The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1912-01-05
ELECTRIC TERMS.
The Units of Measurement and
What They Mean.
AMPEREs, VOLTS AND WATTS.
Broadly Speaking. Ampsres Indicate
Volume, Volts Measure Pressure and
Watts Show the Resulting Quantity.
The Kilowatt Hour.

and labor wasted by those engaged in
selling electricity in trying to make
their customers understand 4 kilowatt
would suffice to build Il string OF pyra.
mids from New York to San Francisco.
writes Allen Hollis The discouragng
feature of the task is that after all this
effort the customer still remains ignO
rant and cherishes the de'nsion that
the method OF electric measurement Is
a devious device for concealng nefuri
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 kilowatts totally depraved. This
difficulty might have been avoided If
the eminent scientists who first adopt.
ed these accurate and 10 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. PEG
pie are left to struggle with their mys
ferrous method Of measurements.
The kilo Is an old friend Tor ancient
enemy, If you Will 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 tangible idea Of
the ampere. electricity may be com.
pared with water flowing through a
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 a 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 a
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 pipe Of
given size will increase as 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 watts, of electricity
delivered over single circuit is the
direct product Of the volume (amperesI
multiplied by the pressure (volts> In
other words. amperes multiplied by
volts equals watts.
The illustration serves to Indicate the
theory of electric measurement. 1t 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 1t heats
the filament in an incandescent lamp
and gives us light. 1t turns our motors
it magnetizes telephone and telegraph
instruments. but always 1t conceals it's
own personality.
In order to know what watt ac.
tually is 1t is necessary to ascertain
what it will do. 4 thousand tkilu
watts are the mechanical equivalent
Of one and one-third horsepower that
is, mechanical horsepower equals
746 watts of energy. Lighting circuits
usually carry 40 to 12O volts. An or
binary sixteen candle power lamp
takes little less than half an ampcre
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 1t is necessary
only to multiply the amount employed
commonly called 'capacity"' by the
number of hours of use to get the az.
tual quantity consumed IN watt hours.
The sixteen candle power lamp. with
its fifty watts capacity. consumes fifty
watt hours each hour 1t is used. The
customary unit OF consumption is til"
kilowatt hour. $1,000 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 kilowntt hours used. being Op
Grated by mechanism which runs at