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Rotary Converter, IRT Subway Substation 13, Midtown Manhattan, 2017. (fedia.io)

submitted 2 months ago by mattblaze@federate.social to c/photography@fedia.io

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Rotary Converter, IRT Subway Substation 13, Midtown Manhattan, 2017.

All the pixels, no Metrocard required, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/32992380451

#photography

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[–] mattblaze@federate.social 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)

NYC's IRT subway, opened in 1904, is powered by a 600 volt DC third rail running alongside the tracks. Power is fed to the system via a number of substations throughout the city, where high voltage AC is converted to the lower voltage DC used by trains.

Until recently, this was done with electromechanical rotary converters (essentially a combination AC motor and DC generator). They are now supplanted by solid state rectifiers, but a few of the original rotary converters remain operational.

[–] mattblaze@federate.social 4 points 2 months ago

If you like this stuff, there's a sadly out of print book, "New York's Forgotten Substations", with some excellent photos.

https://www.chrispaynephoto.com/books-1-2-1

[–] stepheneb@ruby.social 3 points 2 months ago

@mattblaze@federate.social

Wonderful photo. I suspect those rotary converters are very reliable!

[–] mweiss@infosec.exchange 1 points 2 months ago

@mattblaze@federate.social those rotary converters were pretty amazing.

[–] phreakmonkey@infosec.exchange 1 points 2 months ago

@mattblaze@federate.social haha I came to this thread thinking "didn't they use mercury arc rectifiers, like DC elevators and such?" and learned that they didn't!

So thanks for that. 😋

[–] karlauerbach@sfba.social 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@mattblaze@federate.social I hadn't had my morning coffee and my first thought when I saw this photo (of the rotary converter) was "oh, that is a top view of a Curta calculator." (I used to be pretty good on a Curta.)

[–] mattblaze@federate.social 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@karlauerbach@sfba.social a very, very large one.

Curta Type II mechanical calculator

[–] chris_bloke@mastodon.acm.org 2 points 2 months ago

@mattblaze@federate.social @karlauerbach@sfba.social continuing the theme of misunderstanding what you're seeing, I saw that and was thought it was a clockwork camera lens for a second (not that I think there is such a thing, but my brain isn't that quick today).

[–] tinheadned@dice.camp 1 points 2 months ago

@mattblaze@federate.social always pleased to see this one come round again on your feed