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Post by cablehack on Dec 12, 2013 8:49:00 GMT
For those interested in how the Monitor Top came into being, this article is a good starting point. In summary, GE had the American rights to manufacture the Audiffren which was the first hermetic refrigeration machine and was developed in France. It's a belt driven, but hermetic design. As it was limited in application, Clark Orr designed the OC-2 which initially had a water cooled condenser, and which was later air cooled to make it more acceptable. This is the machine that eventually evolved into the DR, and like the DR was a top mounted cooling unit lowered into an icebox. There's a picture of the OC-2 in the William Holladay article. Manufacture of the air cooled OC-2 was recommended to begin in 1925. www.google.com/patents/US1669141 for one of the patents. Search patents for "clark orr" to see others. It's a lengthy but detailed article, and shows clearly the real reason for GE getting into domestic refrigeration - to create an appliance that would use lots of electricity, (2.2kwh per day for the OC-2) and be in continuous use, so as to provide profits for its power stations. Some of the amusing statements within:    And the pdf itself: 200611215455_347.pdf (1.31 MB) |
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Post by ChrisJ on Dec 12, 2013 14:47:34 GMT
I didn't realize GE had many power plants by the 1920s-1930s? I kind of assumed all of Edison's plants were DC and long gone by the point?
Maybe a very bad assumption on my part.
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Post by ChrisJ on Dec 12, 2013 15:43:42 GMT
Page 513 it specifically says the oil floats on top of SO2.
This is a great read!
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Post by coldspaces on Dec 12, 2013 18:04:19 GMT
Great find! I have only made it to page 30 and wish I could stay home from work to read it all. Thanks for posting this.
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Post by cablehack on Dec 12, 2013 23:06:09 GMT
I didn't realize GE had many power plants by the 1920s-1930s? I kind of assumed all of Edison's plants were DC and long gone by the point? Maybe a very bad assumption on my part. DC mains is a very interesting topic in itself, and I always think it's ironic that the monitor top uses an AC induction motor, pioneered by the likes of Tesla and Westinghouse...yet GE in its early days was committed to DC because of Edison, although you can bet that the engineers within knew the fallacy of that. From what I've been able to find out, the thing that forced GE to concede defeat was when Westinghouse built the hydro plant at Niagara falls to transmit the power to Buffalo about 32km away, using 3 phase 11kV AC. As is well known, Edison's DC plants had to be built within a few miles of the consumer. In many countries of the British Empire, DC mains was reticulated up until at least the 1950's in a lot of areas. In Australia it was common in rural towns. It was a three wire 240/480V system. Needless to say, when a city person brought their AC only appliance to such a place and didn't know, there'd be burnt out motor or transformer. About the only advantage of DC for small towns is that you only need to run the generating plant during the day, as batteries can provide the supply overnight. It's one reason monitor tops are not usually seen outside the cities here. |
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Post by turbokinetic on Aug 9, 2021 20:23:38 GMT
I didn't realize GE had many power plants by the 1920s-1930s? I kind of assumed all of Edison's plants were DC and long gone by the point? Maybe a very bad assumption on my part. DC mains is a very interesting topic in itself, and I always think it's ironic that the monitor top uses an AC induction motor, pioneered by the likes of Tesla and Westinghouse...yet GE in its early days was committed to DC because of Edison, although you can bet that the engineers within knew the fallacy of that. From what I've been able to find out, the thing that forced GE to concede defeat was when Westinghouse built the hydro plant at Niagara falls to transmit the power to Buffalo about 32km away, using 3 phase 11kV AC. As is well known, Edison's DC plants had to be built within a few miles of the consumer. In many countries of the British Empire, DC mains was reticulated up until at least the 1950's in a lot of areas. In Australia it was common in rural towns. It was a three wire 240/480V system. Needless to say, when a city person brought their AC only appliance to such a place and didn't know, there'd be burnt out motor or transformer. About the only advantage of DC for small towns is that you only need to run the generating plant during the day, as batteries can provide the supply overnight. It's one reason monitor tops are not usually seen outside the cities here. One thing I would love to have is a complete DC Monitor Top setup, including the rotary converter. I've seen pictures of one, in poor and incomplete condition. It was shared on Facebook by a member from Argentina. They had the 4-terminal compressor but nothing else. And it was burned out. |
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Post by cablehack on Aug 10, 2021 0:30:24 GMT
One thing I would love to have is a complete DC Monitor Top setup, including the rotary converter. I've seen pictures of one, in poor and incomplete condition. It was shared on Facebook by a member from Argentina. They had the 4-terminal compressor but nothing else. And it was burned out. I do vaguely remember the DC Monitor Top on Facebook. From what I've read about them, the rotary converter produces a two phase output; hence the four terminal motor with two separate run windings. My guess is that the low power factor of the normal single phase switch start motor would be problematic for a rotary converter, which is why they used the two phase motor. The manual does briefly mention converting DC machines to AC without any detail, but I guess a phase shifting capacitor is involved, in series with one of the windings. |
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Post by ChrisJ on Aug 10, 2021 12:38:39 GMT
Ok.
Christian Steenstrup is said to be the father of the modern hermetic refrigeration system. (Motor and compressor inside sealed housing etc).
If that's the case, who was Clark Orr? The OC2 certainly seems to be hermetically sealed.
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Post by turbokinetic on Aug 10, 2021 14:15:42 GMT
Ok. Christian Steenstrup is said to be the father of the modern hermetic refrigeration system. (Motor and compressor inside sealed housing etc). If that's the case, who was Clark Orr? The OC2 certainly seems to be hermetically sealed. I would say; grandfather! |
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Post by cablehack on Aug 10, 2021 14:19:14 GMT
Ok. Christian Steenstrup is said to be the father of the modern hermetic refrigeration system. (Motor and compressor inside sealed housing etc). If that's the case, who was Clark Orr? The OC2 certainly seems to be hermetically sealed. I think the qualifier there is "mass produced", re Christian Steenstrup. The motor and compressor inside a sealed housing would go back to the 1917 version of the OC-2 (water cooled). Clark Orr was a senior engineer at GE's Fort Wayne works who developed the OC-2.
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Post by ChrisJ on Aug 10, 2021 15:46:29 GMT
So....
Clark Orr is truly the inventor of the system?
Or was he just in charge and others did the work. Who's idea was it originally to combine all of it under one roof?
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Post by cablehack on Aug 11, 2021 1:48:11 GMT
Despite its length, the 1923-1925 Stevenson report does not actually mention many names of those involved with the actual engineering. It says on page 142, "About 1917 the engineers undertook to apply their many years experience with the Audiffren machine to the development of a domestic device. After several years experiment they produced the Type OC-2 machine, water cooled," From the other documents it appears that Clark Orr was one of these engineers.
And just for historical continuity, "In August, 1923, work was started on the redesign for air cooling." Page 142 continues on with a description of the air cooled OC-2 (form H).
Page 200 mentions Clark Orr involved with testing an OC-2 form G. Note that the 1917 version of the OC-2 (form B) was not hermetic; whereas machines onward from the form E in 1919 were. More specifically, to answer the question, the GE Silver Anniversary document from 1952 says that, "In 1919 a successful model was made with the motor inside the case; the first truly hermetically-sealed refrigerating machine. The development of this OC (oscillating cylinder) machine continued for several years under the guidance of Clark Orr in Fort Wayne". It then goes on to say, "Following the acceptance of the Stevenson report, considerable interest was aroused and some of the leading designers in the Company were asked to submit designs. On the appointed day, October 25, 1926, three were presented: Orr's OC-2, Steenstrup's DR-2 and Heisslers Scotch-yoke machine. The committee chose the DR-2". One new thing I learned is that OC is not Clark Orr's initials, which is what I had assumed until now, but oscillating cylinder.
Too much to copy and paste here, but much more information on Clark Orr's involvement is in the document "For The First Time- A Complete History For You". Clark Orr studied manufacturing and thermodynamics. This, of all the documents is one of the best summaries of development, starting with the Audiffren and culminating with the setting up of the OC-2 production line for 10,000 units, before going on to describe the DR. It appears that Orr and Steenstrup were working independently at Fort Wayne and Schenectady respectively.
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