Dodgem Cars

110v DC

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Wasn't it centre tapped earth for safety as well? ie 50-0-50

Alan

Nope, it was straight DC 110V as JS has mentioned.

You can't easily centre-tap a 110V DC genny... although 220V DC supplies to houses were sometimes centre-tapped at the station by using a dual supply, and that was earthed.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

Thanks, wrong again, I expected nearer 500.

I suppose insulation would start being a problem, especially if it was raining :-)

I think that the 110V DC rating came from the original traction engines that used to supply power to fairs etc in the 1920-s and onwards, and when they fell by the wayside the generators were harnessed to things like Meadows and Gardner engines which were still in use until quite recently, in the case of the Gardners probably still in use.

Searchlights and film/TV arc lights also used 110V DC, we used to look after a fleet of 100kW DC gennies for film and TV work, they also had conventional lighting bulbs up to 10kW each but the arcs had to be DC so the gennies were as well.

You could buy a big Mawdsley 110V 100kW dynamo with Newton-Derby carbon pile regulator and hand/auto control brand new in the 1970's, but Mawdsleys have virtually gone, I don't know about Newton-Derby.

We have a couple of 12kW Westinghouse 110V motors somewhere...

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

John, As always you are a fund of arcane knowledge. I just can't resist asking how or why you know that? Also why was 110V selected. Does it relate to the dynamos on Showman's engines or is it about importing cars from the US? Best, John.

In an earlier life I spent the best part of 19 years working on commercial vehicles, plant and various equipment. A lot of this time was spent working the East Midlands showgrounds on vehicles and generating sets so I was very familiar with fairgrounds and their owners. From the age of two to sixteen our kids never paid for a ride on any fair

110v was used because it was the default voltage for fairground rides of their time as all the ride generators were 110v DC.

Just why 110v was standardised I don't know but it seems to have arrived just after WWl. Later on some 240v AC generators came into use for amusement arcades and slot boxes but not rides because of health and safety.

There is still a lot of 110v Dc equipment out there as legacy rides but the larger more modern rides require that much power they are either hydraulically operated, run 440v 3 phase generators and motors or often both.

Long gone are the days of the old 150 Hp Gardner 6LX powering two or three rides. Rides such as the Mighty Mouse have two 350 HP Cummins generators and possible a 100 Hp hydraulic power pack

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.