Milwaukee School of Engineering - EMF Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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 M THE i920 EMF- 42 S ——jr dents of the city. The time has varied from six months to fourteen years. Rut if the conductor should make a mistake in punching the direction, why lie ought to he discharged. Another thing that must he spoken of. is the styles of the coming sum- mer. I understand that it will not he necessary to go to the Empress to see a burlesque. Just hoard a Farwell avenue car. The stylish costumes and “make up” of the ladies are of such a nature that it will not he necessary for the conductor to spend his spare change for a seat in front of the foot-lights. 1 might further state that the women are doing tine in saving cloth. They have shortened the length of everything, even the hose. That is all I have to say at present about our interesting occupation. Any- one wishing further information may see me privately and I will dispense my knowledge willingly. EXPERIMENT NO. 0000 B. L. S. 'fhe object of this experiment is to notice the effect of the commercial efficiency when it is connected in series with the interpolis hut with the polar- ity opposite as in the neutral wire of the squirrel cage high frequency phase splitter. Procedure :After the resistance of the fuses was measured new ones had to he inserted in the circuit and for protection a fairly heavy cable was con- nected across each of them. This also increased the power factor to such an extent that the current through cosine which was lagging the counter e. m. f. by 108 degrees in the shade went right up and consequently increased the fre- quency of 11 which immediately was compensated for by inserting a Jiffy cut- ter in the circuit. To limit the flow of current nothing higher than 25 Ampere Ammeters were used and as the circuit breakers were found to he very unstable they had to he tied to the seat. As the experiment progressed we noticed that the R. P. M.’s were moving in a counter clockwise direction which caused some of the Eddy currents to leak out and that of course hindered the brushes from making good contact and also explained a severe carbon knock. As the alternator in the laboratorv due to a frozen radiator was out of commission and alternating current of a suitable frequency was obtained by connecting to the D. C. supply lines, but reversing the leads every 1 120 second. In order to get the proper phase difference the current was sent through a vacuum cleaner wound with heavy insulated condenser laminations in which every third slot contained one or more single layered lap wound dummy coils which naturally protected the vibrator points of the slip rings from becoming pitted and consequently reduced the stray power loss to a negative value. After sending the current through a disinfector shower bath Page One Hundred Thirty-two

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 k 'THE ll p2G E, .......... TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF A CONDUCTOR. Conductor 1518. The conductor is the one whom they all think leads the life of ease. The person who originated this idea could never have been farther from the true fact. Since July, the fourth, it has been somewhat easier as it is not neces- sary to kick so many rain barrels off the car. Sometimes this is quite an undertaking and is liable to end with dire results. There are many things a man must be in order to qualify as a conductor. He should know when to talk and when to keep his mouth shut. The power of mind reading and hypnotism will come in handy at times. Next, he must be an information bureau and be able to give accurate information to any party from any part of the United States. Strangers arc not the only ones who ask questions, as the amiable citizens of Milwaukee seem to be as ignor- ant about the city as anyone else. People arc just like animals. They must be told what to do. The only difference is. some have to be told more often than others. It is the common practice of the public in general, to enter the car and remain there. The men wish to remain on the rear platform to smoke; the women, especially the older ones, like to talk to the conductor and the chickens without feathers kid the poor fellow until he is weary. Any fellow who is lonesome and wishes to make a few acquaintances should apply immediately for a position with The Electric Co. 1 can say without hesitation that he will have all the friends (?) he wants in just a few days. North avenue is the best place to find them but of course they can be found any place. Sonic people have the impression that conductors arc portable banks. It is a common case for a lady to send her seven-year-old son on the car with a five dollar bill. The conductor dishes out the change and the youngster, after dropping his three cents in the box. gets off at the next corner. Men will get on and hand the conductor a dollar bill, saying. “Change please.” The conductor then asks. “Haven't you any smaller change than this?” “Yes, I believe T have.” He then reaches down in his pockets and takes out the exact change. Then they wonder why the poor conductor loses his temper now and then. It is a wonder that he is not out of sorts all the time. If it were not for the good times he has with the fairer ones, his life would not be worth living. There is one thing about the svstcm that I wish might be dispensed with. I wish all conductors would so operate as to keep themselves above suspicion, so that the “spotters.” or men hired to watch the worthy servant of the pub- lic to see that he docs his work well and does not receive more than his share of the reward would be unnecessary. When the division superintendent wishes to see you. you cannot help feeling fearful that some “spotter” has spotted you and taken your number. I never saw a time when a number meant more to a fellow than when it is placed on his uniform cap. I have a suggestion that ought to be brought before the city council. I suggest that there be placed at every corner in the city, a sign, indicating the directions of the compass. The passengers then would have no excuse for asking for a transfer west, when they meant a transfer south. I have asked passengers who made these mistakes how long they have been resi- 0 Page One Hundred Thirty-one

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 :x- tEe 1920 i,.,,,,,» ’ ' y of very high internal resistance and in which the specific gravity was the greatest part of the solution it was multiplied by L. C. F. and was now very suitable for use so the experiment was continued. As soon as the theoretical speed of series motor at no load was reached a load in the form of a series multiple connection 60 calories in series and 30 such groups in multiple was connected to the machine. It didn’t seem to affect the speed in the least but the machine stopped because the impendance of the scale was getting very hot which after proper investigation proved to be caused by the armature reaction of the remote control field regulator. It was soon remedied and everything went along smoothly. Several of the seconds were now counted and as soon as a considerable number were gathered they were exchanged for minutes as these always are easier to cancel away when developing the formulas. A very peculiar incident happened while we were taking our hystercses readings which seemed very low. The reason was that we were using a 120 volt hysteresemeter while running the machine on 240 volts therefore the nee- dle point had made 011c revolution on the dial and started on the second but as book VI gives a very accurate formula for just this case all we had to do was lo draw out the correction curve and attach it to the lightning arrestors. By this time the health condition of two of the bunch was badly affected by the smoke from the ammeters and one had already fainted, so we de- cided to leave the laboratory until the test was finished. Two hours later when we came back it could easily be seen through the smoke that the machine had stopped which proved the experiment was finished. When the next bunch get to that experiment they will have brand new in- struments to work with. The fuses were alright. AN EVENING AT MY WIRELESS STATION. Few who have never listened to the musical sounds of a wireless trans- mitter or who have never been interested in the subject can possibly appre- ciate the fascination there is in it. I have been an active and intensely inter- ested amateur for about eight years. Several years of my life up until I came to school here were spent in Phoenix. Arizona. Phoenix has many amateurs and their influence only served to make me the more interested in the subject. The air and sky in Arizona is remarkably clear and naturally great ranges in wireless are the result. In fact to transmit fifty miles with an ordinary “Ford” ignition coil was most ordinary. Those who have had experience with wireless in this country will appreciate the significance in this statement. So while crossing the two thousand miles that separate Milwaukee from Phoenix by train 1 naturally conjectured on the future possibilities of radio in Milwaukee. My receiving instruments were coming by express and would arrive soon after I would so all that remained was to wait for that happy day when war-time restrictions would be removed and we would be free to listen once more. P i jc One Hundred Thirty-ihree