ELECTRIC GAS LIGHTING
HOW TO INSTALL
ELECTRIC GAS IGNITING APPARATUS
INCLUDING THE JUMP SPARK
AND MULTIPLE SYSTEMS
FOR USE IN
HOUSES, CHURCHES, THEATRES, HALLS, SCHOOLS,
STORES OR ANY LARGE BUILDINGS
ALSO THE CARE AND SELECTION OF SUITABLE BATTERIES.
WIRING AND REPAIRS
By H. S. NORRIE
(NORMAN H. SCHNEIDER)
(_Author of “Induction Coils and Coil Making”_)
FIRST EDITION
NEW YORK
SPON & CHAMBERLAIN
12 CORTLANDT STREET
LONDON
E. & F. N. SPON, LIMITED,
125 STRAND
1901
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1901
By SPON & CHAMBERLAIN
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C.
THE BURR PRINTING HOUSE, FRANKFORT AND JACOB STS., N.Y.
PREFACE
The Electric Light possesses the great advantage over gas, in that it
can be turned on or lighted from a distance. The customary means of
igniting gas with a match or taper is both dangerous and often
inconvenient. The inventive genius of modern times has evolved a means
of lighting gas by electricity which is both reliable and easy of
application. It requires no very complicated devices, nor does it
necessitate a deep knowledge of electrical matters for its
installation. The object of the following pages is to enable any one
possessing ordinary mechanical ability to construct much of the
apparatus used, or at least to successfully erect it and keep it in
operation.
We beg to thank the following firms for the use of illustrations:
Edwards & Co., Mott Haven, New York; A. L. Bogart, New York; Wm.
Roche, New York; The Electric Gas-Lighting Co., Boston, Mass., and The
Manhattan Electrical Supply Co., New York.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
Introduction; means of producing sparks; Induction--Simple
induction coils--Ruhmkorff Coils 1
CHAPTER II.
MULTIPLE GAS LIGHTING.
Application of induction coils to gas-lighting--Forms of burners
used--Pendant Burners--Ratchet Burners--Stem Burners--Welsbach
Burners--Burners for Acetylene Gas--Burners for
Gasolene--Automatic Burners 7
CHAPTER III.
CONNECTIONS AND WIRING.
How to connect up apparatus--Wiring a house--Locating breaks or
short-circuits--Wiring in finished houses--General remarks 26
CHAPTER IV.
PRIMARY COILS AND SAFETY DEVICES.
How to make a simple induction coil--Automatic Cut-outs--The
Syracuse Cut-out--Boston Cut-out--Edwards’ Cut-out 46
CHAPTER V.
LIGHTING OF LARGE BUILDINGS.
Series or Jump Spark System--Burners used--How to Wire--Edwards’
Condenser System--Switches for series lighting--How to make a
2-inch spark, Ruhmkorff Coil 55
CHAPTER VI.
HOW TO SELECT BATTERIES FOR GAS LIGHTING.
Electrical Rules--Electromotive
force--Amperes--Resistance--Selecting a battery--Arrangement of
battery--Series--Multiple--How to get high voltage or large
current--The Leclanche Cell--The Samson Cell--The Dry Cell and
how to make one--The Edison-Lalande Cell--The Fuller Cell--Care
and maintenance of batteries 78
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FRONTISPIECE--COMPLETE WIRING PLAN FOR A HOUSE.
1 DIAGRAM OF SIMPLE CIRCUIT 2
2 DIAGRAM OF SIMPLE CIRCUIT WITH SPIRAL 2
3 DIAGRAM OF SIMPLE CIRCUIT WITH SPIRAL AND GALVANOMETER 2
4 DIAGRAM OF CIRCUIT WITH IRON CORE 4
5 DIAGRAM OF RUHMKORFF COIL 4
6 ELEVATION OF RUHMKORFF COIL 6
7 PENDANT BURNER 7
8 BURNER CIRCUIT 8
9 PLAIN BURNER 10
10 RATCHET BURNER 11
11 STIFF-PULL PENDANT 12
12 STEM BURNER 14
13 ARGAND BURNER 15
14 WELSBACH BURNER 16
15 ACETYLENE BURNER 17
16 PUSH BUTTON 19
17 BARTHOLDI BURNER 21
18 BOSTON AUTOMATIC 22
19 CONCEALED AUTOMATIC 24
20 DIAGRAM WIRING ONE “AUTOMATIC” FROM TWO PUSHES 27
21 DIAGRAM WIRING ONE “AUTOMATIC” AND TWO PENDANT BURNERS 28
22 SIMPLE SWITCH CONNECTIONS 33
23 DETAILS OF AUTOMATIC CONNECTIONS 35
24 DETAILS OF CELLAR AUTOMATIC CIRCUITS 35
25 NUT WRENCH 40
26 AUTOMATIC OPERATED BY DOOR-TRIP 44
27 PRIMARY COIL 46
28 SYRACUSE CUT-OUT 50
29 BOSTON CUT-OUT 51
30 DETAILS CUT-OUT ROD--NORMAL 52
31 DETAILS CUT-OUT ROD--OPERATING 53
32 BULB CUT-OUT 54
33 JUMP SPARK BURNER 56
34 WELSBACH BURNER FOR SERIES LIGHTING 56
35 PILLAR BURNER 56
36 CIRCUIT FOR JUMP SPARK GAS LIGHTING 57
37 INSULATOR 59
38 EDWARDS’ CONDENSER 60
39 EDWARDS’ BURNER 61
40 EDWARDS’ BURNER 61
41 DIAGRAM OF EDWARDS’ CONDENSER CIRCUIT 62
42 CIRCUIT FOR JUMP SPARK SWITCH 64
43 ELECTROMAGNETIC TRAILER 66
44 DIAGRAM OF RUHMKORFF COIL CIRCUIT 68
45 WINDINGS OF SECTIONS 73
46 SECTIONAL DIAGRAM 74
47 CONTACT BREAKER 75
48 CONTACT KEY 76
49 FALL OF POTENTIAL DIAGRAM 79
50 SERIES ARRANGEMENT 81
51 MULTIPLE ARRANGEMENT 82
52 LECLANCHE CELL 84
53 SAMSON CELL 87
54 NEW STANDARD CELL 90
55 EDISON-LALANDE CELL 92
56 FULLER CELL 94
57 GRENET CELL 95
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
The enormous number of fires arising from the use of matches, and the
great convenience and freedom from danger of the electric method of
gas lighting, are alone sufficient reasons for the issue of these
pages.
The veriest tyro in electrical operations knows that electricity will
cause a spark, and most persons are aware that the spark possesses
considerable deflagratory powers, varying with the character of the
spark. In electric gas lighting a spark of the proper character is
passed across a jet of gas and ignites it. Sparks can be produced by
various means: friction, battery current, induction either galvanic or
electro-magnetic, by a Wimshurst or Toepler Holtz machine, or an
induction coil operated by a battery. For our purposes we will
consider only the latter; the former are rarely used, being uncertain
and unwieldy.
Of batteries there are many kinds, and although all will produce
sparks, yet for electric gas lighting those made for intermittent work
and classed as open circuit cells are to be preferred. Open circuit
batteries, which will be fully described in a subsequent chapter,
include the Leclanche, and most of the so-called “dry” cells.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
If two wires be attached to a cell of battery _B_, one to the carbon
or positive pole and the other to the zinc or negative pole, and their
free ends be tapped together, minute sparks at _C_ will be observed
each time the wires _separate_ (Fig. 1). If now a coil of insulated
wire _S_ be included in the circuit, Fig. 2, upon repeating the make
and break of contact, the sparks will be much increased. This arises
from _induction_, each adjacent turn of wire acting upon its neighbor.
To better understand the action of induction, we will consider the
following examples: Fig. 3. _A_ is a circuit in which is the battery
cell _B_. _C_ is a second circuit lying close to but well insulated
from circuit _A_. _G_ is a galvanometer in which a magnetized needle
swings right or left each time a current is passed through a coil of
wire encircling it. Now, although there is no battery cell in circuit
_C_, yet the needle will swing each time the circuit _A_ is closed or
opened; that is, each time the wire ends are touched together or
separated. This swing of course indicates that a current is passing
through circuit _C_, but as there is no battery or other source of
electrical energy included in it, it is clear that it arises from the
action of the current in circuit _A_. In point of fact, the needle
swings one way when the circuit is closed and the reverse way when it
is opened; but the greater swing on opening the circuit indicates the
greater strength of the _induced_ current at the moment the current
ceases to flow in circuit _A_. Note that these current impulses are
only momentary. In the case of our single coil, Fig. 2, each turn of
wire acted upon itself in a similar manner to the circuit _A_ upon
circuit _C_.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
An iron rod or bundle of iron wires, _P_, inserted in the coil, Fig.
4, but carefully insulated from it, will immensely increase the
inductive effects and consequently the spark. This arrangement
constitutes the simple primary coil used in pull-down or pendant and
automatic burners. This spark is often a source of inconvenience; it
appears wherever a circuit including similar coils is made and broken.
In telegraph apparatus at key and relay contacts it is noticeable; in
fact, the writer has used temporarily a pair of electro-magnets from a
telegraph sounder and obtained spark enough to operate a gas lighting
burner.
To produce a long spark which will jump across an air gap, a more
complicated form of coil is needed, one which more closely corresponds
to the experiment noted in Fig. 3. The simple primary coil has here
another coil of finer wire, _S_, wound on it but carefully insulated
from it (Fig. 5). This second coil, or “secondary,” has a vast number
of turns of fine wire as compared with the primary, which has only
comparatively few turns of coarse wire. A primary coil of 40 feet of
No. 14 B. & S. copper wire would be inserted in a secondary coil of
perhaps 16,000 feet of No. 36 B. & S. This secondary coil, in fact all
the apparatus constituting the induction coil, must be most highly
insulated, as the electromotive force of the spark is tremendous, and
it would be liable to pierce its way through and into the internal
winding and so destroy the apparatus. The circuit in the primary is
made and broken either by a hand key or by an automatic
contact-breaker at _C_. With a large coil, the intensity of the spark
at _G_ is such that it will jump an air-gap of from one-eighth of an
inch to over three feet.[1]
[1] See Norrie, _Induction Coils and Coil-Making_.
This combination of coils and contact-breaker is generally known as a
Ruhmkorff or intensity coil, and is shown in elevation in Fig. 6.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.]