which are placed in a separate battery room and connected between the middle omnibus bar and the two outer omnibus bars. The extra electromotive force required to charge these batteries is supplied by two small dynamos b1, b2, called boosters. It is not unusual to join together the two balancing dynamos and the two boosters on one common bedplate, the shafts being coupled and in line, and to employ the balancing machines as electromotors to drive the boosters as required. By the use of reversible boosters, such as those made by the Lancashire Dynamo & Motor Company under the patents of Turnbull & McLeod, having four field windings on the booster magnets (see The Electrician, 1904, p. 303), it is possible to adjust the relative duty of the dynamos and battery so that the load on the supply dynamos is always constant. Under these conditions the main engines can be worked all the time at their maximum steam economy and a smaller engine plant employed. If the load in the station rises above the fixed amount, the batteries discharge in parallel with the station dynamos; if it falls below, the batteries are charged and the station dynamos take the external load.
Figs. 3 and 4.—Low-pressure Supply Station.
The general arrangements of a low-pressure supply station are shown in figs. 3 and 4. It consists of a boiler-house containing a bank of boilers, either Lancashire or Babcock & Wilcox being generally used (see Boiler), which furnish steam to the engines
