Antique electric meter

[MagicMo]

Yowza! Thank you for all the info. I knew it was special.
As far as the Meteritis goes, that's not what my husband called it! I like your name for it better.
It is has been sitting shotgun in my car since Friday, someone better help me move it inside soon or I may just have to give it a nickname ( I like "tommy") and  take "him" out for ice cream.

Thompson recording watthourmeter
No. 1852845   Type CS
Amp 1200  Volts 215
General Electric Co
Schenectady NY USA
20"x11"x10"
Constructed of Brass, Copper, Iron and Glass

[WesternElectricBen]

Well in the picture its on the driveway so I hope you don't run over it.

[G-Man]

Safety Point-

A number of people install mount old electric meters on a base along with a lamp. When the lamp is turned-on the meter will turn and gives it a certain coolness factor.

Do NOT do it with this meter. It is intended to be connected to commercial d.c. current (now pretty-much obsolete) and not regular a.c. service.

It may look like a direct short or irregular load across the line and end up doing some very nasty things including great bodily harm to anyone standing near it.

[HarrySmith]

Commercial DC current??

[poplar1]

Commercial DC current??

Yes. As G-Man suggested, it was still used for some older elevators long after its other uses had been discontinued. Some customers were reluctant to replace obsolete but still working elevators. (Does that sound familiar?)

Edison actually wanted all commercial power to be DC, but he lost the argument as AC became the standard.

Others have opined that DC lighting is preferable to the illusion of steady light that we experience with 60 cycle AC., where the voltage is at 0 120 times a second as it changes from positive to negative then again from negative to positive.

[poplar1]

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/off-goes-the-power-current-started-by-thomas-edison/?_r=0

[Bill]

As stated, commercial DC certainly existed, and was common in some metro areas as late as the 1960's. But I'm not sure that this is a DC meter. The clue is in the rating of "215 volts" on the nameplate. This is an oddball voltage, but a bit of Google tells me that it is the voltage on the "wild leg" of a delta-connected 240-volt 3-phase AC system. Delta connection is commonly used when there are a lot of motors involved in the load, which would account for the rather high current rating (1200 amps).

If you have the patience to look through it, there is some information here
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general-archive/120-215-120-volts-ground-90001/
The best posts are the picture in number 6, and the text in number 10.

Bill

[AE_Collector]

Was there a standard DC voltage distributed where DC was available? The telco's could also have been a big potential customer possibly only needing batteries for backup and final filtering?

Electric street railways and busses generally used DC as well didn't they? Something around 600VDC?

Terry

[poplar1]

As G-man stated, Mo's meter is definitely DC because it is a CS model.

http://www.watthourmeters.com/generalelectric/cs.html

[poplar1]

Was there a standard DC voltage distributed where DC was available? The telco's could also have been a big potential customer possibly only needing batteries for backup and final filtering?
Electric street railways and busses generally used DC as well didn't they? Something around 600VDC?

Terry

The PG&E DC grid in San Francisco is 250 Volts. There are still 900 customers. Chicago still has limited DC service. In NYC, customers who still have DC elevators are getting onsite rectifiers.

North American trolleys and subway cars run on 600VDC.

Here is an excerpt from a 2012 article by Peter Fairley of Victoria, B.C.:

      Could holdouts such as San Francisco ultimately have the last laugh?
      The spread of both DC generators (such as photovoltaic panels) and
      DC loads (such as cellphones, flat-panel televisions, LED lights, and
      even electric cars) is inspiring a small but growing niche for DC microgrids
      that link the two together. If such building-wide circuits grow into
      neighborhood grids and, ultimately, meld together to form citywide
      DC grids, this circuit of electrical history will finally be closed.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/san-franciscos-secret-dc-grid

[Mr. Bones]

Safety Point-

A number of people install mount old electric meters on a base along with a lamp. When the lamp is turned-on the meter will turn and gives it a certain coolness factor.

Do NOT do it with this meter. It is intended to be connected to commercial d.c. current (now pretty-much obsolete) and not regular a.c. service.

It may look like a direct short or irregular load across the line and end up doing some very nasty things including great bodily harm to anyone standing near it.

G-Man's warnings cannot be over-emphasized.

DO NOT connect this meter to ANY POWER SOURCE. Ever. In perpetuity.

I would be mortified to do so, with both decades of experience, and proper Arc-Flash protective gear,and I am an Electrician.

You will meet both old Electricians in your life, and stupid ones...you won't meet any old and stupid ones.

By the way," great bodily harm" can be far worse than instantaneous death.

Best regards!

[Bill]

As G-man stated, Mo's meter is definitely DC because it is a CS model.

http://www.watthourmeters.com/generalelectric/cs.html

Yup, I stand corrected. I read too much into the references I found. Thanks for straightening it out, Poplar 1.

Bill