Forging Scientific Electrical Engineering John Ambrose Fleming and the Ferranti Effect

摘要

ONE DAY IN LATE OCTOBER 1890, Sebastian de Ferranti's gigantic Deptford station, located six miles from London, started generating and transmitting cur-rent to thirty-eight thousand lamps throughout the city. It was certainly a thrilling moment, not only for Ferranti himself, who had overcome technical difficulties and harsh criticism from engineers to build the 10,000-volt Deptford system, but also for the investors who had poured ￡1 million into this unprecedented venture over the preceding three years. Soon, however, a strange rumor spread among electrical engineers. It was said that, for unknown reasons, the voltage at the far end of the main lines near London was considerably higher than that at Deptford. Shortly there-after, a mysterious fire destroyed all the transformers at a substation near London, putting it out of commission for the entire winter. Several people attributed this disaster to the increased voltage.