Milestone-Proposal:Worlds First Reliable High Voltage Power Fuse

Docket #:2009-09

This Proposal has been approved, and is now a Milestone Nomination

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Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old?

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s fields of interest? (e.g. “the theory and practice of electrical, electronics, communications and computer engineering, as well as computer science, the allied branches of engineering and the related arts and sciences” – from the IEEE Constitution)

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity?

Was it of at least regional importance?

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)?

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony?

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated?

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an Electrical Engineering Milestone? Yes

Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1909

Title of the proposed milestone:

World's First Reliable High Voltage Power Fuse

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

Chicago

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):

Unit: Chicago
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:

Unit: Chicago
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):

IEEE Section: Chicago
IEEE Section Chair name: Section chair name masked to public

Milestone proposer(s):

Proposer name: Proposer's name masked to public
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

6601 North Ridge Boulevard, Chicago Illinois, 60626

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need.

The plaque will be installed on the property of S&C Electric Company in Chicago, Illinois. This is the headquarters and primary manufacturing facility of S&C (formerly Schweitzer & Conrad—the company that introduced the Liquid Power Fuse). The device was manufactured at this facility through the 1990s.

Are the original buildings extant?

Yes

Details of the plaque mounting:

How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?

The entrance to S&C’s facility is accessible via sidewalks to the surrounding neighborhood, which is a largely residential area. S&C Electric Company’s security staff is on-site 24 hours a day, and keeps watch over the entrance area where the plaque will be installed.

Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

S&C Electric Company

A letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property:

A letter or email from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application:

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)?

This invention provided an economical, reliable means for interrupting high-current short-circuits in electric utility substations. It allowed utilities to expand their delivery of dependable electrical service to businesses and consumers.

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

Existing circuit interruption technologies were wholly inadequate. They could produce damaging overvoltages and were a fire hazard. An entirely new technology needed to be developed. Consider the 1905-vintage book, High-tension power transmission, prepared by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. In discussing circuit interrupting techniques in Volume 2, it points out that, “For high-tension switching, use has been made of a long arc broken between carbon terminals, long-inclosed fuse, a fuse drawn through a tube filled with a fine, non-conducting powder, and of oil switches.” The text notes that, “The first two types, while interrupting the circuit well, draw an arc of excessive length and produce a surging which may result in an increased potential of at least as much as 50 per cent.” The text further states that, “The type of switch where a wire is drawn through a tube filled with powder is found to operate successfully up to 40,000 volts and without serious surging on the circuit, but the powder being blown out with great force, scatters over the entire station, and is in consequence not allowable.” With regard to flammable-oil-filled switches, the text indicates, “The vertical-break switch has the advantage that the amount of oil contained in the oil-tank is relatively small, and will add to possible conflagration only a slight amount of fuel. This switch is found on severe short-circuits often to blow all the oil out of the tank unless the tank is built very strongly . . .”

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

This fuse design was much more reliable than previous power fuses. At the time, breakdowns in electrical substations were common, negatively impacting service reliability for customers of electric utilities. Often, the problems were found to be attributable to poorly performing fault protection equipment. The inspiration for the device came to the inventors—two Commonwealth Edison engineers, Nicholas J. Conrad and Edmund O. Schweitzer—after they investigated a fire at the Fisk Street Generating Station. They concluded that the cause of the fire was a power fuse failure. Schweitzer and Conrad’s fuse design differed from predecessors through its use of a special arc-extinguishing liquid that assured proper interruption of short circuits, and a fusible element that offered unmatched precision in operating only when called upon. The fuse was constructed to withstand the very high temperatures associated with interrupting high-current faults, and was sufficiently rugged so it could be applied outdoors. The Schweitzer and Conrad Liquid Power Fuse played a major role in the adoption of outdoor distribution substations—a central component of electrical transmission and distribution systems today.

References to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or citations to pages in scholarly books. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article.

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.