Newnes Electrical Engineer’s Handbook D.F. Warne
Introduction
There seems to be a trend in the public perception of engineering and technology that to be able to operate a piece of equipmentor a system is to understand how it works. Nothing could be further from the truth. The gap between the ability to operate and a genuine understanding is, if anything, widening because much of the complexity added to modem electrical equipment has the specific aim of making it operable or ‘user-friendly’ without special training or knowledge. The need for a basic explanation of principles, leading to a simple description of how various important and common classes of electrical equipment works, has never been stronger. Perhaps more so than in its predecessor, Newnes Electrical Pucker Book, an attempt is made to address fundamentals in this book, and the reader is encouraged to follow through any areas of interest using the references at the end of each chapter. More comprehensive coverage of all the subjects covered in this pocket book is available in the Newnes Electrical Engineer’sReference Book. More so now than ever before, the specification and performance of electrical equipment is governed by national and international standards.
While it would be inappropriate in a pocket book to cover standards in any detail, a summary of key standards is included for reference purposes at the end of each chapter This is followed by a review of the materials that are so crucial to the design of electrical equipment, and these are grouped into sections on magnetic, insulating and conducting materials. In each of these areas technologyis moving ahead rapidly.The great increases in the strength of permanent magnets in the past ten years has done
much to make possible the miniaturizationof equipment such as the Sony Walkman, and the introduction of so many small motors and actuators in our homes and motorcars. Developmentsin insulating mataids mean that increased reliability and operation at higher temperatures can now readily be achieved. Under the heading of conductorsthere are continuing advances in superconductors,which are now able to operate in liquid nitrogen, and of course semiconductor development has transformed the way in which equipment can be controlled and the processing power in computers.
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