The Washington times., 1922-10-30
E[ECTR|C|TY|S
NOW REGARDED
A COMMODITY
For All Its Supposed Mystery
It Is Just as Easy to Under
stand as Heat.

The fact that you can't pick off
chunk OF electricity and hold 1t
in your hand and poke 1t with your
finger has stirred up lot OF mys-
terry and misunderstanding about a
mighty simple thing. Nobody has
heard that nobody actually knows
just what electricity is and so every
body starts out by saying, whats
the use?' and firmly convinced Of
the impossibility of understanding
much about it.
Electric current Is a household
commodity, just like the coal and
water that we buy. Did it ever
occur to you that for all its sup
POSED mystery, il is whole lot
easier to understand than the work.
inSs of the heat you purchase VIA
the coal bin? You cannot see the
electricity. but you can see the work
II does, you can control it, you can
measure il, you can verify the use
of every bit you pay for. You can.
not see the heat either, but when
the coal goes into the furnace door,
there Is no way Of telling how much
efficiency you get in heat generate ted
or how much of the money. bought
heat you waste and lose. Think II
over.
Electrical terms seem to make
lot OF trouble. too. When the house.
holder begins to ask questions and
the electricl light man mentions
volt" or 'ampere" or watt" or
"kilowatt." the fog closes in and The
mystery grows deeper. But think Of
this. The milkman talks to you
about "pints" and quarts" the
grocer says pound" and package"
the butcher asks whether it shall be
'tenderloin' or "portcrhouse. BuI,
of course. that's different because
we have all been brought up TO
measure by those units. And vet,
the man who sells electricity isn't
measuring fluids. or solids or
lengths. and SO quite naturally he
figures by different terms and stand.
ards
Every trade. every profession.
deals with facts and factors all it's
own and must have names for them.
Listen TO the printer and hear
ems. lower case" and galley
The musician talks OF "dOubleforte,"
"Clef" and motif The doctor
tells YOU that it's "antistreptacocCus"
or "laparotomy" or "nybiteitis." per.
haps. II you are printer or
musician or mediCo IL sounds right
and rea asonable, but if you are not,
YOU nod your head and wonder
When YOU first heard about "Carbu.
retors" and "planitary ytransmissions"
. H. l..
but when YOU got acquainted with
an automobile there was nothing
strange about it.
And so IL is with electricity and
electrical terms. II is all new Wi h
this generation and since nothing
else can be measured and roCkohcd
in the same way. II seems mNSt"ri
Gus. But actually these volts and
watts are just as plain and simple
IA pounds and dozens. and here is
an easy way TO understand them.
Electric current flows along a wire
and water flows through pipe.
lust draw a parallel and con slider
the electricity the water. The size
of the stream OF water flowing
through that pipe is indicated. in
'amperes" for electricity. THE
pressure of the water. the speed with
which 1t flows. is measured in
volts" for electricity. The quanti.
~ OF water passing through. the
gal IONS Of water flowing. is meas.
ured in watts" for electricity. Tine
term ''kilowatts" simply means 900
watts by the regular metric system
that we all studied in school. The
term "kilowatt hour" simply means
kilowatt quantity OF electric cur.
rent used for an hours time TO
light or blow breeZes or fry an egg
or sweep the floor or do anything
else around the house that you want
il TO do.
And 40 the dial OF tho electric
meter in every house registers in
! "kilowatt hours" and shows tho
householder exactly how much cleo.
triCity has been consumed.