The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1912-05-04
ELECTRIC TERMS.
The Units Of Measurement and
What They Mean.
AMPERES, VOLTS AND WATTS.
Broadly Speaking. Amperss Indicate
Volume, Volts Measure Pressure and
Watts Show the Resulting Quantity.
The kilo~att Hour.


Watts Show the Resulting Quantity.
The kilowatt Hour.
II has been estimated that the time
and labor wasted by those engaged in
selling electricity In trying 10 make
their customers understand kilowatt
would suffice to build a string Of pyra.
mids from New York To San Francisco,
writes Allen Hollis The discouraging
feature of the task Is thai after all this
effort the customer still remains ign0-
rant and eherishes the delusiun that
the method OF electric measurement Is
a devious device for concp,,ling nefari-
Gus practices by the electric light com
| panies.
| The average American IL perfectly
satisfied TO buy gas by the foot. trans
portation by the mile and telephones
by The month. but watts look suspicious
and kilowarts totally depra we'd. This
difficulty might have been avoided II
| the eminent scientists who first adopt
ed these accurate aud 10 them c0nyen-
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-
terious method of measurements.
The kilo Is an old friend Tor ancient
enemy. il you with 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 men,
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 il 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 anpere then meas.
/ ures the volume of current towing In
. the wire at a given time. The quaint
( ty OF energy flowing will depend upon
9 the other factor, which Is expressed
G In volts.
3 The volt may be considered the meas
t ure OF pressure or intensity. In thu
0 illustration Of water flowing through I
pipe the pressure il commonly express
q ed in pounds to the square inch Will
!: electric energy the same idea Is ex
9 pressed in volts 1t IL evident that tn,
: quantity OF water flowing In pipe .
u given size will increase as the pres
sure increases. LII similar way III,
u quantity of electricity increases In ex
> act proportion TO the electric pressur,
. of voltage and this quantity IL meas
= ured by watts.
The quantity fwattsl Of elecfricit,
delivered over a single circuit Ia TIN
direct product Of the volume tamperes
multiplied by the pressure tvoits, II
! other words. amperes multiplied b.
volts equals watts.
:, The illustration serves to Indicate tn
theory of electric measurement. II !
! likely. however, 10 be misleading IN
n less the fact r. kept in mind that WI
!. ter is material. while electricity mani
II tests itself only through its capacit
"a OF affecting visible things. It heat
n the filament in an incandescent lam
= and gives us light II turns our motors
n it magnerizes telephone and telegraph
= instruments. bnt always 1t conceals It
r. own personality.
r In order to know what watt nc
If tually is It is necessary to ascertain
y what it will do. A thousand tkilt
a watts are the mechanical equivalen
!. Of one and one third horsepower--tha
% Is, mechanical horsepower equal
% TAG watts of energy. Lighting circuit
usually carry 10 to TO volts. An OF
binary sixteen candle power lam
takes little less than half an amper
"a in volume and consequently consume
! about fifty watts Of current. With til
70 tungsten lamp the rating by watts il
stead OF candle power has been intr,
s duced and bids fair to become unive
70 sally adopted
y Being thus furnished with stant
n. ard Of measurement 1t IL necessar
/ only 70 multiply the amount employe
Is commonly called capacity, by Ii
# number Of hours of use to get the a.
a tual quantity consumed in watt hour
10 The sixteen candle power lamp. viii
e. it's fifty watts capacity. consumes fiji
b watt hours each hour It il used. Tt
customary unit OF consumption II Il
kilowatt hour. 1900 watts used or
hour,, and the lamp will consume tn
NJ quantity in twenty hours. The 0
binary electric meter recording wa
TO meter, records automatically the nun
4 Der Of kilowatt hours used. being d
"a Grated by mechanism which runs l
,e a speed which corresponds to the Ct
pacity employed. Rollins Magazine.