The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1913-04-18
ELECTRICITY
Why u is Difficult For the Layman q
Understand What IL Ia.

"SS' Ssano Wndt IL u.
"What is electricity ?" is a favcr
ite query with people who desire t,
get rise" out of scientific man
And when he fails to answer it II
the same simple fashion that h,
might treat the question 'eWhat il
a biscuits" the questioner cries out
Aha! You profess to know al
about electricity. Why, you CAM
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.
mlllar. The particular famiiia,
thing that the questioner is think
ing OF IN this case is ordinary mat.
ter. Heat has been explained to
him as vibration of material par
tlcles. Light, he has been told, is
a wave motion in the ether, and he
understands the ether to be kind
OF matter or substance resem-
Dilng 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
1T 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 may
be. After the scientist has stated
all this the reply comes back, eyes,
understand all that, and it is
most clear, | am sure, but tell me,
then, what is electricity anyway"
Another source of confusion to
the lay mind is that scientific men
10 not always use the word "elec-
.rlclty" 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 quan
lty of electricity by the potential
'r tension under which it exists
But to the engineer this product
tself measures the thing that he
alls electricity"
The work that pound of water
nay do by falling foot is one foot
'ound. The water is the same after
alling as before, though its energy
5 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 do a
hundred times as much work.
This difference in meaning causes
thousands of disputes among stu
ents. electricity is form Of
nergy," says one, "just like light
T heat" ooh, no" is the reply.
1t is not energy at all, though it
lay possess or convey energy" One
isputant is talking about the elec-
ricity 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
,bj"ct as civiliz' | Mumbo Jrm-
D. st. 10 IL ler bli
f>.>-.n.. q