Thomas Edison
American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847. He was the youngest of seven children and received little formal schooling...
Voltage Drop in Installations - Concepts
Problems on achieving maximum voltage drop within an installation come up often. Depending where you live, local regulations will have different limits...
IEC 61439 - The Switchgear Standard
The new standard IEC 61439 replaces the old 60439. Compared to the old standard, the new 61439 is a more clearly defined and takes into account the assembly...
Always Use PPE
A lot of our members work in countries where PPE (personal protective equipment) is regulated or they work for companies/organizations which take employee...
Magicians of Engineering
The other day I was reading 'Night of the New Magicians' by Mary Pope Osborn with my son. The story is about a young boy and girl who travel back in time...
The ac resistance of conductors
In a previous article I looked at the dc resistance of conductors and in this article we turn our attention to ac resistance. If you have not read the...
RLC Circuit, Resistor Power Loss - some Modelica experiments
Modelica is an open source (free) software language for modelling complex systems. Having never used it before, I thought I would download a development...
Paternoster Lifts
These lifts were first built in 1884 by J. E. Hall and called a paternoster ("Our Father", the first two words of the Lord's Prayer in Latin) due to its...
3 Phase Loads
Three phase systems are derived from three separate windings, either connected in delta or star (wye). Each winding can be treated separately, leading...
Thermoplastic and Thermosetting Insulation
While there are a vast array of cable insulation materials, these are often divided into two general types; Thermoplastic or Thermosetting. For example...