File:Bulletin (1961-1962) (20236592369).jpg

Title: Bulletin
Identifier: bulletin228smit (find matches)
Year: 1961-1962 (1960s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution; United States. Dept. of the Interior; United States National Museum
Subjects: Science
Publisher: Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, (etc. ); for sale by the Supt. of Docs. , U. S. Govt Print. Off
Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
Figure 59.—Clarke's electric locomotive. From Sturgeon's Annals of Electricity, 1840, vol. 5, p. 304. Figure 58.—Clarke's motor. From Sturgeon's Annals of Electricity, 1840, vol. 5, pi. i, fig. 3. London in August 1838, one of Davenport's motors drove a small electric train of several carriages with a total weight of 70 to 80 pounds at a speed of 3 miles per hour.'^ Davenport tried to use his rotating motor to drive a Napier printing press that printed his paper "The Electro-Magnet," but the press required an engine from 1 to 2 horsepower, and he did not succeed in building such a motor until 1840.^* Success came to Davenport with his development of a reciprocating engine based on a "sucking coil" that he had begun working on in 1838. Davenport built over 100 motors in his lifetime, but lack of financial backing and his inability to obtain an inexpensive source of power defeated him. By the early 1840's there were a number of inventors of electric motors. In 1839 Robert Davidson of Edinburgh constructed an electric motor that had enough power to turn articles on a lathe or to drive a small carriage (fig. 56). Three years later, Davidson's motor could drive a carriage weighing about 6 tons for a mile and a half at a speed of 4 miles per hour.^ 9» Mechanics' Magazine, London, 1838, vol. 28, pp. 321-323; vol. 29, pp. 95-96, 115, 166-168, 170-172. 86 Ibid., 1840, vol. 32, pp. 407-408. " Ibid., 1840, vol. 33, p. 92; "Electro-Magnetic Locomotive Carriage," Stuvgeon's Annals of Electricity, 1842, vol. 9,234-235; "The Earliest Electrical Railway," Electrical World, 1890, vol. 16, pp. 276-277.
Text Appearing After Image:
Figure 60.—Wright's motor. From Sturgeon's Annals of Electricity, 1840, vol. 5, pi. 3, fig. 4. A drawing of this 1842 motor is shown in figure 57. In 1840 Uriah Clarke'* devised a reciprocating engine (fig. 58) and then applied it to a 100-pound miniature railway (fig. 59). Thomas Wright'^ reported on a reciprocating engine (fig. 60) that Clarke promptly criticized as impractical. William Taylor patented an electric motor'" (fig. 61) in 1840. James Joule'" worked on several different models of electric motors, 's Uriah Clarke, "Description of an Electro-Magnetic Engine," Sturgeon's Annals of Electricity, 1840, vol. 5, pp. 33— 34; "Description of an Electro-Magnetic Locomotive Carriage," Sturgeon's Annals of Electricity, 1840, vol. 5, pp. 304-305. »' Thomas Wright, "On a New Electro-Magnetic Engine," Sturgeon's Annals of Electricity, 1840, vol. 5, pp. 108-110. i»» British Patent 8255, November 2, 1839. i"' James Joule, "Description of an Electro-Magnetic Engine," Sturgeon's Annals of Electricity, 1838, vol. 2, pp. 122-123; 1839, vol. 3, pp. 437-439; 1840, vol. 4, pp. 203-205. PAPER 28: DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICAL TECHNOLOGY IN THE 19TH CENTURY: I 265

Note About Images