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AC or DC for long distance transmission - question revisited

Stephen Biddle
Hi All


I thought this had been dealt with by the competition between Edison and Tesla, but it seems with new technology the conclusion is not so simple.  Does any know the pros and cons with today's technology?


Regards


Stephen
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    Just briefly on the historical angle, I always like to mention “The Edison of Europe”, who grew up in the same street as I did.  It was his friend Lord Kelvin who described him thus at this ceremony http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/electricity/history2.htm  and later proposed him as member of ICE.


    Thomas Parker was himself  member number 324 of The  Society of Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians in 1885. A number of factors including dying during the First World War, meant that his legacy was long neglected, but you will nowadays find his portrait on the stairwells of Savoy Place.  Parker’s breakthrough in electrical technology having served an Apprenticeship as an Iron Moulder (from the age of 10) was in accumulators.  This paper discusses the issue of AC v DC in a UK context  https://outsideecho.com/DGT-BIO_files/PDFs/DGT25.pdf  It should be noted that Frank Sprague “The Father of Electric Traction” and a close associate of Edison, was slightly ahead of Parker in some respects and behind in others. The author of the paper doesn’t mention Parker’s work on Blackpool Trams (running in 1885), also The Liverpool Overhead Railway which Parker electrified (gaining a Stephenson Medal) achieved several “firsts”. 


    Historians tend to seek iconic figures to represent “team efforts”, so at that time and also today, a series of incremental advanced and improvements, involving many people in many places doesn’t make such an attractive headline.  Did Parker create the worlds first practical (by being rechargeable) Electric car? Possibly as an experiment, but if so, it wasn’t commercially attractive product in the UK, because of the Locomotive Acts until some years later and a prototype sent to France was lost at sea. He was most certainly in the vanguard at that time.  http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/ThomasParker/InventiveGenius.htm        http://www.elwellparker.com/our-legacy

    I was working for part of what is now National Grid (CEGB Transmission) when the Anglo French Interconnector was being established in the early 1980s, but just interested rather than directly involved, there is descriptive material on-line and elsewhere.  Advances in power electronics with the momentum towards local generation, storage, electric cars make this interesting (but far from new) territory.         

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  • 0
    Just briefly on the historical angle, I always like to mention “The Edison of Europe”, who grew up in the same street as I did.  It was his friend Lord Kelvin who described him thus at this ceremony http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/electricity/history2.htm  and later proposed him as member of ICE.


    Thomas Parker was himself  member number 324 of The  Society of Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians in 1885. A number of factors including dying during the First World War, meant that his legacy was long neglected, but you will nowadays find his portrait on the stairwells of Savoy Place.  Parker’s breakthrough in electrical technology having served an Apprenticeship as an Iron Moulder (from the age of 10) was in accumulators.  This paper discusses the issue of AC v DC in a UK context  https://outsideecho.com/DGT-BIO_files/PDFs/DGT25.pdf  It should be noted that Frank Sprague “The Father of Electric Traction” and a close associate of Edison, was slightly ahead of Parker in some respects and behind in others. The author of the paper doesn’t mention Parker’s work on Blackpool Trams (running in 1885), also The Liverpool Overhead Railway which Parker electrified (gaining a Stephenson Medal) achieved several “firsts”. 


    Historians tend to seek iconic figures to represent “team efforts”, so at that time and also today, a series of incremental advanced and improvements, involving many people in many places doesn’t make such an attractive headline.  Did Parker create the worlds first practical (by being rechargeable) Electric car? Possibly as an experiment, but if so, it wasn’t commercially attractive product in the UK, because of the Locomotive Acts until some years later and a prototype sent to France was lost at sea. He was most certainly in the vanguard at that time.  http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/ThomasParker/InventiveGenius.htm        http://www.elwellparker.com/our-legacy

    I was working for part of what is now National Grid (CEGB Transmission) when the Anglo French Interconnector was being established in the early 1980s, but just interested rather than directly involved, there is descriptive material on-line and elsewhere.  Advances in power electronics with the momentum towards local generation, storage, electric cars make this interesting (but far from new) territory.         

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