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Show MachinesThatAre Almost Human By E. C. TAYLOrI? The Electrical Doctor MACHINES suffer ailments and breaks. Just as human beings do, and the "Illness" or breakdowns on the part of machines has cost Industry In-dustry a tremendous sum each year. So science has produced the "electrical "elec-trical doctor." This device diagnoses the ailment of a machine accurately and Instantly, and directs its cure. The "electrical doctor" doesn't compute, com-pute, Juggle figures, or answer questions, ques-tions, but Its marvelous performance. Is almost akin to the thinking and skill of the human brain, and It does Its task without the possibility of errors er-rors of the human brain. An "electrical doctor" Is stationed at nearly every electrical transformer In the country. Scores of other machines ma-chines are to be guarded by these "electrical doctors" and similar devices, de-vices, and science has scored another triumph of saving time arid money. The "electrical doctor's" name la coronaphone. It is a device so sensitive sensi-tive that a slight variation in sound will put It to work. High voltage transformers make a humming sound all the time; that is, when nothing is the matter with them. When anything goes wrong, the sound changes. It was upon this change In sound that scientists based the working of the coronaphone. Only certain things can happen , tc a high voltage transformer, and each of these things has Its own distinctive sound. The coronaphone pays no attention to the peaceful, Industrious humming of the transformer when all Is going well, but Just as soon as the transformer trans-former becomes 111, or has anything the matter with it, it lets out a squawk, and the "electrical doctor" gets on the Job. The coronaphone instantly notifies headquarters. It tells not only what is the matter with the transformer and where the trouble Is, but it diagnoses diag-noses the ailment and makes a complete com-plete and accurate report, all In the time It takes to flash a signal. The principle of the coronaphone Is that of starting action by sound. The squawk of the ailing transform-er transform-er is recorded on the coronaphone, and starts it operating. The distinctive distinc-tive sound of the ailing part of the transformer notifies the "electrical doctor" Just where the trouble it, and also what the trouble Is. An automatic flash to headquarters promptly brings the repairmen, and the threatened breakdown In electric service is averted. Electric service companies formerly former-ly had to employ hundreds of men to hunt down trouble when transformers and power lines -got out of order. Besides Be-sides the waste in energy, there often were long delays in finding the seat of trouble and making repairs so that service could be resumed. The "electrical doctor" Is "the outgrowth out-growth of necessity. When electric service companies in the large cities realized !the necessity of supplying electric current to outlying suburbs and territory many miles away from the central power plants, they put their problem before scientists. Large forces of men could not be employed to care for these extensions, and the service would not warrant the building build-ing of complete power plants in every suburb. So the "electrical doctor" or coronaphone cor-onaphone was devised. As a result, in all cities and densely populated sections of the country, there are now complete electric substations where the electric current is strengthened and distributed without the aid of a single human hand. Automatic machinery ma-chinery is constantly at work, guarded over by the "electrical doctor." ((c). 1931. Western Newspaper Union.) . |