How to become a successful electrician; the studies to be followed, methods of work, fields of operation and ethics of the profession

Preface

The title of this little work is open to a variety of interpretations, and may call down different criticisms on the author. The nature of each criticism will depend upon the ideas the reader possesses of what constitutes success. When one of the wealthiest men in the United States died, and page after page of the daily papers was devoted to the story of his life, it must have occurred to many that a man who, as the sum of all those columns, could not secure a favorable comment had not lived successfully. Yet he began poor and ended rich, and these few words, it is to be feared, describe a very usual idea of success. There is no doubt that if this book told of a sure road to wealth, by means however questionable, it would be in great demand. Those who look in it for this will naturally be disappointed.

Prefaces are the least read portions of a book, and this preface will share the common lot. Yet in it will be given in one word the basis and corner-stone of success for each reader. It is himself. If the reader is of the right stuff, and cares sufficiently for success, he will succeed. If he is not of this material, no book and no study will produce the result.

It seems a hard thing to say that honor and honesty are not in themselves favorable to progress in the accumulation of a fortune. He who, as he feels the end approaching, looks back on the long struggle and feels that honor was his guide and that he has wronged no man, who, as he thinks of his temptations, can know that he has mercifully been allowed to escape without stain, can but tremble as he recalls the risks he ran, and accept an honorable life as a rich measure of good fortune. What value will a competence won by wrong methods have, when but a few years, and those at the wrong end of life, are left for its enjoyment? Leave to those who come after you a legacy of memories and traditions of a well-spent life, and you will be successful.

All this sounds like moralizing and may, by him who reads this preface, be interpreted as revealing the nature of the book itself. This it does ; for the author's idea of success is here disclosed. He believes that the man who works for a fortune by good and bad means alike is a dreary failure, whether he reaches his goal or not.

The book is left now to the reader.

" Perhaps it may turn out a sang, Perhaps turn out a sermon."

Iii cither case, it will not be a very long one.

CHAPTER I. Introductory

Problems of the Electrical Engineer — His Relations to the Investigator in Pure Science — The Self-Taught Electrician — Age and Natural Aptitude — Thoroughness — Observation — Attention to Little Things— Openness ot Character — One-Sidedness — Qualities of an Engineer — Idleness the Greatest Fault 9

CHAPTER II. Mathematics

Arithmetic — Practice Afforded in Mechanics — Powers of Ten and Fractional Exponents — Logarithms — Algebra — Geometry — Trigonometry — Mensuration — Ohm's Law — Mathematics of Chemistry — Analytical Geometry — Calculus — Conclusion 29

CHAPTER III. Physics

Heat and Light — Examples of Application of Physics — Bad Practices in Distribution of Light — Reflection of Wasted Rays — Economy of the Incandescent Lamp — Mechanics — Value of Definitions — Energy — Theory of Dimensions — Methods of Study — Experimenting — Physics without Apparatus 38

Chapter IV

Chemistry Difficulties of Experimenting — The Coal-Fire and the Plant — The Reaction of the Coal-Fire — Its Equation and What It Tells — Equations the Short- Hand of Chemistry — Stoichiometry — Experiments — Precautious — Batiery Chemicals — Thermo-Chemistry — Chemical Recreations — ■ Books — Outlines of a Chemical Course — How to Read — Value of a Teacher 47 vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V. Electricity at Home

Electrical Experiments at Home — Modern Physics Taught Quantitatively — Simple Appliances Now Used — Making Electrical Apparatus at Home — The Wheatstone Bridge — Galvanometer Resistance Coils — Current Strength — Batteries — Static Electricity — Electrometers — Condensers — Ampere's Law — Magnetism 59

CHAPTER VI. Mechanical Engineering

Ground Covered by Mechanical Engineering — Its Place in Electric Practice — Machines and Tools — Engine Testing — Strength of Materials — Machinery — Use of the Hands — Extremes in Practice — College Work in Practical Mechanics — Machine-Shop Work for the Student — Observation and Reading — Faulty Practice 68

CHAPTER VII. Drawing

Drawing a Poor Reliance by Itself — Its Importance to the Engineer — Free-Hand Practice— Sketches in Note- Books of Physics or Chemistry — Shade Lines— Pen or Pencil Practice — Dimension Sketches — Profile Paper — Descriptive Geometry — Perspective — Blue Prints — Care of Instruments — Conventional Representations — Catalogues.. 77

CHAPTER VIII. Teachers

Practicability of Obtaining Assistance in Study — Solving Difficulties — Making Every One a Teacher — University Extension — School Courses in Science — Different Classes of Students — The Hard Workers in the Laboratory — Difficulty of Teaching Electricity 86

Chapter IX

Electrical Factory Work for Students. Utility of Factory Work for Students— Who Would Be Most Benefited — Uselessness ofSome Positions — Small and

CONTENTS. vii

Large Works — Premiums Paid for Positions in Factories — Time Expended in Factory Work by Students — Schedules of Courses 92

CHAPTER X. College Education

Colleges — Disadvantages and Advantages of a College Course — Scholarships — Tutorships — Large and Small Colleges — Apparatus — Electrical Course Studies 98

CHAPTER XL Steam Engineering.

Wasted Powers of Nature — Wastefulness of Coal — Poor Economy of the Steam -Engine — Coal Consumption of a Station — Unfair Records — Errors in Statements — Fads — Engines of Different Types — Re volutions in Engineering — Steam Engineering a Special Study 107

CHAPTER XII. The Manufacturing Engineer

Different Work Done in Factories — Dynamo and Motor Building — Improvements in Design — Faults of Cheap Motors — Improving the Magnetic Circuit — Small Factories — Bad Installation of Good Machinery — Making Parts for Distribution of Electric Power — Meters and Their Defects — Testing Materials 114

CHAPTER XIII. The Constructing Engineer

The Erection of Plants — General Knowledge Required — The Generating Plant and Its Functions — Boilers and Engines — Advanced System of Running Plants — Practice and Theory 123

CHAPTER XIV. The Station Engineer

The Qualities Required — Dealing with Mankind— The Public — Complaints — Importance of Courtesy — Skilled Workmen — Promotion from the Ranks — Station Economy — The President — Executive Ability — Dependence on the Factory 129 viii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV. Inventing

Should One Become an Inventor?— What Constitutes a Successful Invention— Construction and Invention— Useful and Useless Inventions— The Practical View To Be Taken— Novelty as Well as Originality Requisite— Patent ^f U T?Z^ tentS and Caveats — Claims— Establishing Date of Invention

CHAPTER XVI. Original Investigation

Qualifications Required for Original Research— Useless Iheonzing — Incompetent Theorizers — Originality — Publication of Results— Writing Papers 142

CHAPTER XVII. Success

The Race for Money— The Nobler Life— The End for Which We Are Adapted — Honor and Honesty — The Human Element— Directors and Executive Officers— The Business Man— Dealing with Vanity— Rings and Cliques —Contractors— Over-Scrupulousness— Workmen 150

CHAPTER XVIII. Reading

English Technical Books— The Index— Reading a Book Several Times— Thinking— Reading an Instrument— Taking , Notes — Electrical Journals— Range of Reading- Definitions— Collecting a Library— Scrap-Books— Card and Book Indexes — Scrap- Leaflets— Rapid Reading— Biographies ° T. 164

CHAPTER XIX. Ethics

Professional Life— The Gentleman— Truth, Justice and Honor— Examples of Successful Lives— Brush— Dolbear— Giilcher — Lodge — Pacinotti — Elihu Thompson — Conclusion i nn

Chapter I

Introductory, problems of the electrical engineer— his relations to the investigator in pure science — the self-taught electrician age and natural aptitude thoroughness observation — attention to little things — openness

of character one-sidedness qualities of

an engineer — idleness the greatest fault.

How to become a successful electrician is a problem which cannot be positively solved in words. The same qualities which make a good business man will go far to make a successful professional man. While the success or failure of life depends principally on the natural characteristics of the individual, it is possible and right to try to direct and guide the exertions of young aspirants, and to make their early work more directly conducive to the end in view.

The term electrician includes a very wide range of occupations. In laboratories some of the most exact work of the scientist is done in electricity. . Such operations require a special training, which can only

10 FIELDS OF WORK.

be had in the laboratory, and which is generally acquired in the advanced school of science. It is obvious that the man fortunate enough to have graduated at one of our great universities as an electrician has little need of outside direction in the elements of his profession. During his college course the studies he must pursue are determined for him. The student less fortunate and equally adapted for science, who cannot take a college course, may find some words of direction and advice useful.

From the force of circumstances, this book, written principally for those who cannot go to college, must take special cognizance of electrical engineering. This is the great field for the self-educated electrician. From it he may graduate into the laboratory and take his part in original investigations, but it is fair to assume that he will first be an engineer.

An electrical engineer is one who works in some of the commercial and more directly practical branches of electricity. He may be a constructor of dynamos and motors ; he may go out of the shop and be entirely occupied in erecting plants ; or he may be in charge of such plants when running, having a hand in their erection or in the construction of the machinery. He is understood generally to deal with the larger forms of electrical apparatus. One who spends his time in minor operations, such as the measurement of capacities and resistances, would hardly be placed in the category of engineers.

THE ELECTRICAL ENGINEER. 11

In the laboratory of the richly endowed college, the holder of a professorship may devote much of his time to original research. His work may take the direction of determining electric factors, or of establishing the relations of electro-magnetic waves to light waves. He may try to solve the mystery of convection currents in a liquid, and of electrolytic convection in gelatinized solutions. Such work is hardly within the scope of the electrical engineer. The scientific investigator, confining his work to the realms of theory, is the ally and guide of the active operator. He finds his field in the laboratory, and his success is judged largely by the originality of his investigations. Faraday's discovery of the extra current, his observation of the minute spark produced when a circuit of high self-induction was broken, is one of his triumphs.

The engineer, on the other hand, is in the domain of active commercial life, dealing not with abstract theory, but with its applications. His success is judged not by any apparently fruitless achievement, but by the balance-sheet. The engineer's work must succeed commercially, and will be judged by his employers. To them he is a source of revenue, no more and no less.

A number of watts of energy are to be employed at some given locality distant from a central station. Shall a main be laid to the' place in question, or shall a new station be established there ? If a main, how

12 ENGINEERING PROBLEMS.

large shall it be ? The theoretically satisfactory way is to keep to one station, so as to concentrate the generation of energy in one plant, and to supply it by a main of very low resistance to the distant point. Here the engineer has to look at the practical as opposed to the theoretical aspect. Which system will pay the best ? He cannot pretend to put in a main of really low resistance, because of the original cost of the copper, and because of the interest which would be charged on the investment. He can put in a high resistance main within the limits of cost, but the loss of potential, inevitable to its use, involves the loss of energy, which means the waste of coal. A distant independent station will necessitate extra cost in generation of energy, but will such money loss exceed that due to the fall in potential in the small main ? Can he make his main of such a size as to reduce the fall in potential to due limits, without incurring too heavy an interest charge ?

Such problems as the above confront the electrical engineer, and his success in dealing with them must be measured by his finding the most economical solution. Compare his work with that of the original investigator. Faraday's tiny spark, a minute fraction of an inch in length, is one of the milestones of a life devoted to science. His purely theoretical work is at the basis of the profession to which this book is devoted. Yet the question of money never occupied Faraday. He sacrificed a lucrative practice simply

THE SCIENTIST AND HIS WORK. 13 to devote his life to original work. His abstract investigations have had a part in making possible the practical work of to-day, and the electrical engineer was made possible by the disinterested and apparently useless work of many original investigators. No one could have seen in their primitive apparatus the fathers of the great dynamos of the present time. The moral is to be slow to criticise unfavorably purely scientific work. It may seem useless, but none can tell what it will lead to. This lesson has been so well learned that there is little need of insisting upon it. No one hears an electrical engineer of any standing object to scientific investigation. He knows that his whole profession is based upon theoretical discoveries, and that he would have no raison d'etre but for such work as that of Faraday and J. Clerk Maxwell. His field is still an unexplained mystery, and 4io one is more anxious for the theorist to explore it than is the enlightened engineer. So great is his respect for the scientist, that the tiny sparks of Hertz's experiments were hailed as a step towards the direct production of light. The practical world, now better educated and trained, which formerly thought so little of the extra current spark, looked with the utmost interest on its successor, the Hertz spark, still smaller and more insignificant in appearance. The engineer now sees at least the possibility of his apparatus rivalling in efficiency the fire-fly as a producer of light.

14 ASPIRANTS FOR THE PROFESSION.

Thus the bonds that with the advent of electricity united the scientist to the engineer grew stronger every day. Electrical engineers are more highly educated than in old times, and many of them are capable of executing laboratory investigations themselves. The distinctio^NJDetween practical and scientific men has begun to fade awa? No'longer jealous of each other, they improve by mutual acquaintance. The scientist feels that he has a larger audience than before : the engineer hopes to derive much practical benefit from the college laboratory.

The principal object of this book is to give some hints to aspirants for the profession who have not the advantage of a college course. On all sides such aspirants may be found in the public schools, in the high schools, and in machine shops. On the farms as well, many a youth, when he sees the electric lights and electric cars in the neighboring village or city, feels that he would give all that he is worth to have some share in the work of the profession that annihilates darkness and space.

The first thing that such should understand is that it is an uphill road which they have to travel to become electricians. As competitors they will have college-bred men, fully as ambitious as themselves, and equally willing to do anything, provided it is electrical. The advantage of the college training is very great, but the lesson taught by the experience of successive generations, not only in this country, but

HOW TO BEGIN.

in the Old World, is that the poor man's son without any advantages of education can work to the front, and often passes his better equipped competitor. Years of hard work are before such young men, but they are years whose like has often been lived through, and will be lived through in the future, with ultimate attainment of success.

Assume that a young man of the classes suggested above desires to become an electrician. Perhaps the first thing to be determined is whether he is ready for any kind of work. Taking the class we speak of, the first object may be the earning of some wages or salary, even if small. In such case it is not too much to say that almost any position about an electrical works should be acceptable. It is even conceivable that a trolley-man, who understands electricity, might graduate as an electrician, first being promoted to work upon the line, thus entering on some more inspiring work than runninga car. Even in attending to lamps, in collecting and distributing meter-zincs, and in similar work, a satisfaction will be felt in the realization of the fact that at least something is being learned, and that an apprenticeship to the profession is being gone through.

The question of age comes in. In our schools of science the entrance age is often seventeen or eighteen. Before entering, the student has to pass an examination of more or less scope and severity, which examination includes matter appertaining to his proposed

1G THE AGE FOR BEGINNING.

profession. This tells us that long before reaching the age of seventeen a young man may and should begin to study for his chosen profession. But those for whom this book is written are not all so young as this. Many may be well past the first four lusters of a hard-working life. The general moral, nevertheless, is obvious. The study may be begun in some sense at quite an early age. Those suited for the profession will have insensibly worked on such lines, for they will have excelled in arithmetic and branches of natural science, or at least will have received most permanent benefit from them. There is no harm in the public-school student trying to give his studies and his home work this direction. A scientifically disposed boy will find recreation in constructing batteries and electro-magnets, and perhaps in erecting a telegraph line between his home and that of some friend. If his home has an electric door-bell, he will be the one to keep it in order. His services may be in requisition among the neighbors for such things. If it is in a boy to become an electrical engineer, he will be apt to show it pretty early in life.

But how is such a book as this to help him ? If he looks over its headings it may seem to him that an electrician has to be a very accomplished person. This is strictly true — true not only of the electrician, who deserves to succeed, but true of others as well. The first thing most people want to know is the easiest road to their desires. You wish to succeed as an

THE SELF-TAUGHT ENGINEER. 17

electrician — then your question, and it is a very rational one, is, How little is necessary?

Our book to some extent tries to answer this query. Take the sections one by one, and you will find that in each the endeavor is to give a clue to the least you ought to know.

In colleges all over the land young men are studying for the profession, and a severe four years' course is passed as preparation. This book details far less than the work of those four years, so the somewhat varied items of study and work are not a full course. The author's hope is in another direction. It is that, if the little work here outlined is faithfully done, the little study faithfully performed, and if what is catalogued here is absolutely known, the reader will be prepared to enter the field and compete for the top rungs of the long ladder, which it may take a life-time to ascend.

If you pick out just what suits your fancy — find that chemistry loses variety after a week at it and drop it ; know that mathematics will not suit you and do not drop them only because you never take them up; read physics superficially, avoiding all formulae and calculations — you have not got the stuff in you to succeed.

When through with this course, volts and amperes and their brethren should be as familiar to you as quarts and pounds are to the grocer. This may be brought about by practice on calculations of

18 LEARNING A LITTLE THOROUGHLY.

circuits ; Ohm's law, in its endless modifications, giving great chances for work in this direction. Energy, work (mechanical as well as physical units), inertia, force should be so ingrained by use in calculations and by the habit of referring all machinery motions and functions to them as to be a part of your nature. Your references to them should be almost instinctive.

This idea should be carried out in all that is detailed here. Little enough is prescribed — so little, that its only hope of utility is that the very short course of scientific study here mapped out shall become a part of your nature. Take this course and compare it with any college course and see how little there is of it — so little, that it may be a subject of just criticism were one to maintain that an electrician should go no further. This is not to be maintained by any means. But let a young man by his own exertions go thus far, let him become self-educated to this extent, and he will not be content to arrest his progress when on the border-land of science only. He will want to go further, and he will do so. Every step of such progress proves the true nature more than a year in college on the king's highway to knowledge — to knowledge little appreciated because so easily gained.

Enough has been said to indicate the general theory of work. If one will carry it out so as to learn a little bit very perfectly rather than a great quantity

INDICATIONS OF CHARACTER. 19

superficially, a habit will be acquired which will stand one in good stead through life. Restrain ambition for covering ground. If you will begin slowly and thoroughly, you will do better in the end.

This much will introduce our subject. You think of entering a profession created within a comparatively few years upon a basis of pure science ; one in which the old-time jealousy between practical and theoretical science is happily missing; one in which you will have to compete with minds as good and better than your own, and far better equipped. The great object in life is to acquire contentment. So before embarking in the competition satisfy yourself that you have the necessary qualifications to be an engineer ; study your past proclivities and decide whether the farm, the store, or the machine-shop is not after all a safer field for you than electrical engineering.

Two boys live in a country village. The local surveyor is in want of some one to help him survey a farm or a lot. He will ask the boys which will help him. One offers, with signs of real interest, to assist. The other finds a game of foot-ball or of baseball more interesting. Here is at once a clue as to which will make the best engineer. Let the same two boys live near a railroad. One will know the engines by their numbers and will know the characteristics of the different ones. A new engine will be an object of the greatest interest to him. He will

20 NOTICING LITTLE THINGS.

note the peculiarities of the tracks — how some are rusty and some bright. His mind will work upon the interesting question of why a travelled rail does not rust even on its sides where the wheels never touch it. If a new semaphore is put in, he will not be satisfied until he learns its exact uses. A little heap of sand by the rail-side will tell him that an engine has had trouble in starting, and that the sand-box has been opened to drop sand upon the rail. He will examine the sand to see what quality it is, and whether it has been baked to give it bite. Everything is to be investigated and its causes determined. The other boy will have a soul above (or below) such trivial things. But which boy would you select to make an engineer out of?

It is told of Agassiz that he wished to select an assistant from a number of young men. Taking them to a window he asked them one by one to tell what was there. Some noted only a house opposite, but one saw a house, saw that it was made of brick or of stone, described the material, and told of the general environment of the place. The good observer was selected as the assistant. The rejected applicants received a needed lesson ; they learned that in Agassiz's estimation it was the observation of little things that indicated the scientific mind.

The moral of this is briefly told : Use your eyes. There is a multitude of things to be seen, if you will only look. The great things in any given line may

THE ART OF OBSERVING. 21

have been studied and worked out, but there always remain a multitude of little things to be investigated. Study to let none of them escape you.

The fire-fly, the glow-worm, the curculio of the West Indies are all small things. Yet on them the electrical engineer looks with envy and interest. He envies them their power of producing waves of almost pure light energy ; he envies them their enormous efficiency as light-producers. They interest him because they give some faint suggestion and some very definite hope that the time may come when he will be able to light houses at a less reckless expenditure than that of two and a" half or three watts to a candle-power.

A man who knows little hates to be forced to display his ignorance by being asked questions, while he who knows is always willing to respond to inquiries. Yet just in proportion to his knowledge, in proportion to the exact training which his mind has received, will he distinguish between sensible and idle questions. The mind of scientific bent wants to know everything, and all things cannot be ascertained by observation only. Questions must be asked, but of whom ? Here again the natural qualifications will be shown. The born student will first propound his questions to his books or to those of some library, and if books do not tell him, he will not rest until he finds out in some way his point. His questions will be sensible ones — his own attempts to find

22 ASKING AND ANSWERING QUESTIONS.

out for himself will insure this. He may ask them of one who knows ; he may write to some journal which answers queries. Ignorance should cause restlessness until the desired information is obtained.

The reciprocal of what is outlined above is the willingness to impart our knowledge. If there is any one thing which shows what is worse than a limited intellect, it is the unwillingness to tell the little we do know in the way of science to those less informed. In this direction the mind should open for every one. Nowhere is candor more essential than in the field of science. In later life one may find out things which would be of value to professional men if published or made known. Then it is a duty to communicate them. But even in youth, the one who naturally helps along other inquirers less advanced than himself shows the true scientific bias. Conceal nothing in science. Secretiveness in those matters marks a one-sided character whose future prosperity may be doubted. To-day Cavendish is regarded as almost a criminal, because he concealed the valuable results of his researches in electricity. A miser in science is a sad anomaly.

It is definitely certain that we all have our individual characteristics. Some excellent minds would be utterly miserable in the engineering field, but there is no greater error than the falling into one-sidedness of character. An engineer should be an

ONE-SIDEDNESS AND OPENNESS. 23

"all-round man." He has to deal with human nature and with the luminiferous ether at one and the same time. If from the beginning a young man shuts himself up within himself, never opens his soul to any one, and works away in secrecy, he will ruin his chances of success, for a one-sided man is the last one who should adopt the profession of which we are speaking.

The writer has now in mind a young man who developed early in life a great talent for mechanics. His talent was fostered by his family — very properly, one would suppose. But with it was an accompaniment all too frequent — a desire to work alone, and a repugnance to companionship in his pursuits. This should have been combated but was not. The young man has become a recluse, only at home in his machine-shop, doing nothing for humanity, unknown to the world, a victim to one-sidedness. Another instance is within the writer's knowledge. It concerns again a born mechanic, a man who can do anything with tools, and who is accomplished in other ways. But him, too, a solitary life and one-sidedness have selected as a victim. He is devoted to his work, reads little, and does not do anything like what he should with the natural gifts which he possesses. It is evident that in both these cases rigorous measures should have been taken early in life, and both men should have been made to study literature, languages, or anything that would break