[NJARC] DC Power in NYC?

Robert Carroll w2wg at comcast.net
Sun Jul 20 18:04:10 EDT 2008


When I joined Bell Labs in 1972 the Protection and Interference Department
worked on issues in parts of NYC which still were on DC.  I think DC did not
entirely disappear till a number of  years after that.  I remember seeing
recognition of the shutdown of DC service but do not remember the year.

Bob W2WG

-----Original Message-----
From: njarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:njarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of AMCMATADOR at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 5:29 PM
To: njarc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [NJARC] DC Power in NYC?

Visit our web site - See http://www.njarc.org
_______________________________________________
I Know that certain parts of NYC used DC power well into the 1950s,
possibly 
later. I have a friend who worked in Manhatten at a college  uptown. The 
buildings there were originally DC. Later on AC lines were added,  but 
incandescent lighting, elevators and other loads that did not require  the
use of 
transformers, were left on the DC circuits much longer. As the  story goes,
this 
proved quite confusing , and resulted in some people plugging  transformer
powered 
or AC motor devices into the DC lines. It was established  that all AC 
equipment was to have Hubbell twist lock plugs and all AC  receptacles were
to be 
the same. All DC equipment or AC/DC equipment, was  equipped with standard 
parallel blade plugs. Several years ago, my friend was  fortunate enough to 
intercept some trash, and save some equipment, which I wound  up with. With
the 
exception of a small AC/DC radio, and a projector with a  universal motor.
All of 
the equipment had twist lock plugs still attached. Just  a little tidbit of 
useless info! I have always been curious when DC was actually  eliminated
from 
all building receptacles, and lighting. To my knowledge It is or  was still 
supplied for elevators at least until very recently. 
 
                            Darren 



**************Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for 
FanHouse Fantasy Football today.      
(http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)
_______________________________________________
NJARC mailing list
NJARC at mailman.qth.net
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/njarc



More information about the NJARC mailing list