The Library of Work and Play: Electricity and Its Everyday UsesWoodhull, John F. (John Francis)
Science
The Library of Work and Play: Electricity and Its Everyday Uses
Woodhull, John F. (John Francis)
Electricity -- Juvenile literature
Notice that while the ammeter was like the magneto in having a steel
magnet for its field, the wattmeter is like the dynamo in having
electro-magnets for both armature and field. Notice in the second place
that this instrument is an _electric motor_ since it is made to revolve
by an electric current. If it were made to revolve by some other power
it would generate electricity and would then be called a dynamo.
Indeed, let me tell you something which must at present be nothing
more than a puzzle to you. _Every machine, while it is being driven
by an electric current as an electric motor, is, at the same time,
acting as a dynamo to generate a current in the opposite direction._
Notice in the third place that this is a shunt-wound instrument. The
current which is sent into the instrument divides, and part of it goes
through the field, while part goes through the armature. Motors, as
well as dynamos, are either shunt-wound or series-wound. But notice
finally that the axle on which the armature is carried has a cyclometer
arrangement which keeps account of the number of revolutions. The
armature is going slowly enough for us to count the revolutions. With
watch in hand we found that it made one hundred and twenty revolutions
per minute. I next brought the current to the wattmeter through a
16-candle-power lamp and the ammeter, connected in series, showed that
half an ampere was passing. We counted the revolutions of the wattmeter
and found them to be sixty per minute.
Here, then, is a simple electric motor which will register the amount
of electricity we use. It will register the same amount whether we use
one ampere for one hour or half an ampere for two hours or two amperes
for half an hour. In any case this product is called _one ampere hour_.
But the words printed upon the dials of this instrument are not _ampere
hours_, but _watt hours_ and the name of the instrument is _wattmeter_.
This next requires explanation. Follow me in a little roundabout
journey and the matter will be readily understood when viewed from
another approach.
[Illustration: Fig. 17]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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