(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
A Text-Book of Electrical Machinery, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)
(The student of electrical engineering comes to the techni...)
The student of electrical engineering comes to the technical and professional part of his course well grounded in the principles of elementary and applied mathematics and in the relations and characteristics of physical phenomena. His next task is to learn to apply this training to the working principles of engineering, both those underlying the design and operation of electrical machinery and those upon which general engineering methods are based. With these facts in mind it has been found desirable to produce a text for the purpose of communicating to the student the working principles mentioned above and to prepare him for reading profitably the literature of his profession. The book has been designed as a distinctively engineering text, not as a work on physics or applied mathematics. At the same time it has been found desirable to restate in engineering terms the elementary laws and principles of those sciences which bear directly upon the subject in hand. As a result of experience in teaching electrical engineering it has been found most satisfactory, both in maintaining the interest of the student and in economizing his time and energy, to found the treatment upon the laws of the alternating-current circuit, from which the treatment of continuous-current phenomena follows naturally. The application of these laws is illustrated by means of a few problems.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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Harris Joseph Ryan was an American electrical engineer. He was a professor first at Cornell University and later at Stanford University.
Background
Harris Joseph Ryan was born at Matamoras, Pa. , the first of the three children of Charles and Louisa (Collier) Ryan. The Ryan and Collier families, descended from Irish and Scottish colonists of the century before the American Revolution, had lived in east central Pennsylvania for several generations. Born and reared on a farm, Harris did not become a farmer, nor did he become a banker as did his father; a miniature chemical set, a gift from his father, awakened in him an interest that foreshadowed a life of scientific research.
Education
His elementary schooling was obtained at Matamoras, Halifax, and later at Mt. Airy, Pa. After preparatory work at the Baltimore City College, 1880-81, and at Lebanon Valley College, 1881-83, he entered Cornell University and pursued the courses in electrical engineering recently inaugurated by the department of physics. In 1887 he was graduated with the degree of mechanical engineer.
Career
In 1887 Ryan was offered a position as instructor; but in compliance with a promise given earlier he joined with J. G. White and D. C. Jackson in forming the Western Engineering Company in Lincoln, Neb. He soon realized, however, that his interest was in academic work rather than in business, and at the end of a year he accepted a renewal of the offer at Cornell.
Ryan foresaw the future transmission of electric power at high voltage, and its possibilities fascinated him. In 1890, still a young instructor, he published his first paper, "Transformers, " in the January issue of the Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; it was translated into eight European languages.
In 1893 he built an oil-immersed transformer to operate at the voltage, then considered tremendous, of 30, 000 volts; on trial it promptly burned out. He replaced it by one with air insulation that succeeded. Six years later he rebuilt it for 90, 000 volts. Results from a power line in Colorado were discouraging as to the possibility of exceeding 40, 000 volts for long-distance transmission, but Ryan worked on the problem and in 1904 published results showing that no such limitation existed.
By 1905 he had become head of his department. In that year he left Cornell to assume the same position at Stanford University, where he remained until his retirement in 1931. At Stanford he continued his investigations of high voltage, and in 1926 the Harris J. Ryan High-Voltage Laboratory was dedicated in his honor.
During his career there he published many technical papers, notably one in 1911 on "Open Atmosphere and Dry Transformer Oil as High-Voltage Insulators, " published in the Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (vol. XXX, pt. 1); and he also cooperated with the electric power companies in designing the great high-voltage power lines that link mountains and cities on the Pacific Coast. In another article, "Power Diagram Indicator for High Tension Circuits" (Ibid. , pt. 2), he described the instrument from which the modern cathode-ray oscilloscope developed.
His membership in the Institute began in 1887, and he was manager, 1893-96; vice-president, 1896-98; and president, 1923-24. In 1920 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Following his retirement in 1931 as professor emeritus and honorary director of the Ryan Research Laboratory, he worked on the improvement of electrical aids for those afflicted, as he was, with faulty hearing. His death resulted from a heart ailment.
Achievements
Ryan was known for his significant contributions to high voltage power transmission, for which he received the IEEE Edison Medal.
He was one of the first to recognize the value of the cathoderay tube; he brought the earliest tubes from Germany to America and improved and developed them for engineering use. In the United States they were known for many years as Braun-Ryan tubes.
His contributions to engineering and technical literature were numerous. Practically all of his papers dealing with original research appeared first in the Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
