Ward Leonard control, also known as the Ward Leonard drive system, was a widely used DC motor speed control system introduced by Harry Ward Leonard in 1891. In the early 1900s, the control system of Ward Leonard was adopted by the U.S. Navy and also used in passenger lifts of large mines. It also provided a solution to a moving sidewalk at the Paris Exposition of 1900, where many others had failed to operate properly.[citation needed] It was applied to railway locomotives used in World War I, and was used in anti-aircraft radars in World War II. Connected to automatic anti-aircraft gun directors, the tracking motion in two dimensions had to be extremely smooth and precise. The MIT Radiation Laboratory selected Ward-Leonard to equip the famous radar SCR-584 in 1942. The Ward Leonard control system was widely used for elevators until thyristor drives became available in the 1980s, because it offered smooth speed control and consistent torque. Many Ward Leonard control systems and variations on them remain in use.[1]
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Engine room with Ward-Leonard groups for the extraction machines of Winterslag Coal Mine in Genk (Belgium)
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- ^ Kulkarni, A.B. (Oct 2000). "Energy consumption analysis for geared elevator modernization: upgrade from DC Ward Leonard system to AC vector controlled drive". Conference Record of the 2000 IEEE Industry Applications Conference. Vol. 4. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. pp. 2066–2070.