Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-05-21
ELECTRIC TALK
New Technical Languages Bewilders
the Layman.

HfOlJ OooAACoo Aoo ~ " A0N
guage and nomenclature. The
average Wall Street operator. for in
stance, can tie a neophyte's brain
into hard knots in the cours of a few
moments conversation on fiscal mat
tiers. But the business which pre-
sents itself to the layman as the
most hopeless riddle is electrical
manufacturing. DR.. Schuyler Skatts
Wheeler, president of the Croker
Wheeler Co., of Ampere, n. j., re-
Gently deplored in a public utter
ance the spirit of opposition which
has grown up between the electrical
engineer and the world at large.
You can not talk in electrical
terms to the average laymen," he
said, without soaring him to death.
The mention of anything as abstruse
as induction coils is sure to sets his
wits to wandering. A certain
method of losing your auditors at
tention is to make use Of a technical
term"
Electricity, like Browning, is not
difficult to understand if you ap-
proach it ~fearlessly, undaunted by
the "Electric-talk which has been
coined during the last couple of de-
cades. There is a definite, logical
reason why each of the terms is in
use, and in another decade they will
be as familiar to that part of the
public which is interested as auto
mobile talk is fast becoming to the
public at large. AT present "Elec-
tric-talk" makes the average mar
feel that "be it ever SO uhmble
there's no place like ohm
The units of measurement are the
basis of Observation-Disclosures
volts and watts. Ampere is the name
Of the Frenchman who discovered
how to measure electric current. The
unit of measurement was therefore
called an ampere in acknowledgment
Of his valuable discovery. Electric
ity may best be compared to water
flowing through a pipe. The vol
ume, or gallons of water, correspond
to the volume, OF amperes OF cleo
tricity. But water may flow at
greater or less pressure. A thous-
and gallons of water flowing
through a pipe at one pound pressure
to the square inch would Just drib-
Bile out at the end. Under a thous-
and pounds pressure to the square
inch it would shoot out Of the pipe
with fierce energy. The number Of
pounds of pressure under which
water is flowing corresponds to the
number of volts of pressure under
which an electric current is flowing.
The energy with which water
flows out of a pipe is the result of
the volume Of water and the pressure
under which it is flowing. Every
one has noticed how much faster
water flows out of a faucet in one
place than it does out of a faucet in
another. The quantity of water
which flows out of the faucet de-
ponds upon the water pressure in
that particular locality. In the
same way the quantity of electricity
delivered over a single circuit is the
product Of the volume (amperes)
multiplied by the pressure (volts).
The electrical term for the energy
thus generated is watts. A thousand
watts are called a kilowatt, as this
term is part of the metric system.
In order to understand just what
a kilowatt is, it is necessary to as
certain what it will do. We know
that a stream of water of given vol
ume flowing at a given pressure in
to a turbine will generate a certain
quantity of horsepower energy. A
kilowatt is the mechanical equiva-
lent Of one and a third horsepower.
Electric lighting circuits usually
carry 10 to 129 volts. An ordinary
carbon sixteen candle power lamp
takes a little less than half an am
pere in volume, and consequently
about fifty watts of cur
rent. AS a thousand watts are
equal to one and a third horse
power, fifty watts are equal to less
than seven hundredths of a horse
power. A Tungsten twenty candlkl
power lamp takes less than a quartp
of an ampere, or about three hpsto'
dredths of a horsepower.
1t is interesting to remembeN
this connection that a horse-W Thin
is actually based as a newspaper
energy on the amount of powetc. V
could be produced by a hog
the old days before wheels
be turned by steam they weE