Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/884

 The Largest Direct-Current Power Plant

Each generator is in four parts and each of the four parts required an entire freight car in transportation

���The generators are driven by four- teen 6000-horse- power and one 4000- horsepower recipro- cating engines of the gas-steam type and one 1500-horse- power straight steam engine

��At left: A closer view of the genera- tor. Each generator develops enough electrical energy to light 7500 arc lamps or run three hun- dred street cars. It is equivalent to 5000 horsepower

��THE installation of the largest direct- current generators ever built in this or any other country is now rapidly nearing completion at the Detroit works of the Ford Motor Company. This power plant has a maximum rating of 65,000 kilo- watts or approximately 87,000 horsepower and is the largest strictly direct-current system in existence.

This immense amount of power is used to run the motors which operate the more than eight thousand machines distributed over the forty-seven and one-half acres of floor space in the Ford factory. In addition, these generators supply current for the motors of the ventilating system and the lighting circuits of the plant.

��The switchboard which controls this electrical system is 424 feet long and con- sists of 222 dark Tennessee marble panels. It was built at a cost of $400,000 or nearly $1,000 per running foot. The amount of copper used in its construction for bus-bars, switches, etc., was approximately 165 tons and at current prices would be worth nearly $100,000 in the raw state.

In order to give unity to the whole system and insure continuous service at all times, an elaborate signaling system has been installed. This consists of a 200-pair tele- phone switchboard which connects with engine-operating stands, boiler rooms and every distribution center throughout the factory. In the office, in connection with ,

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