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    Transportation Topic Type Video

    The Most Interesting Thing About Stephen Colbert's Monologues Is The Wall Behind Him

    A behemoth from the heroic age of power engineering stirs to life in the New York City subway’s Substation 13

    Stephen Cass
    Celia Gorman
    13 Apr 2018
    Celia Gorman
    mass transit history type:video subways mass transit system rotary converter MTA

    On Broadway, a few blocks north of Times Square in New York City, visitors flock to the Ed Sullivan Theater. The theater is currently home to television’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and nearly every week night, Colbert takes to the famous stage to tape a new comedy monologue in front of a live audience. But right around the corner from the illuminated marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theatre, another building draws a steady, if small, crowd of devotees. This building is Substation 13, and it’s been a vital cog in the running of New York’s MTA subway system since 1904.

    The star attraction of Substation 13 is an enormous rotary convertor weighing 45 tons with a spinning amature 3 meters in diameter, dubbed Rotary #1. Trains in the NYC subway drive their electric motors by tapping a third rail that is energized with 600 volts of direct current. But electricity generated by the power company is transmitted over the grid as alternating current, so the subway must convert this AC power to DC, and do so at wattage levels powerful enough to speed trains full of people beneath the streets. Today, this job is done in Substation 13, and other MTA substations, by nondescript grey cabinets full of solid-state rectifiers. But for decades, it was the job of converters like Rotary #1.

    These converters essentially pair an AC motor with a DC generator on the same shaft. AC power at 25 hertz is fed into the enormous windings, the convertor spins at 250 revolutions per minute, and up to 1,500 kilowatts of DC power emerges from the other side. The converter and its connection to the third rail of the subway are controlled using a set of panels, each over 2 meters tall, that are studded with the kind of dials and knife switches that most people associate with the laboratories of old-school mad scientists. Convertors would be spun up and connected to subway lines as required to handle shifting power needs over the course of the day.

    Rotary #1 was in operation until 1999, when the local power company stopped supplying 25-hertz AC power. The engineer who took the convertor off-line for the last time was Robert Lobenstein. Lobenstein later was a protagonist in the restoration of Rotary #1, and he now gives tours of Substation 13 (tickets can be obtained via the MTA’s museum website).

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    Evan Ackerman
    Evan Ackerman is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Since 2007, he has written over 6,000 articles on robotics and technology. He has a degree in Martian geology and is excellent at playing bagpipes.
    Michael Koziol

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    Eliza Strickland is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum, where she covers AI, biomedical engineering, and other topics. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

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    drones gadgets type:video East Africa drones mapping Tanzania Africa delivery drones 360 video

    With 360-degree video, IEEE Spectrum puts you aboard drones that are flying high above the Tanzanian landscape: You’ll ride along as drones soar above farms, towns, and the blue expanse of Lake Victoria. You’ll also meet the local entrepreneurs who are creating a new industry, finding applications for their drones in land surveying and delivery. And you’ll get a close-up view from a bamboo grove as a drone pilot named Bornlove builds a flying machine from bamboo and other materials.

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    Michael Koziol

    Michael Koziol is an associate editor at IEEE Spectrum where he covers everything telecommunications. He graduated from Seattle University with bachelor's degrees in English and physics, and earned his master's degree in science journalism from New York University.

    Eliza Strickland

    Eliza Strickland is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum, where she covers AI, biomedical engineering, and other topics. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

    06 May 2019
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    drones type:video East Africa drones Rwanda delivery drones Zipline 360 video

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    www.youtube.com
    type:video New York City DIY tourism videos rockets Nikola Tesla history technology events hackerspace new york city nikola tesla nyc tourist video nyc tourist guide tech tour nyc video nyc tech tour

    Do your travel plans include New York City? Are you a techie? If the answer to those questions is yes, let IEEE Spectrum be your guide! We've put together a list of some of our favorite places to visit, including important locations in the history of electrotechnology (New York was once the center of the electrical and electronic world) and places where fun and interesting things are happening today. See where Nikola Tesla lived, check out cutting-edge artists working with technology, or take the kids to see an Atlas and Titan rocket.

    All the locations are accessible via the subway, and many are free to visit. If you do visit, take a selfie and post a link in the comments below.

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