Page:Incandescent electric lighting- A practical description of the Edison system.djvu/147

 others, and is not as sharp as it should be.

This indicates that the more expensive the power is, the more carefully must the lamp efficiencies be chosen. In Fig. 12, which shows the sharpest curve, a very slight variation in the efficiencies of the lamps makes a very great change in the total cost of operation.

In the case shown in Fig. 6, in which the current is very cheap, we find that a very considerable change in the efficiency of the lamps used makes very little difference in the total cost of operation.

On each of the eleven diagrams two curves are drawn, one showing the total cost of operation, and the other showing the cost of lamps. On each of the curves showing the cost of lamps, a point is marked which indicates the cost of the lamps when the total cost is a minimum. The letter T marked on each of the figures denotes the minimum total cost of operating the lamps under the given conditions. The letter L denotes the cost of the lamps when the total cost is a