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
I then turned off the electric current which had been running until now
and served the meat and vegetable, leaving the pudding inside to be
kept warm by the hot walls of the cooker.
3. Regarding the control of the process: we were using 32-candle-power
lamps, which gave us a variable current, from 0 to 4 amperes, and a
watch and a thermometer. We had control, but as yet lacked knowledge of
how it should be used. In the present case we had arbitrarily decided
to begin with temperature of 400 degrees, continue it for 20 minutes,
then turn off all the electric current, and let the temperature fall
gradually. This had been done at our convenience in the morning before
school. At a quarter before twelve we had found the temperature at
200 degrees, and turned on all the current, and now, at five minutes
past twelve o'clock, all testified that the lamb was particularly
good--neither too well done nor undercooked, and that its flavour was
better than usual.
As for economy of fuel, we find at least that we get better results
from incandescent lamps than from hot plates used in the same
apparatus, and the electric equipment enables us to put the heat
exactly where it is needed and nowhere else.
22. _Incandescent Lamp._--We feel quite justified in putting the
incandescent lamp under the heading, _Applications of Electric
Heating_, since the electric lamps in general use convert 96 per cent.
of the electric energy into heat and only 4 per cent. into light.
They were originally made by introducing a short piece of fine wire
into the circuit, choosing the kind of wire, its diameter, and its
length so as to make the proper relation between resistance and
voltage, in order that enough current might pass to make it white hot,
but not quite melt it. Platinum wire was first chosen because it would
stand the highest heat without melting and without rusting.
We will pass our 112-volt current through 9 feet of the No. 24 iron
wire. The wire is heated to bright red, but does not melt as it did
when we used 8 feet in a former experiment. The increased length has
added resistance, and, as you see by the ammeter, cut the current down
from 8 to 7.5 amperes. I will now darken the room and you find that
it is giving light enough to read by. But you notice that the light
is growing dimmer, its colour is growing redder, and the ammeter
indicates that less current is passing. I will cut off the current
and let you examine the wire and you notice that a crust has formed
upon it. This is due to the oxygen of the air which unites with the
iron, forming iron rust. Iron rust does not conduct electricity. We
have converted No. 24 iron wire into a wire of smaller diameter with a
sheath of iron rust around it. We might prevent the rusting by putting
the wire in a glass globe and exhausting the air from it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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