Richardson Ralph A. Electricity and Wheels

Twelfth Printing. — Detroit: General Motors Corporation, 1939. — 32 p.This is the electrical age. Electricity is a cheap, easily transported form of power. It can be used in small amounts to run a razor, light our house, bring us music and world events over the air, or connect us by telephone with our friends. It can be used in large amounts to run the motors in our factories, produce metals from ore, power streamlined trains and for hundreds of other industrial applications. The steam engine brought large amounts of power to the factory but it was not possible to transport it over any great distance. Belts and shafts were satisfactory for short distances in one or two buildings, but a more flexible means of transmitting power in any quantity to factories, homes, offices, and to isolated locations was needed. Faster means of communication were necessary for business and pleasure. Electric power was the answer. Strands of copper will carry an abundance of power for several hundred miles to the exact spot it is needed. Electricity will carry the written or spoken word over great distances almost instantaneously, either with or without a connecting wire. The electrical industry has made the automobile possible. No one would have thought when Faraday discovered mutual induction, that he was making possible the ignition coil which fires an average automobile engine over 12,000 times per mile. Or that when he pulled a magnet through a coil of wire and produced an electric current, he was discovering the basic facts underlying the generator and self-starter.