesis
of knowledge published in 1991, 1994, and
1996. By the end of the 1990s, the phase of
research inaugurated twenty years earlier came to a
close. In 2001, the AHEF changed its
name to Fondation Électricité de France
and the Bulletin pour l’histoire de
l’électricité to Annales
historiques de l’électricité.
The outlook changed somewhat, with
numbers becoming thematic. Publications
on the history of electricity continue at a steady
pace. The intent of this paper is to take
stock of the work accomplished and make it
better known outside its original French
setting. Its aim is to identify the themes
which attracted attention, the outcome of the
research done and the areas remaining to be
investigated.
Silvestra Mariniello: Electricity: the Forgotten Fairy
This paper explores the influence of
electricity on modern culture. In the
first part it argues that the discovery and the
introduction of electricity into the physical,
social and cultural world generated as
important changes as those produced by the invention
of alphabetical writing in the antiquity and
by printing at the beginning of Western
Modernity. In the second part it
questions the oblivion of which
electricity has been the object. If oblivion
is an essential feature of any technology that
in order to work has to make its technological
nature forgotten as well as the network in which it
inscribes itself, this seems particularly true of
electricity. I will in particular look
at the case of the so called cybernetic
revolution to inquire why it is easier to recognize
the changes brought by electronics than to
acknowledge the cultural power of electricity.
Susan Barnes: Rural Electrification
Administration: A Study of Lester Beall Posters, 1937-1941
Lester Beall's posters to help electrify
rural area in the United States helped to
foster the formation of electrical cooperatives in
rural areas. These posters depict the
wonder of electricity and the benefits of
using this technology. Of particular interest,
is the impact of electricity on the role of
the women in rural areas. Placed within
the context of other forms of electrical advertising
and promotion, this study examines the
rhetorical messages communicated through a
series of posters created by graphic designer Lester
Beall for the Rural Electrification
Administration. The purpose of these
posters was to communicate the benefits of
electricity and the visual and verbal rhetoric
was designed to convince rural Americans to adopt
electrical technologies. In addition to the
importance of these posters in the history of
electrical power in the United States, Beall's
posters set the stage for a new era of graphic
design in the United States. Beall's
work is considered historically significant in the
world of art as well as the history of electricity
in the United States.
SUNDAY 5 AUGUST 2007
TECHNOLOGIES OF ELECTRIC POWER Part I
8:30 – 10:30
Chris Hunter: Documenting the Curtis Turbine
This paper will explore the development
of early power generation, focusing on the
development of the Curtis Turbine at General
Electric and its impact on utilities, power
engineering, and consumer use of
electricity. The Curtis turbine revolutionized
power engineering. GE produced the
turbine at the insistence of Chicago Edison
president Samuel Insull, in spite of doubt within
the electrical industry and even GE.
Despite the great increase in efficiency in
the 5000 kW turbine, new developments
(turbine-generators with 12,000 kW output)
made it obsolete, and Insull returned the turbine to
GE in 1909 as a “Monument to
Courage,” commemorating the risk that GE and
its engineers undertook in agreeing to produce
the turbine. GE adapted the vertical
design to a horizontal design by 1910. The
paper will utilize archival materials from the
Schenectady Museum’s General Electric
Collections and will include a brief overview of the
resources available at the Museum, including
the GE Photograph Collection, GE Historical
File, and collections from a variety of electrical
engineers.
Eiju Matsumoto: Weston was the Icon of Meters in Japan
Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation
was founded in 1888 and began to manufacture
direct-current portable instruments. In those
days it was the beginning of the electricity
business in Japan, and IEEJ was also organized
in the same year. Many Weston meters were
exported to Japan, and government institutions
as well as universities made use of
them. Instruments manufacturers in Japan were
established around 1900, and they began to
manufacture similar instruments learned from
Weston's meters. It took a while before they
made meters which had equivalent
characteristics as Weston's; in addition, users did
not acknowledge that domestic meters attained
as good performance as Weston's for long
time. This is to say, Weston's instruments
were the icon of instruments, and users
insisted strongly on Weston's
superiority. The following meters were their
specialties: Laboratory Standard Instrument
(0.1%), Portable Instrument (0.25%),
Photographic Exposure Meter. These conditions
were kept strong until around 1950, after the
end of the second world war. However after the
introduction of digital instruments, the situation
changed a lot. Although the Weston
Corporation had excellent A/D converters, such
as one having dual slope, it could not overcome the
competition in the meter business.
Ed Owen: Fiftieth Anniversary of Modern Power
Electronics: The Silicon Controlled Rectifier
In late July 1957, researchers at
General Electric developed the first Silicon
Controlled Rectifier or SCR. It followed by
10-years development of the transistor by Bell
Labs. The transistor was the first of
many modern solid-state electronic devices; which in
due course leads to formation of "Silicon
Valley" in California. The transistor
was a device used in signal electronics applications
since it was capable of controlling only small
amounts of electric power (milliwatts).
Meanwhile the SCR was capable of controlling much
large amounts of power (Kilowatts). The SCR
was developed by a very small group of
researchers working on an even smaller budget, a
modest beginning. From such humble
beginnings, the modern era of power
electronics has grown into a powerful giant of
enormous proportions. Power electronics
have profoundly affected the lives of most
citizens living in the modern industrialized
world. At the time of its birth, the
future for the SCR was severely underestimated by
most people and it took several years to show its
true potential as an agent for change.
In the beginning even its very name was
controversial; today most people refer to it simply
as the Thyristor. This paper examines
these circumstances and the people who brought
them about.
Sture Eriksson: The Swedish Development of
Turbogenerators with Directly Water-Cooled Rotors
The Swedish electric power production
had been based on hydropower until the 1960s,
when the development of nuclear power plants
started. The Swedish manufacturer of
heavy electrical equipment, Asea then faced a
challenge of developing and manufacturing much
larger turbogenerators than the company had
experience with. Asea decided to acquire
a license for the turbines but to develop new
generators in-house and to choose a completely
water-cooled concept, i.e. even the two-pole
rotors should be directly water-cooled. The
strategic decisions to refrain from taking a
license, and to develop a very advanced
turbogenerator concept, followed a tradition that
Asea had adopted also for large salient pole
machines. Companies in Sweden –
and even one a Finland – ordered complete
nuclear plants or turbine/generator units from
Asea, including generators of this unproven
technology. Thus the world’s most
comprehensive program of two-pole
turbogenerators was implemented in Sweden during the
1970s. The company had to fight against
both technical and commercial difficulties
until these eventually were overcome. Asea
changed profile as generator manufacturer from
being a leading company for hydropower
generators to become respected also in case of large
turbogenerators. These directly water-cooled
generators have had excellent operation
records from the beginning of the 1980s and have,
since then, generated around 30 percent of
Sweden’s electrical power. The
global generator industry has been subject to a
radical change during the last two decades and
that has also affected the Swedish
manufacturer. However, it is still dealing
with directly water-cooled turbogenerators,
but is obviously rather alone in this respect.
The concept has several advantages but has
difficulties in competing with more common,
well-established
technologies.
Break 10:30 – 10:50
TECHNOLOGIES OF ELECTRIC POWER Part II
10:50 – 12:20
Chair: Carl
Sulzberger, IEEE Life Member
Mischa Schwartz: The Early History of
Carrier-Wave Telephony over Power Lines
Power-line communications has seen a
strong revival of interest in the past few
years. The idea of using power lines to convey
information dates back to circa 1900, with
transmission of metering information the first
such application. Telegraphy over power lines
was proposed shortly thereafter. In this
paper, we focus on the early history of the
use of power lines for telephony, i.e., to convey
voice signals, dating back to 1918 and
continuing until 1930. The technology used
to transmit voice signals over high-voltage power
lines at the time was variously called
“wired wireless”, carrier-current
telephony or communications, guided-wave
telephony, wired radio, and power-line
telephony, among other terms. This technology,
based on the pioneering 1910 invention by the
then-Major George Squier of the US Army Signal
Corps of “wired wireless” transmission
of multiple voice signals over telephone
lines, uses multiple carrier frequencies to transmit
the signals independently, just as in AM
radio. Various power companies
world-wide, realizing the potential of
carrier-current technology to provide more
reliable communications when applied to power-line
transmission, began to test and adopt the technology
soon thereafter. Interest by power
companies was very strong. By 1924, 43
systems were in operation in the United States,
while by 1928 this number had grown to close
to 300. Similar intense interest was
displayed by power companies in France, Germany, and
other European countries.
Gil Cooke: The Slot in the Road: Manhattan's
Underground Electric Trolley System
The presentation will describe the
system developed by the Metropolitan Street
Railway Company for operating its passenger traffic
by electricity on surface roads of New York
City. The company selected the open-slot
conduit design, which used 600 volt DC traction
power but not from an overhead wire. In
this case, traction power to streetcars was
supplied by double conductors located between the
tracks a short depth below the surface of the
street. The initial 1895 Harlem trials
were a complete success, and following improvements
to the design, the conduit was adopted system
wide beginning in 1896. Horses began to
disappear from the streets of Manhattan. The
presentation will cover the early system
development during the period 1894 to 1907
including the traction power supply, namely the
96th Street Power Station, and the
company’s extensive AC and DC
distribution. Overall, the conduit system was
a landmark electrical engineering project:
privately financed, innovative, and
long-lived. It provided transportation to New
Yorkers before the subway was available, and
the design of the conduit was adopted by
transit companies in Washington DC and London.
The last electric streetcar in downtown
Manhattan was removed from service in 1936.
Donald W. Zipse: Operating a Direct Current
Generating Station Similar to Edison’s
This paper details the day-to-day
operation of isolated 130-volt direct-current
generators that supplied the electricity to a
250-acre campus with about 22 buildings.
The school was built in the late 1880s, and
the equipment dates back to the start of the
20th century. Some of the episodes
recounted are losing control of a generator and
destroying the residual magnetism, allowing
the water level to get too high in a hand-fired coal
boiler, and mixing AC and DC in an open-knife
distribution switchboard in order to keep the
school operating.
CLOSING LUNCHEON 12:20 – 2:00
Paul Israel: Not Just the Electric Light: Edison
and the Creation of the Electrical Industry
Thomas Edison is usually referred to as
the inventor of the electric light. But
many inventors had exhibited working incandescent
electric lights before Edison began working on this
technology. Why then is Edison is
remembered as the inventor. The answer is that
the electric light was only one of several related
inventions necessary for a commercial system
of electric lighting. Furthermore, Edison
not only designed the first system for producing
light and power but also established the
necessary manufacturing, installation, and operating
companies to commercialize his system. With
the electric light Edison was more than just
an inventor, he was a true innovator whose work
was crucial to the birth of the electrical industry.
♦
2007 IEEE
Conference on the History of Electric Power Program
Committee
Frederik
Nebeker, Chair
W. Bernard
Carlson
Walid Hubbi
Wallace S. Read
Mischa Schwartz
