A THING OF BEAUTY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2436, 15 April 1915, Page 6

A THING OF BEAUTY

* NEW ELECTRIC LIGHT SWITCH. BOARD. The erection of the new switchboard at the Corporation Electric Lighting Works has just been completed and it' will be brought into operation in a few days' time. Before entering into a description of the board, it should be mentioned for the benefit of the uninitiated that the switchboard forms the connecting link between the generators and the outside mains, and on it are mounted all the switches and instruments controlling the / generator and mains. It is erected on two gal-" leries, viz., the operating and the high' tension gallery. The object of this is' to make the operating gallery where the switches and instruments are mounted absolutely safe so that there is no danger from the high tension current to the man who is operating tha switches. •' The high tension gallery is screened off by expanded metal screens, thus preventing any unauthorised person from getting in oontact with the dangerous currents. The connections between the high tension switches and the operating gallery are formed by mechanical means and this is known as the remote control system. The switchboard on the operating gallery consists of twenty enamelled slate panels mounted on an iron frame. There are four generator panels and sixteen feeder panels and each panel is supplied with voltmeters, wattmeters and switches. The lastnamed aTe provided with an automatio overload release. This takes -.the place of the old-fashioned fnse_ and automatIcallv cuts off the circuit should an overload develop from any cause. Each' feeder panel is also provided with a compensated voltmeter _to enable the pressure on each circuit and at any predetermined point on the circuit to be registered. The ' generator panels (n addition to the voltmeters and am--meters are provided with Wattmeters to register the total output of each! generator. A separate panel known as the station panel is also provided,- and on it are mounted the various recording instruments. On a separate braoket is mounted the synchroscope bymeans of which the generators are brought into' parallel running. The high tension gallery is situated directly below the operating gallery and consists of an iron framework on which is mounted the oil switches, transformers and bus-bars, with all their necessary connections. An ingenious device is erected here known as an earth detector, the object of which ,is as its name implies, to tell when an earth (has developed ion the circuit from any cause whatever. This is done by means of an eleotro-st-atic voltmeterand an electric bell ■ which warns the engineer when a fault has developed. ■

■In that gallery is also provided the lightning arresters. These are • what is commonl? known as th# multigap tvpe and afford complete protection to the plant should the lines be' struck lightning at any point. The new switchboard which will facilitate the working of the electric lighting sta* tion in a very marked decree, both as regards efficiency and safety, was designed by the former City E'ectrioal Engineer, the late Mr. Stuart Richardson, and was nutmifactHrpd by Messrs. Johnson and Phillips, Kent, England, through their local agents, Messrs. Tollo.T and Son. The ealleries -were built bv Messrs. Sanders Bros., and *he erection has been carried out by the staff of the. Lighting Department, under the direction of Mr. Geo. I.auchlan (elec-' tricftl engiHGer to th? station). complete stfttp the hoard forms a handsome structure and reflects credit on all concerned.

Ail interesting lecturo on missionary work in China was delivered in tlie Kent lerrace Presbyterian Church last night by Mi'-.H- S. Conway, of the China Inland Mission. Mr. Conway's remarks on the birth of the new China were especially instructive. Previously; he said, the Chinese had been wont to'regard tho missionaries as om'ssaries of the grasping Western nations—political spies. Presently came the Boxer rising, and tlie Allied, forces took possession of Peking. Then the Chinese were sure that the missionaries were merely the forerunners of the soldiers, but when tho Allied armies evacuated Pekingafter tho rising was over the Chinese began to reshape their views about the missionaries, as about other Western' people. Later, ivhen the Republican Government on the pattern of America was tried on a people not at all prepared for sucli Government, and it met with inevitable failure, a change ap. peared to have come over the Chinese character. Officials, scholars, and soldiers, who had formerly distrusted tho missionaries, were now willing to listen to them, and the general attitude was one of chastened humility. The important result for this for missionary endeavour was that the people of China were now ready to receivo the Gospol message. A lecture similar in character was delivered by Mrs. Coiiway at tha Girij' Collect in. the afternoon.