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Histoyand reflections011theWAY thingswere
First ElectricStreet LampsJohn M. Anclersnn
The electric tnachincry being in rearli-ness, the wires primed
stid cocked, andthc csrhon cnds adjusted, ChnrlicThoixpson pullcd
thc trigger last cveiiingand shot ;I myriad n T tays nl:
lransccn-dently brillient light athwart the ebonyv d t of night ...
n rhousand eyes weredrawn to the mnagtietic scene [:I].hiswas
thcvicw j i i Bisniarck, North Dakota,whciiarc lampson I l0foot
towcrs in thctown ceiiterwere turned on for the firstt i r t ie
during Sepkmber 1883. Thcexcln-tiintionwasequally A S great iti J
oliet, Il li-nois: A n d there W B S gloom i n J o l i e t aridthe
spirit of darkness was abmnd and thepall of night spread over lis,
sothat whendeep sleep fell npon inan th e city w as i i sdark a s
:Icord of black cats ... And theVatidepoele E lectric 1, ight
Ccmpaii ysaid let there be light in J oliet, a n d therewiis l ight
. .. .?he nerchants are etithusi-astic over it, and the natives
from therooral tleestricts, when they cmi e intothc city, take off
their spccs and imagincthat they have had a foretaste uf the jnysto
coiiic 121. Not all good things, how-ever, ciiriic Li*onithis iiclw
Ibrni orstrectlighting, so011 0 eplace gist nElgin, 11-liriois,
Frank Crosby, :. pl.oniitient citi-zen, . said, therc arc
rlisadvaotagesribont this business, andhewasa sufferer. ..
.Hefourid n lien on tlienest,thinkingit was day time and hetice
time tu lay. I twas a11 very good for his listetiers tolaugh, but
what wiis to 1ieci)me of hishcns?To besure ihcy would iay iwo
cggsii (lay for ii while biit then their coiistilu-tioii and bylaws
wnuld hc ruincd aiid i t i ctiMic slop 121. Clcaily hc
wi~rinlist~wcrc hiwing a ball.Nuincroirsbooks, newspaper
articles,and even strangers on the street will tellyciu l h a t
Tliotnas Edison iiitmdticed thefirst electric lamp. But tliut was
iiot th ecase. Edisondeclared that he had solvedM i E Power
I3ifiirrcerlngRwlciic illrirch2000
the electric h i l i p problem in the lastm o n t h s o f
1879,ycl clcclric lainps i n ~h cf om of electricill ilrcs between
carbonelectrodes werc alrcarly in placcs of Iiusi-ness and on the
city streets. Edisnnsla[iyp the iacnndcsccnt kirlip, i t hotglowing
filament i n it vacuum-filledglass envelope. I t eventoelly went
intohomes in overwhelming numbers, 2ndtoday it isubiquitous.On the
other hand,arc lampshad ii .;hurt but iinportaiit ca-reer ai d
prepared the public for thenewagc cif arti ricial illuminatim.
I n 1802, at th e Royal hstit.utiim inhndon, Sir Hui nphry Davy
touched to-gether two rods uf charcoal and thendrcw (Iicin :!par1
to Iorui n coiidticiiiigarch (arc) in air. lheSULIICC 01:
electricityw s Voltaic cell (balterp),the firstseri-LIIIS
protluccrnrcotiiinuous cLIt+rcntvail-able for
experirneittatiotl.Tho result, iibright light, wtis only ii
scientific curios-ity for rnaiiy years, uritil dyi1i1111os,basedmi
priiiciplcs disctivcrcd by Micliacl Fa r -litiiiy iiiiti uthers,
gave a coiitinuuussoiirce of high elect~oiil iirrent.Europeled the
way, iitid a ring-artlatiirer lyt iamodcviacd hy
Zdiiobc-Thdnpl~IcGramrnc,n Helgium-born electrician working i
nPr:.iiice,w x he first to inc.orpor:ite tiiostrcalurcs.of a ~ i i
n d c r r i iiachinc. This wa si n t h e early 1870s, and ar c I m
p s , in 1ii1-rope, followed quickly.1ile:is rravel swiftly, and
several per-sons in the United Sttites desigtierl t h e i ro w n
lamps, iiiarlc ihcjr ow11 rlynatnos,iuid wcnt i i i to thc
biisincss or sclliiig ighiinstiillatioiis to be used 011streets
aiid ii ibuildings. Prominent riinong thein, ;md~liccad iuvcntor at
the beginning of theart, wiisC:haIlcs F. Br~rsh.n 1x76, hcdc-signed
his u w n dynmu and had parlsmacleat (lie Telegraph Supply
Corqxinyin Clcvelnnd, Ohio. I t pcrfornierl sowellthat thc
coiripslny began to tnnke rhe dy-1i : l l l ios itiltiierliiltcly.
A H I K ampW;ISrlc-signed in 1877,and busitless tookoft. Athst,
ciich machine was tletliciitcd tu iisinglc lulnp. 'Then I \ VO
liilijps, li~ut.u i i p s ,mid larger machines weremadc, until
tlicm e loweda1 I25 latiip imchincs (aboiit7,000 vol ts arid I n
anqwcs) to reed cir-cuits iicnrly 2miles in length. The
firstinstance of permaiient puhlic-street light-
ing ~:electr.ic;il]nnywhcic i l l tlie worldw as ii i thePublic
Sc1ux-cr)f Clcvcland, wlilllc park nf a h 1 1 IO ucrcs. I n Apr i
l1879, twelve [iircl anips of the ortliiiaryso-caller1 2,000
c;itidlepower were i n-st;illetl i n th e (Iitrk on high
02nariientalpoles 131.
A r c lanips gave l i g h t of d a z z l i n g in-tensity ~I - O
I ~Ii sniall s o u w e ofhigh I x i l -liancc. A c t i i a l l y th
e greatest i l l u m i n a t i o nc mc i.cm thc iiicmdesccntcarlm1
tip01thc posilivc clcclrodc, rather than Lhcelectrical discharge p
l a s m a . I.ookiiig at itdirectly uiiti lead to eye tlamage.
Thus,there were iririny warnings sild t l iscus-h i s iboirl how (n
cinploy llic lanipwhcn it wiis firfit iiilriduccd. 11had to bea w a
y Ircirn pcoplc; 110problcrn hccausethe high cmllepower allowed
this. I iis( i i i i t : ciises, stantlarils soiiie t.wetity
fccihigh sp;iccd ahoul IO0 Iccl rcplficcd gasI i inlps.
Occasinnally arc laiiipswere stis-pciirlcd 011 wilts Lr~miuilding
iobuild-ing, while liir sotiic iiislalialioiis, clusters
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BooksandReportsand recent releases in mixed media
IOnlineHandbook ofMathematical FunctionsThis item is i i i
excerptbo t i l th c 25Octwber 1999 issueof"NIST U'ptlate,"a
pub-lication of the U.S. Depnrtment ofComtnerce, Technology
Arlministriitioti,National Iiastiluteof Standardsnntl Tech-nology
(NIST).Lf you were going to be stratit led on adesert island arid
could tiake only onebook with you, which one would youchoose'! When
N PM S'cienlisl miigazi neput that question to someof the
world'slending scietitisrs :I few years ago, Si rMichael Berry, a
distinguished 13ritishphysicist, xnid hewaiilrl take theHand-h~ i
kf hfuthenirr cu l Fwlcliims.The handbook, First published byNIST
iri 1964,has becoiiic a classic ref-erencework for scientists
andengineersaroundthe world.While it.tIocs not makefor light
reading, it contains ii wexlth ofinformation nbouc Ibiact.ions,
milt1ietiiiit.i-cal entities used foI ;ill niuiner of scieii-tiric
cnlculntiotis.A physicist str~atidetlni i i i ixlaiirl could use
the functions to ex-pluin how light scattering prodiiccs iistunning
ri i ibow. I n the rcal world, L l ~ yaid computation ill1d
aiialysis ii i arcas a sdiverse as astronoiny, almosphcric
inod-cling aiit i nndcrwatcr acauslics.NIST is launching a pmjcct
to con-duct ai1 cxhaustivc stirvcy of all ialevnntpublished
literature, nntl then produce abraurl iicw cornpcritliiiin oti
innthemati-ca l functions. Thc i iew workwill b c pub-lishedon the
World Wide Web ;uit l willbcknown ns the Digital Lib" of
Math-emalical Futictions.NIST iiiathcniaticians and
coinpiiterscicntish arc working oti a variety ofways lo inake tlic
Digital L ibimy espe-cially useful i i a the Internet age. A
d-vanccrl starch engiues will help scient-ists Pi nil the right
inrithematical formulas.Dowiiloading or Tormulns in a varicly
(11'formats will Iic ust ii iiiotiscclick away.Cltiidiiiicchi. hc
ctmairiiciiori and testing(]I'nuthcinatical soflwaie, anrl
cxampleso f typical usageof futictioiis i n scicntilic
fields, will be built in. Viewers will heable to useweb hrowsers
that incorporateVirtual Reality M odeling Imguage
totnii~~ipuliiter;iphic;il representat iuns offuoctions.Soineo f
the world's leading mathe-iriaticiatis from the United States,
Eng-l a i i d , France, the Nether1a11cls, A adAustria nre
pnrticipatiiig i n the project.They nre responsible for iauch of
thecore ninrerial. NIST is exercising edito-rial control, as well
ias developing anclinaintainitig thc web siteas ii free
lpublicrcsomc. The agency also will publishIhc liaiadbook i n n
paper version.Theprqject is being funded in part byagi wt I'roin
tlic Natiotinl ScienceFoun-dation and will take 4years
tocoiiiplete.A niockiipof th e Digitnl L ibrary tnny bevicwcd o n
theWeh, littp:/itnatti.nist.jiov/Digi taIM;ithL,ib/.
Power SystemAnalysisPower $7 sk H I s A 11 d y s i s , Seco I I
Edlion, by A rthur K. Bergei i anrl VijayVittal, poblisherl by
Prentice Hall, UpperSaddle River, New J ersey, ISBN
0-13-fi91W&l.M1ic.hhas chiinget1 since thc firstcdi-tion o f
this hook wcnt to prcss i n 1986.The electric utility i iiduslry in
thc IhiitcrlStutcs has iiiidcrgonc major chaiigcs inits s t r u c t
u r c anti opcrating pmcliccs. I nmaoy parrs of llie cot i t i t
ry, the tnonopo-listic mi d rcguIated vertically integrnmli i l i l
i ty sysrcrii is being rcplnccd by asorncwhal dcrcgulatcd
multilayered sys-tcinopcn to cotiipctition and other niar-ket
forccs. 'I'his sccond cdition includcsmaterial which rc l l c c l s
lhcsc cbaiigcsa n d dcals with issues rclalcd to Llic
iicwcnvirniiniciil. I n addition, A mmber ofthoughtltil suggcst
ionsby pro 'essors nn t lstudents wtio have used thc first
cdilicinhiivebeen incorporated. Whi C ctmtinii-ing to strcss
ftindamciitds, LlicrcisAOIIIC-what inureemphasis on induslry
pracliccan d on computer applications.
Themany changes in the secoiid cdi-tiuii inclutle the following:
'I'he chiiptcrshave heen reordered to provide ii nmrcsystematic
development of the matwid.A iiew section uti
ileterininitig_transmis-sion fine pnraineters from
innnufiictur-ers' tables has heen introduced i nChapter 3. I n the
same chapter, B ti iorcconiplete:ind acctirate description 01
im-pedanceparametersof tratnsmissiun lincswith ground returns has
been proviqletl.Ch;yter (3 is an entirely new chiipkron thesubject
of network matrices. Thetopic of matrix fnctorizntion and its
ai>-pliciitions to matrix inversion i s in-cluded. Also included
is the m o d c mapproachof cleterrniningonly needed cl -erneints
oftl ie impedance niiitrix. ChaptcrI O 011power flow solutions h i
l s been cx-patided to tlesc ihe the inod ificat o n sneeded when
practical li tnits areenctiuii-tcretl. Ti i Chaptcr I I , titlctl
"AuloinnticGeneration Control anti the New Markclknvircin iient,"
wnie i rleiis current1 hc-ing utilized for power system
opcratinnand control are introthiced C:h;\ptcr 12011 unbalanced
system operarioin andhull analysis has bceri subshntinlly re-vised
and iucludcs ncw mitcrial dcscrib-ing inrlnstry pract cc.A salient
feature of thc secondeditionis s running design problem that is
firstintrootluced i n Chapter 3 arid contitilies ineach successive
chapter a s relevant ncwconcepts ar e presented. The design
pial>-lein is computer oriented; the stiiilcnlniay usc nvailnblc
snltwarc, or inny tle-vclop snliwarc using M A T L A B .
Thesedcsign cxiIln1>lcs arc iiivnlvcd alld areideally suitcd fur
group projccts.Arthur k r g w is with the r)cl> i lWmentof
I~lcctrical hgineerii igandConi-puter Sciences at the University o
rCalifornia, I3erkclcy.Hc is an 1EEE PESFcllnw.Vijay Vittal is with
thc Depertinentof Electrical aucl Computet Engineeringzit [own
Stnte University. He is :in ' I I Y TPES 1:ellow.
