The GE Review

Published by The Review in 1952-- The GE Review was an engineering magazine created to report on the advances of technology of the time, including advances in Home Appliances.

Articles in July 1952 issue...

Editorial: The Fourth of July

New Switchgear Laboratory Goes into Operation
Late last month on the flatlands of southwest Philadelphia, GE’s new high-capacity switchgear development laboratory was officially dedicated. With Company spokesmen looking ahead to an annual U.S. power consumption of possibly a trillion kw-hrs by 1965—more than triple the amount now being used—the new laboratory will aid in the development of switch- gear of higher ratings to keep pace with this phenomenal growth. continued…

Engineering the Automatic Washer
The automatic clothes washer is a simple device—to the housewife. She throws in the laundry, sets a control dial, and goes about her telephoning. A short time later she removes the laundry—washed and damp-dried.

Simply stated, the function of a domestic washing machine is to get the laundry clean, rinse out the detergent, and extract most of the water. For a third of the century these operations were performed with a machine in which the laundry was manually lifted from the tub and fed through a water- extraction device. Most of these devices were wringers, powered by the washing- machine motor. A limited number were the centrifugal-extraction type using the same or a separate tub. continued…

Stopping Ships
Even with modern navigating and communication aids there are times when things get out of hand and a collision ol ships appears imminent. The need for meeting this situation—rare though it may he—has an influence on the design of ships’ power plants.

Most large and fast ships are powered bv a steam turbine that drives the propeller through suitable gearing and shafting. The astern power that is used for stopping a ship is provided by a comparatively small separate section of the main turbine. The question immediately arises as to why the astern element can’t be given the same power as the ahead element. Well, it can. The simplest arrangement would he another turbine of the same size geared to drive the propeller backwards. continued…

Ferromagnetography
Contrary to general belief printing did not originate with Gutenberg; to the ancient Chinese belongs the credit. They made engravings—used mainly for printing on silk cloth—by carving figures out of wooden blocks. Later, around 1120 BC. they introduced wooden blocks of movable type.

Modern printing, on the other hand, began in the middle ages—about the year 1423. It was during this period that Johann Gutenberg, a German stonemason, had the idea of printing with movable type. So he set about his skill, cutting alphabets out of small wooden blocks to be used for typesetting. A friend advised him to use metal instead of wood, since it wouldn’t wear out so easily. This he did. As you can imagine, this task required many years and a large expenditure of money. He financed his operations by borrowing money on the type he’d already completed. Then, to prove to his creditors and the many cynics the worth of his efforts, he completely reproduced the Bible in print. continued…

Cool Breezes — Story of the Electric Fan
Fans preceded written history by many centuries. Some of the most ancient known fans were those of the Chinese dating back to 3000 BC. And ceremonial fans were used in 1700 BC by the reigning monarchs of Egypt and Assyria. Some thousand years later the "punkah" —a hand-swung lightweight ceiling-suspended fan—was introduced in India, and even today is still in use there.

From exquisitely made folding tans of the Japanese, followed by 17th century Paris creations of surpassing beauty, we come to the practical palm-leaf type and simpler folding fans of grandmother’s day.

It’s not possible to give the exact age of the electric fan—the youngest member of the ancient family of fans. But the earliest record of a U.S. patent awarded for an electric fan was in 1854. This was a ceiling-suspended assembly of several large fan blades, each hinged along one edge to a horizontal rotating arm driven by a battery-operated motor. Arms on the blades struck projections causing the blades to vibrate and thus agitate the air. continued…

Longer Life for Dry-type Transformers
Improvements in dry-type power transformers and their insulations is a good example of how electrical engineers are continually making progress in lengthening the life span of electric equipment and increasing its endurance to higher temperatures.

For many years insulations known as Class A were about the only ones available to the transformer designer. These insulations consisted of materials such as cotton, silk, or paper—impregnated with organic varnishes to give them additional mechanical and electrical strength. They were used in a medium of mineral oil or air. Such insulations were relatively inexpensive but a maximum allowable temperature limit of 105 C was necessary for reasonable life. continued…

The G10 Germanium Rectifier
In 1886 a German chemist by the name of Alexander Winkler found an unknown metal sulfide and isolated the element which he called germanium. It has a shiny metallic appearance, is extremely hard and brittle, and is recovered as a by-product in the smelting and refining of zinc ores.

Because germanium falls into group four of the periodic table, it has some of the chemical characteristics of the elements on either side of it. Germanium is both an electrical conductor and an electrical insulator, depending on its temperature, and is classed as a semiconductor. continued…

Nylon for Bearings and Gears
Although nylon is generally associated with such decorative items as stockings and sweaters, we have found that its versatility extends well into the fields of bearings, gears, and other workaday applications.
Nylon is tough at low7 temperatures, is resistant to abrasion, has strength in thin sections, is light in weight, has certain self-lubricating qualities, and is resistant to many chemicals. Properties are given in the table on the opposite page. Exact characteristics and specifications can be found in the literature put out by the manufacturers of nylon molding powders.

Bearing Tests - Of interest to design engineers is published data that shows the effect of wear on nylon when used as a bearing material. Results of tests using nylon against nylon, steel, and brass under various loads and speeds, and with various lubricants, are given on page 35. As you may suspect, the lowest rates of wear are found when nylon is run against nylon in a dry condition, as well as when nylon is run against steel lubricated with SAE 10 oil. When nylon is rubbed against brass, the metal flakes off and contaminates the hearing surface. continued…

The Unit Cost of Light
There’s more to figuring the cost of a lighting system than adding up the prices of fixtures, installation, and electricity. A tabulation of over-all annual costs that the customer may expect to pay appeals to the businessman, because it is expressed in his own language. Rut further analytical cost studies of operating and maintenance methods and lamp efficiencies may show you the way to worth-while savings or better lighting for the same expenditure.

To help you along this economic pathway a relatively simple formula has been devised. It is referred to as the "unit cost of light” method. In its most flexible form it deals with the raw light as generated by the lamps in just one fixture. Then, once the unit cost of light in dollars per million lumen hours is known, you can easily apply it to a specific installation if over-all costs are also desired. continued…

Added Kick for Turbojet Engines
Getting an 80-ton airplane into the air in a matter of seconds is no easy job. The problem is one of providing more than normal maximum thrust or "kick” at take-off. In the case of B-45 and B-47 jet bombers, their power plants (J-47 turbojet engines—one is shown on the adjacent page) were equipped with combustion-chamber water-alcohol injection systems for augmenting thrust.

Variations of these systems boost the take-off thrust from 15 to 25 percent or higher. As a result, heavy jet-powered aircraft can take off from minimum- length runways with maximum safety. continued…

Are We Ready for Railroad Electrification in the U. S.? .
Admittedly, widespread electrification in I lie United States is not just around the corner. Rut there is an element in the cost of railroad electrification and in the success of operation through the ensuing years that can not be settled too soon. This all-important factor is standardization. And standardization is so important primarily because it permits repetitive manufacture. Standardization, of course, offers other advantages that may be more familiar, but every day brings new evidence that a custom-designed article built in a job shop cannot compete with a highly engineered item produced under conditions of repetitive manufacture.

It is time for all who may have a hand in railroad electrification in the United States to start sifting out the alternatives and to find agreement on what may be the standard system of electrification in this country. Let us speak briefly about the prospects of electrification and [hen expand the theme of standardization. continued…

A Brightening Outlook - When will we see railroad electrification resumed in the United States? The answer depends largely on costs, with the cost of fuel or energy being a big part of the expense of locomotive operation.

When we compare the cost of diesel fuel with the cost of purchased electric power at the figures current today, we find them roughly equivalent. We are speaking, of course, of gallons of fuel oil or kilowatt-hours of electricity at the locomotive. As long as power costs in these two forms are even approximately equal, it is obvious that the diesel- electric locomotive with its lower investment is the correct answer for new installations. At the same time this approximate equality tells us that extensive electrified systems already installed should continue to be operated. continued…

New Safeguard for Protective Coatings
You can best define a plastics material as a synthetic organic substance. At some stage of production it’s plastic— capable of being shaped; or liquid— capable of being cast. Furthermore, it’s either thermoplastic or thermosetting. If thermoplastic, it softens under heat and can he remolded. If thermosetting, it sets under heat and can’t be remolded.

Phenolic materials are thermosetting plastics. And from practically the outset of the industry they’ve enjoyed an ever- expanding market. They take many and various forms. Probably the most familiar to you are radio cabinets, telephone handsets, buttons, tube bases, mechanical parts, and so on. continued…

Dollar-sign Engineering
The photo sequence beginning on the next page will show you how a value analyst operates—step by step—on a typical project. Here, it’s the timer for the automatic clothes washer. Because space doesn't permit us to show the results of the analysis on every part of the timer, we have selected one part as being typical. (In the actual project more than 30 individual parts of the timer were analyzed for value.)

It should be emphasized that nothing was wrong with the timer when we approached the Value Analysis Unit and requested a survey. The timer operated satisfactorily and costs were in line with similar products. But. as is the case with far-sighted management, they wanted to see if it wasn’t possible to further eliminate any unnecessary costs. continued…

Moisture vs Rubber Insulation
Although rubber compounds are used to waterproof such everyday items as overshoes, raincoats, and garden hoses, rubber compounds in general can’t be considered waterproof when used as an insulation for wire and cable.

What works on raincoats may not work on cables—the basic differences are: length of exposure; effect of moisture on the electrical properties. Cables insulated with rubber compounds must withstand years of continual exposure with a consequent absorption of moisture. And moisture absorption has proved to be a contributing factor in cable failures. continued…

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