The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1912-12-26
In a Simple But Graphic Way
Showing the Great
Progress Made.

engineer a question he seizes pad
and draws a picture. This is getting
the cart before the horse. The pic
ture is graphic representation OF
an idea. You have to comprehend
the idea before you can grasp the
Significance of the lplcture.
Electricity is far more definite
science than that OF steam power
The public has learned from CON
slant repetition that about ninety
per cent of the energy liberated by
burning coal to run steam engine
is wasted. In an electrical machine
the waste is far less and the amount
of energy that is generated can be
measured far more accurately.
Electric generators are machines
to transform mechanical power into
electrical power. In other words
they generate electric current when
driven by mechanical power, They
are run by steam engines, turbines
gas engines or some other form al
mechanical power called prime
movers" The generator is con-
structed to transform the amount OF
mechanical power that the prime
mover running it supplies. A gen.
orator run by ten horse power en-
CINE, for instance. will transform ten
horse power of energy, less small
percentage (about ten per cent? lost
in the process. Electrical engineers
do not usually say that generator
transforms ten horse power. Their
measure of energy (or powerl Is
the kilowatt which is equal to one
and a third horse power. So they
say that the generator transforms
seven and half kilowatts, which is
the equivalent of ten horse power.
Why should this change in nomen-
clature be any more confusing than
to say that one inch is equal to two
and half centimeters?
Mention the action OF electric cur
rent to neophyte, and he immedi-
ately assumes look of blank per-
plexity. Yet the fundamental facts
about electric current are extremely
simple. An electric current will not
move unless it can move in a COM
p,ete circuit, and get back where 1t
came from. This is why it is safer
for man handling an electric cur
rent to work with one hand behind
his back. He is then not likely to
touch it in two places and thus COM
I, plete a circuit through himself.
Electric current may be said to have
exactly the same sort of intelligence
as child playing puss-in-the-cor-
Iner. The child will not leave the
corner it occupies until it sees a
corner free for it to go to. By
likening the electric current to the
piping system which leads the water
to wash basin and away from it to
the sewer, it is possible to grasp
this idea by noting the difference in
the action of electric current and OF
the water. In the case Of electricity,
III you open the faucet the electric
| ity will flow only if the discharge
pipe is free all the way, and 1T has
the power of finding this out In
stantly even if the obstruction in
the discharge pipe is very far away.
In other words, an electric current
acts physically like one continuous
piece of material, such as hoop
or an endless chain. one part OF
which will not move unless the
whole of it moves. You can not re-
volye one part OF hoop without re-
volvtag the whole hoop You can
not move one part of an endless
chain without moving the whole
chain. In telegraphing from New
York to Chicago the action of cleo
trio current is precisely similar to
what it would be If you had a long
chain reaching this distance and
back, and you pulled upon it inter-
mlttenly to make the dots and
dashes. Only instead OF pulling on
the chain you break and close the
electric circuit. This can be done
at any point along the line, and the
effect is apparent at any other place
or at any number of places simulta-
neously. Sometimes the return part
of the chain is by second electric
wire, and sometimes the return is
made through the earth. When the
circuit is broken at any point on the
line the current stops everywhere,
to start again when the break is
closed. But how does the current in
New York know that the circuit is
broken in Chicago? This brings US
to che of the really remarkable