The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1912-09-27
ELECTRICITY.
why IL Is Difficult For the Layman e
Understand What IL Is.

Understand What Ii Is.
"What is electricity ?" is a favor.
lite query with people who desire ia
get a rise" out of a scientific man
And when he fails to answer it in
the same simple fashion that he
might treat the question '"What is
BISCUIT" the questioner cries out
Aha! You profess to know all
about electricity. Why, you can't
even tell what it isp'
Now, to 'tell what a thing is"-
that is, to define its to state its
relations with something more IA
miliar. The particular familiar
thing that the questioner is think
ing OF IN this case is ordinary mat
ter. Heat has been explained to
hum as a vibration of material par
ticles. Light, he has been told. is
aswave motion in the ether, and he
understands the ether to be a kind
OF matter or a substance resem-
bling matter in some particulars.
1t is not to be denied that no
such simple general relationship
can BE stated between electricity
and matter. But, this being so. it
would be just as correct to say that
we do not know what matter is as
that we do not know what electrici-
ty is. AS a matter of fact. we do
not know what matter is, and the
latest plausible theory of it builds
It up on an electric basis, so that on
this theory the idea of electricity is
more fundamental than that Of
matter. Unfortunately our senses
have been evolved by contact with
matter and are trained to detect
only matter. Electricity they know
only secondarily, through its action
upon matter-the light or heat that
it causes matter to give out, the at
traction that it causes certain sub
stances to exert, and so on. To the
man IN the street, therefore, matter
Is familiar, and he demands a state
ment of the latter in terms of the
former, illogical though this NAV
be. After the scientist has stated |
all this the reply comes back, 'FYes,
understand all that, and it is
most clear, 1 am sure, but tell me,
then, what is electricity anywayw
Another source of confusion to
the lay mind is that scientific men
10 not always use the word "elec-
.rlcity" to mean the same thing.
The engineer often employs it to
express the thing that the theoret-
cal electrician calls Electric ener-
~"
To find the energy of electricity
that is, its ability to do work.
he electrician multiplies the guam.
lty of electricity by the potential
II tension under which it exists.
SUIT to the engineer this product
tself measures the thing that he
ais Electricity"
The work that pound of water L
nay do by falling a foot is one foot
'ound. The water is the same after !
alling as before, though its energy
less. So to the electrician a
uantity of electricity at 100 volts =
precisely the same as at ono volt,
hough the former is able to 90 a
undred times as much work.
This difference in meaning causes
thousands of disputes among stu
ents. Electricity is form of
nergy," says one, Gust like light
heat" ooh, now is the reply.
1t is not energy at all, though it
lay possess or convey energy" One
isputant Is talking about the cleo
-icity of the physical and the other
bout that of the engineer; hence
leir dispute is merely a matter Of
efnition, though they do not know
. What wonder that some people
re still content to regard the whole
lbject as a civilized Mumbo jun
} st IJOllis ReDuhlic