A 10,000 volt, electric spark, ignition transformers, in non-ferro-magnetic, brass case in gloss black enamel, manufactured and stencilled for Fess Oil Burners of Canada, an acknowledged early pioneer and Canadian market leader. Such high voltage devices in the home would be a source of great public mystery and often apprehension in the early years of the 20th century. But without the electric spark the mechanical wonders of the age would not have been possible, the internal combustion engine, the automobile, and automatic home heating. Webster, Circa 1938.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Features:<\/strong> Original wire connector and cable stub, illustrating electrical trade practices of the times; Chrome plated, classical oval, brass nameplate, highly decorate with Fess logo, torch held high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Technical Significance:<\/strong> The engineering and manufacturing challenge was to build an electrical transformer, to operate on 110 volts alternating current [the then accepted standard for hydro electrification in Canada], one that would create a sufficiently hot spark, about 8,000 to 10,000 volts, needed to reliably ignite an atomised oil vapour and air mixture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Little of a theoretical nature was known in the early years of the 20th century about the design of electrical equipment, certainly not high voltage transformers. The principles of alternating electrical circuits, as well as those of magnetic circuits were little understood, by those who must apply them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Farada\u2019s experiments of the 1840\u2019s and 50 had only been translated into the mathematical formula needed for precise engineering design in the 1870\u2019s. And Steinmetz would not set out the basic parameters for the design of electromagnetic circuits until the early years of the 20th century. But the market place could not wait, engineering design proceeded empirically, with the knowledge available \u2013 with much trial and error. The cost would be in reliability and performance standards<\/p>\n\n\n\n The toe crushing weight and size of these early specimens [25 lbs] is a reminder of the crude design criteria employed, and the materials available, especially the crude dielectric materials for the insulation of wire and coil bundles operating at these high potential levels. As a result electrical failure was common, with all the accompanying dangers posed by un-ignited explosive mixtures being pumped into the furnace fire box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of special significance is this 25 cycle specimen. Once the standard in Ontario, 25 cycle equipment was heavier and bulkier than its 60 cycle counter part. Frequency standardization in Ontario, a project of monolithic proportion, now long forgotten was a technological marvel in its own right. It occurred, largely, in the latter half of the 1940\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n Industrial Significance:<\/strong> By the mid 1930\u2019s the future of the Canadian oil heat industry was assured of a long period of solid growth. With hydro electrification now well advanced in many urban areas in Canada, the desire for automatic, home heating was almost universal, and with it the pressure to engineer high voltage ignition in Canada, at reduced cost and improved reliability and performance \u2013 See ID# 256 and 257.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A 10,000 volt, electric spark, ignition transformers, in non-ferro-magnetic, brass case in gloss black enamel, manufactured and stencilled for Fess Oil Burners of Canada, an acknowledged early pioneer and Canadian market leader. Such high voltage devices in the home would be a source of great public mystery and often apprehension in the early years of the 20th century. But without the electric spark the mechanical wonders of the age would not have been possible, the internal combustion engine, the automobile, and automatic home heating. Webster, Circa 1938.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","cpt_portfolio_group":[97,209,206],"class_list":["post-20861","cpt_portfolio","type-cpt_portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cpt_portfolio_group-commercial","cpt_portfolio_group-heating","cpt_portfolio_group-residential"],"yoast_head":"\n
In a period of increasingly sophisticated mechanical contrivances, the development of electrical apparatus \u2013 including reliable, efficient high voltage ignition devices [transformers] and electric motors tended, for the most part, to lag well behind the mechanical mechanisms which they supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A rare marker of the early years in the Canadian, automatic oil heating industry, this ignition transformer by the acknowledged, early US leader in transformer engineering, design and manufacturer, Webster Electric, was stencilled for Fess Oil Burners of Canada, then an acknowledged early pioneer and market leader in the engineering, design and manufacture of oil burners in Canada. The suggestion here is that there were no Canadian ignition transformer manufactures in the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n