General Remarks
The Thomson Houston system also furnish lightning arresters, ammeters, hanging boards, switchboards, hoods, insulators, lamp arms, etc, but, though in some respects many of these miscellaneous articles are ingenious and novel, yet they are not distinctive of the Thomson Houston or any other system. Be it said however that all these articles fill their proper places. The company also furnish a motor to go on their circuits but for the double reason that of the motor not being strictly related to electric lighting and of being unable to obtain a description of it, it must remain undescribed as far as this thesis is concerned.
After describing all the parts of the system it may be interesting to know how a plant is arranged. The last plate is a photograph of the LaFayette Gas Company’s Plant of the Thomson Houston System taken at ten oclock one night. It shows the engine, dynamos, the wall controller on the left wall, and a view of the lamps which had hoods put before them to prevent the polarization of the negative.
On the accompanying page will be found a table showing experiments with an old style dynamo given Purdue University by the Thomson Houston Company, which dynamo is now in the engine house of the Mechanical Hall.
Experiments with Three Light T-H. Dynamo No. 79
The dynamo was run by a large pulley (about four and one half feet in diameter) on the same shaft as the fly wheel and beside the latter. Two lamps were put in circuit with a Deprez-Carpentier ammeter and a volt meter of the same make was put in between the brushes. First one lamp (old Thomson style) was switched out of circuit, the dynamo started and when speed was reached the circuit made. The following readings were taken when the engine made 139 & the dynamo 1122 revolutions per minute.
consisting of drawing of Sawyer Man lamp cut from catalogue, and trimmed to contour of drawing
a drawing showing action of key in Sawyer Man lamp, cut to contour
a drawing of the Thomson Rice Individual distributor cut from cataloug and pasted in.
a drawing cut from pamphlet showing “Method of using Thomson Rice Individual distributor”
a drawing cut from pamphlet showing “Prof. Thomsons incandescent lamp—series incandescent lamp”
Drawing showing “method of using the Series Incandescent Lamp manufactured by the Thomson-Houston Elec. Co.” cut from your pamphlet and pasted on a similar sheet.
A photographer of La Fayette photoed the Gas Company’s plant of T & H in this city one evening at 10 o’clock when several lights were burning in room. I had a large one printed and pasted on a piece of bristol board of the same size as this sheet, and put in my original copy.