The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1911-12-29
ELECTRIC TERMS.
The Units OF Measurement and
What They Mean.
AMPERES, VOLTS AND WATTS.

Broadly Speaking, Amperes Indicate
Volume, Volts Measure Pressure and
Watts Show the Resulting Quantity.
The kilowatt Hour.
1t has been estimated that the time
and labor wasted by those engaged in
selling electricity In trying to make
their customers understand a kilowatt
would suffice to build q string Of pyra-
mids from New York TO San Francisco
writes Allen Hollis. The dlscouraging
feature Of the task is that after all this
effort the customer still remains igno-
rant and cherishes the delusion that
the method of electric measurement is
q devious device for conceallng nefarl-
GUS practices by the electric light com
panies.
The average American Is perfectly
satisfied to buy gas by the foot, trans
portation by the mile and telephones
by the month, but watts look suspicious
and kllowatts totally depraved. This
difficulty might have been avoided II
the eminent scientists who first adopt
ed these accurate and to them conven-
lent terms had been willing to show
the rest Of the world how to compute
electric quantity In feet and inches or
barrels and quarts, Lacking this, peo
pie are left to struggle with their mys-
FERROUS method OF measurements.
The kilo is an old friend Tor ancient
enemy, If you win borrowed from the
metric system.
This leads to the definition of watt.
But In order to know watts one must
first learn about the two other mem
bers of the family, amperes and volts.
Broadly speaking, amperes measure
volume, volts pressure and watts the
resulting quantity.
In order to get n tangible idea OF
the ampere. electricity may be com
pared with water flowing through q
pipe. In this illustration the ampere
will represent the volume of water
which is determined by the size Of the
pipe. but this should not be confused
with the size of the electric wire,
which has nothing to do with the pres
ent problem. The ampere then meas
ures the volume of current flowing in
the wire at given time, The quaint
ty of energy flowing will depend upon
the other factor, which Is expressed
In volts.
The volt may be considered the meas
ure of pressure or intensity, In the
- illustration OF water flowing through d
pipe the pressure is commonly express
ed In pounds to the square inch. With
electric energy the same idea Is ex
pressed in volts. 1t Is evident that the
quantity of water flowing IN Il pipe OF
given size will increase MS the pres
sure increases In similar way the
quantity OF electricity increases In ex
act proportion to the electric pressure
of voltage, and this quantity is meas
ured by watts.
The quantity twattsl OF electricity
delivered over single circuit is the
direct product of the volume (amperesl
multiplied by the pressure tvolts,. In
other words, amperes multiplied by
volts equals watts
The Illustration serves TO indicate the
theory OF electric measurement. II Is
likely, however. TO be misleading un'
less the fact is kept In mind that wa
ter Is material, while electricity mani
tests itself only through Its capacity
of affecting visible things. II heats
the filament In an incandescent lamT
and gives us light, 1t turns our motors
1t magnetizes telephone and telegraph
instruments. but always II conceals Its
own personality.
In order to know what watt ac-
tually is it is necessary to ascertain
what It win do. thousand (kilol
watts are the mechanical equivalent
OF one and onethlrd horsepower-that
is, n mechanical horsepower equals
TAG watts of energy Lighting circuits
usually carry no to 100 volts. An or
binary sixteen candle power lamp
takes little less than half an ampere
In volume and consequently consumes
about fifty watts OF current With the
tungsten lamp the rating by watts in
stead of candle power has been intro
duced and bids fair to become univer-
sally adopted.
Being thus furnished with stand
ard of measurement It Is necessary
only to multiply the amount employed
commonly called 'capacity'D by the
number of hours OF use to get the ac-
tual quantity consumed In watt hours.
The sixteen candle power lamp, with
its fifty watts capacity, consumes t1fty
watt hours each hour II Is used. The
customary unit OF consumption is the
kilowatt hour. 1900 watts used one
hour, and the lamp will consume this
quantity In twenty hours. The or
binary electric meter recording watt
meter) records automatically the mum
Der OF kilowatt hours used, being op
Grated by mechanism which runs al
a speed which corresponds to the ca
pacity employed. Rollins Magazine