Charles Tyson Yerkes

[jimbo]

The April 2024 issue of National Geographic magazine has an article entitled “Eye to the Sky” about the world's largest refracting telescope at the 1897 Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. Charles Tyson Yerkes “was one of Chicago's most hated businessmen. He poured money into the observatory to rehabilitate his image, but it didn't work – and he ended up moving to New York. Yerkes's face, however, is depicted on the obseratory's exterior columns – albeit with a sinister smile and devilish horns... Nobody liked Yerkes.”

See also Charles Tyson Yerkes: the unscrupulous American businessman who transformed the Tube

[brigham]

Does anyone know why the London Transport Museum is pretending that the District was electrified "using a high voltage alternating current"?

[towerman]

Think one of the original proposals for Met/DR electrification was a 3,000v overhead system
from Ganz based in Hungary.

[brigham]

It was. The Met wes in favour of adopting the untried Ganz system, but Yerkes intended to use the DC Sprague system, which he was already familiar with, back in the United States.

Board of Trade arbitration decided upon the DC system, as favoured by Yerkes, and NOT the Ganz high-woltage AC system, which Yerkes OPPOSED.

And so I ask again: Does anyone know why the London Transport Museum is pretending that,"after a lengthy, controversial and public dispute with the Metropolitan Board, Yerkes won his battle to electrify the District using a high voltage alternating current".

[miff]

I expect no-one here knows why they’ve made that mistake. You’d have to ask them.

[d7666]

May 16, 2024 18:15:12 GMT brigham said:

And so I ask again: Does anyone know why the London Transport Museum is pretending that,"after a lengthy, controversial and public dispute with the Metropolitan Board, Yerkes won his battle to electrify the District using a high voltage alternating current".

Stop looking too deeply and apply Occams Razor.

Suggest this, if that really is the wording, is no more than a simple error where a longer explanation has been incorrectly precis'ed (if such a word exists). Something like :

after a lengthy, controversial and public dispute with the Metropolitan Board, Yerkes won his battle to electrify the District using a low voltage direct current against high voltage alternating current

No more complex than that. Not anyone "pretending" anything else.

Incorrect I agree, but really people do need to allow for basic errors, like editing using cut and paste, or cutting the wrong words, getting through.

The error will be from not thorough proof reading, not an error of historical fact even if it implies it.

[spsmiler]

My first thought for the decision is whether the Met had considered clearances around the overhead wires. In short, was there sufficient headroom in the tunnels, below bridges, etc. But I think the issue here is more about the LTM's information than the reason why a DC conductor rail system was chosen

Yes they are sharing incorrect information and this is especially bad because the organisation sharing the information really should know better.

I agree with d7666 in that most likely the people who wrote / edited / proof-read that web page did not know any better. For them the LTM will be nothing more than an employer / a job and their interests / passions are elsewhere.

edit to add:

I've sent a direct message to the LT Museum friends alerting them to this situation. I could have also contacted the LT Museum but they do not offer the facility to be sent direct messages. The point about direct messages is that they are private.

[brigham]

These are the people who are NOT suitable for museum work.

Integrity is a prime requirement for the custodians of our history. Otherwise, the London Transport Museum is just another tourist attraction.

[jimbo]

Not unique on LT Museum site. See also Jubilee Line and Victoria Line postings.

[etr220]

Many of the early electifications (mainly for trams) were purely dc - current was generated 'ready for use'.
When was the change to generate high voltage ac, distributed as such to substations for transformation and rectification to low voltage dc 'for use' meade? If Yerkes and team were behind that decision, for his lines, then the LT Museum isn't totally wrong, just misleading,

But I would agree that too many in the museum business have more interest in running a museum, than in the subject.

[roythebus]

Museums really ought to present the fact correctly, otherwise history gets repeated incorrectly through the ages. I'm often correcting historically inaccurate items on the likes of Facebook, such as a photo of victoria in the early 1950s with a bus stations full of RT buses with caption mentioning it being full of the iconic Routemaster buses.