Ebook: Locomotives: simple, compound and electric

Fifth Edition. — New York: John Wiley & sons, 1907. — 1027 p.This edition has been revised by the author to include the latest developments of steam and electric locomotives. The development of the steam locomotive includes the balanced four-cylinder compound and the steam superheater. The principle of compounding has been described in full as applied to locomotives both in the United States and foreign countries, involving the use of two-, three-, and four-cylinder engines. A chapter has been devoted to foreign-built compound engines, some types being described which are not modern, because they show the efforts put forth at their respective periods to improve the compound locomotive, and they form part of the evolution of the compound engine.
The rapid development of the electric locomotive, and its use on trunk-line operations, require the treatment of the construction and operation of the electric locomotive in great detail, together with the apparatus essential to the generating and transmitting of the current which operates the locomotive. The principles of the generating and translating apparatus and the method of application are explained. The systems of construction and operation of the electric locomotive are described, to wit:
The single-phase system, using single-phase motors;
The polyphase system, using induction motors;
The three-phase system of generation and trans-mission, using rotary converters, with direct-current motors on the locomotive;
The three-wire, direct-current system and the simple direct-current system, using a trolley and ground return.
The methods of control and the electric brake-apparatus are described.
The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness for cuts and descriptive matter relating to electric and steam locomotives to the various companies whose forms of apparatus are shown; also to The Polkaed Gazette, The Western Electrician, The Iron Age, and Cassia's Magazine for data and cuts. He hopes that this edition may be of benefit to the reader, and that it may have the same cordial reception as carlier editions.