Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-17
Some Ways Of Using Condensers

You have learned ,ha, condenser
ha tank in which we store Sup on
srsy TO make electric currents in our
ysdio set. Now II is wise to consider.
for few moments. somc Of the ways
IN which We can use condcnsrrs to get
various effects.
When We store mp water In tanks. We
measure IL in gallons and quarts and
hints and gllls. We arc So ACCUSTOMED
10 Speaking Of those measurements that
II never occurs to us that there IL any
thing difficult IN the names.
We say that 5W, gallons is the ca.
sspariry of condenser. which IL the
storage tank Of the radio set. But we
do not measure this capacity in gallons.
We measure it in units that scientists
call farads. You nccd not bother to
know Just how much Of what n fa"ad
a. Mighty few Of us could really give
nm irtcl!igib!c definition "f it. Hu, the
larad is the unit of measure Of the ga =
pacty Of n condonser--of i,s ahiiity +"
store ,ip energy before it ovrrtlows and
. sends electric currents rushing through
the wires.
Pu, the rarnd is too big a measure
10 use with the small rondcnsers cm-
ployed in radio apparatus. We use a
subdivision Of the farad called the
micro .farad. which means ono one
thonsandth of n farad.
Your AZ plate variable condenser
stores up. at it's greatest capacity. only
one ono thomsandth Of n micro farad.
H..
,housandlh Of ono one -thousand,h Of Il
farad.
The word micro fnrnh Is usually ab.
breviated MID. Aud. when you write
down the capacity Of your ~ plate con-
dcnsrr. ,ou write it .OO1 MID. which is
spoken of among 'hard boiled hams"
denscr has only half ,ha, capacity 50
We write i, OOO5 aud call it. in talking
Ahou, it, triple -oh fve.'
In tho illustration. there arc shown
some ways "f ''hooking up" two con-
denscrs to get different capacitics. In
Mmc diagrams printed in the radio
to use n .OOO5 condenser. Perhaps YOU
have non" Of this capacity hu, have
two Of those neat little thirty five cent
.001 r"ndcnsrrs known as ''phone ecu
densers." " II YOU hook them up in what
we call Series you will make tho
total capacity Of III" two just half
what one Is. In other words. your two
.0Ol condenscrs will take the place of
one .OoO5 condenser.
Series. as shown in the illustra.
ton. is like driving two horses tandem
one ahead Of th" other. If yOIl fol-
low an imaginary radi" impulse from
the aerial down in tho illustration. you
will scc thai II must first pass through
one condenser and I hen through the
other t." reach the gSpund., as, repre-
snted by the spig"t: wv
Now suppose your diagram called
for n condenser Of .O02 micro farads.
You would take YOUR two .m1's and
join them as shown in the second part
of the illustrations This is called
''parallc.' The radio energy comes
down from the aerial. goes into both
condcnserS at once and comes out OF
the other end Of both nt once and 80
to the spgol. Hooking up c"ndenscrs in
parallel add. the two rapacitirs.
You might think from this that iw"
rondenscrs in series would just make
the capacity half. but this is 50 only
when they are Of the same capacity
individually.
a series "f condpnScrs has total
capacity than is not very hard to figure,
hut it involves n mathematical formula
that we won't go into in these articles.
The third Illustration is insi u sug-
gestion for the man who has .OOl
rariab" conference.-the i3 plato kind -.
and hnds he has n diagram which calls
Tor :" plate one. He can simply take
on" OF his fixed COnnenScrS and nut IL
IN series with his AZ plate and the re.
s,iIt is very fair imitation of II -
plate condenser. or .OOO5 variable.
And, II you have II !23 plate and
need a. plate. hook up your 90 plate
with .OO'I grid condenser. accord
lng I" the middl" diagram. and you