Re: [ARSCLIST] 25Hz - 60Hz issues

["Steven C. Barr" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard L. Hess" <ArcLists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >Italian electric railroads used 14 Hz, because the motors used switches
that
> >could function at that "high" frequency.
>
> Interesting...I never knew that!
>
> >As to length of AC power lines: the grid going from the north of Sweden
to
> >the South of Denmark once got into wild oscillations - a huge standing
wave.
> >We, too, and the Russians, use AC-DC conversion at convenient points.
>
> Yes, I didn't mean to imply it was a U.S. invention. In fact, the
> undisputed world leader in this is a Swedish corporation (although it is
> now Swedish Swiss since 1988). Asea Brown Bovari.
>
> Here is an interesting link to their DC business:
>
>
http://www.abb.com/global/abbzh/abbzh251.nsf!opendatabase&db=/global/abbzh/abbzh262.nsf&v=23762&e=us&m=9f2&c=b85b46aa2b155615c1256cca005e7fa8
>
> I didn't do a lot of research, but the new Three Gorges project in China
is
> using ABB DC transmission.
>
> We have two DC lines coming into LA, one from the Columbia River and the
> other from the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.
>
> Vancouver Island gets its power over a DC link to the mainland.
>
> There is a DC tie between the North and South islands of NZ...
>
> Fascinating stuff. If you're interested in this, be prepared to spend a
> couple of hours on the ABB site. I did a couple of years ago and am
> resisting going back right now.
I can very dimly recall (probably early 1950's) when hotels sometimes had
their own DC generators. I would suppose other places did as well, which
would explain the popularity of AC-DC radios long after DC power was
obsolete.

Were the 32-volt farm power plants DC? I would suppose they were, and
used a battery-based system similar to automobiles? You can occasionally
run across 32-volt farm radios...
Steven C. Barr