A Colossal Westinghouse Generator

Among the exhibits of the Westinghouse company at the machine works was a new 500-h. p. six-pole railway generator, shown in the cut on this page. At the time of the convention it was not yet completed, but the massive castings give an excellent idea of its imposing size and solid construction. It is by all odds the largest generator ever manufactured in the Westinghouse works, and a strong candidate for being the largest American built dynamo. The armature conductors in these big machines are laid under the surface of the armature in oval perforations which are afterward milled into deep slots. The commutator is singularly massive, with segments of large cross section and ample bearing surface, a precaution quite important where, as is now the case in most railway generators, carbon brushes are likely to be used.

The machines of the Westinghouse company are singularly beautiful in mechanical design and finish, and the present example partakes of the character of the smaller machines in this as in other respects. It has, however, six poles instead of four, but its electrical properties are quite similar to those of its smaller companions, and if anything can be judged from their performance its operation will be highly satisfactory. The armatures of all these machines are of particularly solid and efficient construction; they run without sparking, are quite indifferent to changes of load, and stand their full output without heating of any moment.

The Westinghouse company was very fully represented at the convention, some of the gentlemen present being Messrs. Samuel Bannister, vice-president; Albert Schmidt, Norman McCarty, E. G. Gray, H. W. Grannis. H. McL. Harding, E. H. Heinrichs and T. W. Burrows, of Pittsburgh; J. A. Rutherford and A. H. Chadbourne, of Philadelphia; J. M. Atkinson and J. L. Barclay, of Chicago; R. S. Brown, of New York, and C. B. Osgood, of Atlanta, Ga.