IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2021 - 94

next area of focus. It was not until the
1920s, however, that the fundamental
principles governing arc formation and
character had, in some measure, become
better understood.
At one time, it was the opinion of
transmission engineers that a too-rapid
interruption of the circuit of a hightension
transmission line was undesirable.
Engineers came to understand
that the opposite was true: that the
best solution is to isolate trouble in the
shortest possible space of time. This
requires fast breaker operation, and,
although that imposes a severe duty
on the breaker, it protects the other
components of the power system. The
problem, then, becomes one of designing
a breaker that will meet these requirements
safely and open the circuit
without injury to itself, connected apparatus,
or nearby equipment.
By the beginning of World War II,
the engineering profession had come
to understand, in detail, the mechanism
of the electric arc during a short
circuit. In June 1946, L.J. Linda and
B.W. Wyman, both engineers with
General Electric Co., published an article
in AIEE Transactions, that summarized
the theory and state of the art
to that point. From a fundamental theoretical
standpoint, little has changed
from that date.
For Further Reading
H. G. Stott, " Incidents in the operation
of a large power plant and distribution
system, " Electric J., vol. 2, p.
278, 1905.
F. A. Furfari, " Andre Blondel, "
IEEE Ind. Appl. Mag., vol. 10, no. 3,
pp. 12-15, May-June 2004. [Online].
Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/
stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=1286548
F. Bedell and A. Creehore, Alternating
Currents. New York: W.J. Johnston,
1893.
C P. Steinmetz, " Complex quantities
and their use in electrical engineering, "
in Proc. Int. Electrical Congr., 1893,
pp. 33-74.
H. Pender, " A trigonometric method
for the solution of alternating current
problems, " AIEE Trans., vol. 28, no. 2,
p. 1397, July 2, 1908. doi: 10.1109/TAIEE.1908.4768126.
W.
R. Woodward, " Calculating short
circuit currents in networks, " Electric
J., vol. 16, pp. 344-345, 1919.
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94
ieee power & energy magazine
23/03/13 10:38 AM
(a)
(b)
figure 8. A circuit breaker oil vessel. (Source: A.R. Cheney, " The Modern
Oil Switch With Special Reference to Systems of Moderate Voltage and Large
Ampere Capacity, " AIEE Transactions, vol. 29, pt. 2, p. 1122, 1910. Discussion
by E.M. Hewlett.)
(continued on p. 103)
july/august 2021

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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2021

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