(Excerpt from Benjamin Garver Lamme, Electrical Engineer: ...)
Excerpt from Benjamin Garver Lamme, Electrical Engineer: An Autobiography Before another sixteen years had passed, he had designed the great generators for Niagara which were without precedent. They were marvels of engineering achievement and ushered in a new era in electrical power. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Excerpt from Electrical Engineering Papers, 1919: A Colle...)
Excerpt from Electrical Engineering Papers, 1919: A Collection of the Author's More Important Engineering Papers Presented Before Various Technical Societies and Published in Engineering Journals and Alsewhere From Time to Time It is necessary to understand the characteristics of the poly phase motor in order to consider properly its application to the different classes of work to be met with in practice. These characteristics can be presented in the most intelligible manner by means of curves, which represent the relations between the speed, torque or turning effort, horse power expended and developed, amperes, etc. The speed-torque curve, which represents the speed in terms of the torque, is the most important one, as upon this depends the adaptability of the motor to the various kinds of work. The starting conditions also depend upon the speed-torque characteristics. The other curves that are of importance in prac tice are the current, efficiency and power factor. As these are dependent, to some extent, upon the speed-torque curve, this will be considered first. Before treating of its characteristics a short description of the motor itself will be given. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Benjamin Garver Lamme was born on his father's farm near Springfield, Ohio, the son of James Given and Sarah (Garver) Lamme. His early life was that of the normal healthy farmer's boy, consisting of play, work, and school. The play, however, centered about "making things" with the farm tool kit and collecting Indian artifacts.
In 1883 he entered Ohio State University at Columbus, taking the course in mechanical engineering, and graduating in 1888, having lost a year owing to the illness and death of his father.
During his college career his analytical sense developed to such an extent that he was able to picture a mathematical problem in his mind with full diagrams, produce the necessary equations, and carry them through to a final result without touching pencil to paper. This facility in mental computations he applied equally well in mechanics, physics, and other similar subjects.
In his senior year he devised a series of formulae covering the flow of natural gas through long pipe lines, and these were later adopted by the state of Ohio. After spending a few months at home following his graduation, early in 1889 he obtained work with the Philadelphia Natural Gas Company in Pittsburgh, a newly formed enterprise of George Westinghouse; but in May of that year he gave up this position and became an apprentice in the testing department of the Westinghouse Electric Company. With this organization he remained connected until his death.
In the course of his first year's work he rose to be foreman of tests and at the same time, because of his skill in computing, he was given the task of making the calculations for electrical machinery. The unusually satisfactory results which he obtained in this latter work marked the beginning of his career as electrical engineer and inventor.
Before the close of 1889 the Westinghouse Company produced from Lamme's calculations a double-reduction-gear direct-current railway motor, and the following year there was constructed from his design the single-reduction-gear motor, the direct ancestor of the later universally adopted street-railway motor. As a result of his success Lamme soon confined all of his attention to analytical work and the design of electrical machinery for his company.
In increasing numbers, year after year, he obtained patents, being credited with a total of 162 at the time of his death. He was the leader in direct-current railway motor developments with respect to types of apparatus; a pioneer in designing the rotary converter, of which he became the champion; and to him is due most of the credit for the leading position which this machine holds in the electrical field.
The alternating-current generators which inaugurated hydro-electric power at Niagara Falls, N. Y. , were the product of his brain; he established many of the fundamental features of the direct-current generator; and he was among the first to produce a commercially successful induction motor. It was he who transformed the great creative ideas of Nikola Tesla into commercial form and created the single-phase railway system, including the first practical twenty-five-cycle commutator motor. This system, in 1905, was incorporated into the electrification of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railway; and equipment of Lamme's design supplied power to the elevated and subway systems of New York.
In 1900 he became assistant chief engineer of the Westinghouse Company and in 1903, chief engineer, which position he held at the time of his death. Aside from his own work, Lamme was much interested in training young engineers who came to the Westinghouse Company and he established a design school in which he was the much loved and respected teacher.
During World War I he was a member of the naval consulting board, serving as chairman of the inventions committee. He wrote over a hundred articles concerning his electrical studies, which appeared in technical journals and in the Transactions of the American Society of Electrical Engineers. A collection from these was published in 1919 under the title, Electrical Engineering Papers. Outside of his electrical work Lamme's chief interests were archeology, mathematical puzzles, of which he patented several, photography, and automobiling. He never married and made his home with a sister in Pittsburgh, where his death occurred.
Lamme was widely known for the design of electrical power machines. He created an efficient induction motor from Nikola Tesla's patents and went on to design the giant Niagara Falls generators and motors and the power plant of the Manhattan Elevated Railway in New York City. He was awarded the Thomas A. Edison gold medal in 1919 by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers for "invention and development of electrical machinery" and in 1923 he received the initial award of the Joseph Sullivant gold medal, provided for the alumnus of Ohio State University who "has made the most notable contribution to the liberal, the fine, or the mechanic arts. "
(Excerpt from Electrical Engineering Papers, 1919: A Colle...)
(Excerpt from Benjamin Garver Lamme, Electrical Engineer: ...)
