the power factor by variation of the field strength, but the field can
be adjusted once for all to hold the power factor reasonably near
unity, provided independent means are available for so adjusting
the applied alternating voltage as to give the required result at the
commutator. If close regulation of the direct-current voltage is
not demanded the converter field can be used more freely. As a
matter of fact the synchronous converter finds its chief use in
electric traction where close regulation is not important, and
motor-generators in one form or another have been found more
suitable for electric-lighting work. The synchronous converters
have the liability to “pumping” or “hunting,” to which reference
has already been made, sometimes even of sufficient amplitude to
throw the machine out of step, and are often provided with the
shoes or bridges found useful with ordinary synchronous motors.
Synchronous motor-generators, so far as the motor function is concerned, present no peculiarities at all. Synchronous commutators, “permutators,” and the like, usually have motor-parts of very moderate capacity, and must be kept rigorously free of hunting in order to preserve the conditions of commutation.
In many instances, particularly in American practice, motor generators with induction motors have been used for ease of starting and to secure immunity from hunting. A modification of interest from the motor standpoint is found in the “cascade converter.” In this machine the rotor of an induction motor is directly coupled to the armature of a commuting converter of equal output, the windings of the two being in series and approximately equivalent. In this case the normal motor-electromotive force is reached at approximately half synchronous speed, and half the energy is delivered to the output end of the machine by the rotor acting as frequency changer, the rest by torque on the shaft. Commutation takes place therefore at half the initial frequency, which is often a great advantage.
(B) 2. Polyphase Induction Motors.—Speaking broadly, an induction motor is one in which the armature current is introduced into the armature windings by electromagnetic induction instead of by brushes. It is at once an alternating current transformer and an alternating current motor, operating in the latter function by virtue of the current received from the former. In the commonest form the alternating currents are of two or more phases interacting in carrying on these duplicate functions. Induction motors consist of two concentric masses of laminated iron taking the form of short hollow cylinders, of which the outer is fixed and the inner fitted to revolve. The outer surface of the inner drum and the inner surface of the outer drum are slotted or perforated to receive the primary and secondary windings of the apparatus. The outer winding is usually the primary, and the inner (or armature) winding the secondary. The primary winding is almost universally a multipolar drum in character; the secondary is, in the most highly developed motors, of the same character, but very often consists merely of numerous insulated armature bars united at each end of the drum by a common end-plate or end-ring, forming the structure usually known as a “squirrel-cage” winding. In polyphase motors of the usual type the primary drum winding is in duplicate or triplicate, resembling very closely the armature winding in a two- or three-phase generator. The actions which go on in these motors have been the subject of much debate; most of the theoretical discussions of the matter have been based upon the concept of a rotary magnetization produced by two simple sinusoidal magnetisms superimposed in quadrature upon the same core, or, in the case of a three-phase motor, three superimposed in a similar symmetrical manner. This hypothesis is often most convenient, being merely an application of the general physical thesis that two equal simple harmonic motions in quadrature produce circular motion, as in the case of the conical pendulum. All the results of this hypothesis follow, however, from the introduction of two alternating magnetization's, acting in quadrature in time but independently; and one or the other view of the matter is convenient according as, in the structure considered, the effective magnetizations do or do not produce a definite physical resultant. There is no discrepancy between the two hypotheses; they are merely two points of view of the same phenomena. In the general case, one need make no supposition as to the existence or non-existence of the physical resultant rotary magnetization; it is merely necessary to note that if one phase-winding predominately produce a magnetic field, and the other a current in the rotary member fitted to react with that field, torque will result, whether the two phase-windings act upon the same magnetic structure or upon two entirely separate magnetic structures merely connected by the leads which deliver current from one to the other.
Induction motors having both these forms of structure are in successful use. If one considers the latter case, the two-phase-windings have exchanged functions every 90° in the two-phase structure, each phase-winding serving to produce a magnetic field and to deliver, almost as if it were merely a pair of brushes, current to react with this field alternately, and, the two halves of the motor structure exchange functions every 90°. Considering the motor in which the two-phase-windings are superimposed on the same core, there is a virtual magnetic resultant rotating at a speed determined by the frequency of the current and the number of poles, and setting up induced currents in the secondary member, which currents are so disposed as to react with the field to produce rotary motion. At rest, the secondary electromotive force produced by the machine as a transformer is a maximum; when the motor is running at speed, unloaded, it is a minimum, and an increment of load causes the secondary member merely to slip behind synchronous speed far enough to receive an increment of transformed energy sufficient to carry the new load. If the secondary member is of very low resistance, the slip behind synchronism is very small, even at full load—less than 2% in motors developed for this particular property. An increase of secondary resistance produces increased falling behind from synchronous speed; and if resistance be added to the secondary member by interpolating rheostats in its circuits, the motor can be made to produce uniform torque over a very wide range of speed, as is the case with continuous current motors. The percentage of slip is the percentage of energy lost in the secondary member, as likewise in continuous-current motors if one regards their synchronous speed as that at which the motor electromotive force would equal that impressed. Polyphase induction motors start, when properly designed, with a very powerful torque, even up to three or four times the full load running torque of the same motor. With a very low-resistance secondary member this torque demands an immensely large current, the structure acting almost like a short-circuited transformer, and the lag in the secondary circuit is considerable. In motors in which this large starting current is objectionable, it may be reduced very greatly by interpolating resistances in the secondary circuits at starting, the effect of these being to diminish the lag in the secondary circuit and to decrease the demand for primary current. A certain critical value of this resistance gives a maximum torque per ampere in the primary circuit with a given motor, being approximately that total secondary resistance which equals the secondary reactance. For maximum torque obviously both resistance and reactance should be equal and as small as possible. Where a small primary current in starting is of considerable importance, this extra resistance is frequently introduced at starting and cut out afterwards, particularly in cases where large torque is necessary. If great starting torque is not necessary, the primary electromotive force is often diminished by inductive resistances, or a change in the connexions of the transformer from which the motor is fed. Both methods of starting are in commercial use on a very large scale.
In efficiency and closeness of speed regulation and good general running properties polyphase induction motors approximate very closely to the best continuous-current practice. They produce, however, a certain amount of lag between primary electromotive force and current, which causes the apparent input to be larger than the real input, as generally happens in alternating-current work. The ratio between the real and the apparent watts input is the power factor of the motor. In well-designed modern machines this is usually from 85 to 90% at rated load; it should seldom fall below the former figure, and rarely rises more than 1 or 2% above the latter, though in rare instances power-factors as high as 94 or 95% have been obtained. Condensers have sometimes been employed in connexion with such motors to increase the power-factor, and with considerable success, particularly in maintaining the power-factor at low and moderate loads; but their use is generally unnecessary, and condensers of sufficient capacity at any reasonable value of the voltage have proved troublesome to build and maintain. The weakest point in these polyphase induction motors is the importance of employing a very small clearance between armature and field, in order to increase the power-factor by making the structure more efficient, considered merely as a transformer. The clearances in ordinary use are seldom greater than 116 in., even in motors as large as 100 h.p., and in smaller machines are frequently not more than 132 in.. Induction motors, however possess many valuable properties, and are the mainstay of long-distance power-transmission work at the present time.
(B) 3. Monophase Induction Motors closely resemble the polyphase motor in construction, but have only a single-phase winding in the primary. The theories of their action are very similar to those of polyphase motors. The essential point of difference is that the stable angular displacement between the field magnetization and the armature currents which co-act with it is obtained in the polyphase motor by the time-displacements in the several phase windings, while in the single-phase motor it is obtained by the angular space-displacement of the armature, which has to be set up by an initial rotation. Single-phase motors therefore are not inherently self-starting, and run in either direction equally well when once started. The torque is always in the direction of the initial rotation. This rotation is sometimes given by hand and sometimes by auxiliary phase-windings supplied by derived current from the main circuit, or merely short-circuited on themselves and receiving induced currents from the main winding. Both these devices give a small initial torque in a definite direction, setting up a so-called elliptical rotary field, i.e. one produced by the composition of two unequal magnetizations, in this case at some indeterminate angle, seldom large. Once up to speed, the single-phase motors act much like the polyphase. They are conspicuously weak in the matter of power-factor, however, as well as in that of starting-torque, and have as yet not come into very extensive commercial use, although under special conditions they have been and are successfully employed. A theoretically interesting form of induction
