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

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TEE 1920 EMF- 1 y -' £0 M T WONDERFUL NEW DISCOVERY OF THE AGE IS ACCREDITED TO MEN OF THE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING OF MILWAUKEE BATTLESHIPS CAN NOW OPERATE WITH NO PRIME MOVER (except gunpowder.) Means by which electric ship propulsion can be developed without the aid of .steam “turbans.” “The heights by great man reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight; But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.”—LONGFELLOW. This quotation applies to the geniuses who have, by the burning of much midnight “juice,” finally devised this wonderful scheme of developing power for a battleship by means of its own inherent fighting qualities, namely— guns. The scheme as proposed is this—but first let us understand the principle upon which this marvelous invention is based. Engineers II-B, you will remember with more or less pleasure Exp. 115 in Mr. O. W.’s Book IV of Practical Electricity. Well that is the keyboard upon which we shall play this whole tune. You probably do not remember what it was about so we will refresh your memory by a review of the main points. We were told in the instructions to “thrust a permanent magnet North pole first, into a solenoid connected in cross-compound series—multiple with a ballistic galvanometer, record deflections and tabulate all results.” They neglected to say whether the galvanometer was to be of the foot-ballistic type or the basket-ballistic so we compromised by taking the steel-ballistic type which we understand has a better power factor. Well in short we found that when we introduced the north pole of the magnet to the solenoid (a very formal introduction) the deflection on the galvanometer was a certain number in one dirccion. but upon presenting the south pole it was a certain number in the opposite direction, the amount of deflection depending upon the speed of the introduction. From the title of the experiment “Current Induced in a Coil by Means of a Permanent Magnet” we gather (as we would otherwise have been unable to do) that current was actually created in the coil by the simple idea or method just explained. Now the application of this principle to our wonderful invention is as follows: In Fig. 1 a battleship gun “A” is shown. This gun will be constructed of some material which is not a magnetic shield and which has great tensile strength and elasticity such as LEAD (chcm. symbol PbO.j) and which is capable of withstanding the great concussion of a discharge of smokeless powder, preferably “Swans Down” or “Mary Garden” brand, “Mennens” or “Djer Kiss” are not recommended because they contain an excess of French chalk which gums up the rifling. Around the barrel of the gun and 120 cm. apart arc wound three coils each consisting of several hundred layers of No. O-f-% (S. O. E. gage oil insulated cast iron wire. These coils B. B2. and B-{ are connected in star- delta to three No. 000000000% phosphor-platinum mains, “C,” leading to the frequency transformer and stabilizer below decks. This particular piece of apparatus has automatic features which will be explained later. 4 P O St Page One Hundred Sixty-eight

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■J'« M ... i -THE H p2(D EMF (0ur QUaaamaJpa As the name of our section indicates, we all have the feeling that we are “engineers-to-be.” Though we have not as yet figured in any vital engineer- ing problems, we have mastered (?) the nucleus upon which, our instructors tell us, nearly all electrical engineering projects are founded, viz., OHMS LAW. Karly in the first term we were ushered into the mysteries of the elusive little formula by the guiding hand of Prof. Brown. At that time we numbered a little over forty men, and. as a whole, our unity remained intact through- out the term. The beginning of our present term found a number of vacant scats, however, this being occasioned by such things as change of courses, “stiff” examinations and other causes and reasons best known to the ab- sentees. Dexter left “our happy home” to take up a course with the electricians; also a drafting course. We could not keep him busy enough with only an engineering course so he decided that rather than spend so much valuable time “loafing.” he would take up two courses. Success Deck!! Davis—“Oh, where is our wandering boy tonight?” He left us at holiday time and we fear he is snowed under up in the back woods somewhere. The only way we can explain not having received an “S. O. S.” from him is that his wave length is as short as he is. which fact would throw him out of tune with our receiving apparatus. Perhaps he will come back to us when it thaws out up there. Bigelow learned so much about engineering the first term that he applied for a job with T. M. E. R. L. Co. and got it—in a garage. Leslie O. Andrews decided that automobile ignition is the coming enter- prise with which he wished to link his future and changed his course accord- ingly. Good luck, L. O.. but beware of the “wiles” of high tension “mags.” Goochcr and Bclson are the “Wandering Jews” of our class. They were called upon to uphold S. O. E.’s. fame in the realms of basketball and as a result it was necessary to change their schedules. They are now seen, most any day. rushing wildly through the halls from “F” to “A” and thence to “B” etc. “Oh, when shall their weary souls find peace and rest?” Forbes was not satisfied with the rough and rocky path which we trod and he made a wide detour into other regions, saying that he would join us in Term III. Occasionally we hear his bits of humor wafting by and perhaps have a flitting vision of him tearing madly down the halls, but we have little chance to speak to him for as he says, “I’m too busy, boys, too busy just; now.” Hang to it. Harley, we’ll welcome you home in Term III. Hillston concluded, after a few months of electrical engineering life, that his future lay in the lumber industry and accordingly he “debarked” for Ore- gon where he will doubtless be found juggling the big pines when perchance one of our number strolls up there, a few years hence, for his health. Smalley was summoned home unexpectedly and we miss his broad smile in our midst. Wc also venture that Coach McCormack will miss him on the end when football training begins. We hope to see Smalley in school again at some not far distant date. Page One Hundred Sixty-seven

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 . M » TEE 1920 EMF- -- Xow then, fellows, here comes the important part. Watch closely. Up comes the rubber belt conveyor bringing a projectile. “Looks very much like an ordinary shell, you say. Yes but it isn’t. This one is made of steel, having a magnetic permeability (U) of 9.000 and a magnetic charge of the intensity of 169,400] gausses to the cubic millimeter. (The reader may make these computations with his slipstick providing he works it at a mod- erate speed. The writer ran a hotbox on his by attempting to make these calculations and as a result disabled the ’steenth place on the log scale, there- fore allowances will have to be made for small errors.) To get back to our subject—the highly magnetized projectile is placed in the gun, the charge inserted and the breech closed. Presto! the push of a button and ROOM ! ! ! A-a-a-ah! but let’s look at the recording split-phase meter on our phosphor-platinum line. What! ! Jumping cross-eyed grass- hoppers! ! ! ! We have generated 9817 Milli-volt-amperes! And that is not figuring the wattless current nor the resultant components either! But what’s this little mark below the zero line on our chart? Oh yes, that is the non- inductive kick generated when the gun recoiled. We rush back to the gun again just in time to see the second shell brought up. It looks identically like the first but again, it isn’t. In the first the nose of the shell was the north pole, while in this it is the south pole. “But why the change,” you say. Simply this—we desire to generate alternating cur- rent and as it was sen in our simple experiment that by inserting the south pole we got a current in the opposite direction from that when we inserted the north, we are simply applying the principle. That’s all, just apply the principle. 'Phis current so generated may be used to propel the ship through its big “outa’synchronous” motors and thereby save our great government the worry of a coal shortage during the war season. Since gunpowder is so very cheap in comparison to the present as well as predicted future price of coal, it is thought that our invention will meet with a great deal of favor provided the next administration adopts economic measures so far overlooked by the pres- ent one. iCJ 'c»M£S S THKl 30LATotS —- ox. y r. ttMT-riOZK Merc . FIG. 1 i I Pnqe One Hundred Sixty-nine