|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
In New Scientist for 7 July 2001,p.50, there is a dandy UK word I think is superior to usual US equivalent. The article is about the early days of home radio reception, and to my amazement is about using illuminating gas to power a radio!
Because the Brit, Insull, did his work in US, just about everybody here had electricity in home in the twenties. I remember the A, B, and C batteries. The A and C batteries were carbon-zinc dry cells, but most of the power was supplied by the B cells, which had to be a regular automobile battery, that could be charged from the house electric current.
So I was surprised to learn that in Britain a very large part of homes did not have electricity, and the illuminating gas companies fearing loss of customers, promoted the use of a device that produced power from illuminating gas by "the thermoelectric effect: the generation of electricity in a circuit made of wires of different metals in which the junctions between those metals are maintained at different temperatures."
But the name of the device that stored the power so generated, was new to me. Except for our UK members, how many can guess what it was called?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Nope. It's just that the Brits use a word that makes good sense. Surprisingly, though, they use our word more often than the one of theirs I found so well chosen. At least in many sites I looked at to check.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
?did you bother to tell us the US equivalent? (I feel like i'm groping in the dark)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
The title is "power source". I said that the principal power for home radios in twenties was a regular auto lead acid battery. This is what Brits have a different name for.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Another clue. The lead-acid battery is rechargeable. The Brit name indicates this.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
Well. Dr. Bill, I've seen the term "accumulator" used in this regard; kinda goes along with the archaic term, "condenser" for capacitor.
Your gas-powered thermocouple reminds me of the gas-powered refrigerators of former times. Anybody remember them?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Geoff: You win the hand-painted pot. Chamber that is. Accumulator is the word New Scientist used, but far more UK links used lead-acid battery. As for gas powered refrigerators, the refrigerator in medical lab I worked in while in the Philippines was a Servel, running I think on natural gas. They had tubing on rear just like conventional refrigerator. I thought they were just a different type of heat pump.It was very satisfactory despite high temperatures - much of the time in high eighties and nineties.. I guess that there just wasn't enough demand for them to compete in US, though I wonder if some mobile homes might not still have them. While in Manila, I used to see big bomber circling overhead for sole purpose of making ice for the officers' messes. That must have cost taxpayers a bundle.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Geoff: I looked, and there are many places still selling propane gas powered refrigerators, domestic and RV.
Many of them apparently use electricity for temperature regulation. Some use kerosene.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
Remember them? They still use them in rural Mexico.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,351
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
653
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
