Re: condensors

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Mddeming-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 4/11/02 10:20:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
writes:



>
> I'm now trying to work out where the term condensor came from - 
>
> capacitor makes sense (something that has capacity); I wonder whether
> condensor comes to us from the age of steam?
>


Hi Matt S., All,
         Back when electricity was thought by the general public to be a
special kind of fluid, these were seen as devices for storing the current;
"condensing"  it into a small volume, if you will. In the automotive world,
they are still occasionally referred to as condensers by "senior"
practitioners, who remember pre-electronic ignition when you checked coil,
points, and condenser. I once heard an old-time mechanic explain to a customer
that it condensed the electrical noise out of the engine so it wouldn't get
into the radio. When it got filled up with noise, she'd hear the ignition in
the radio and then she'd need a new condenser, just like changing an oil
filter. Dead wrong, but a lot easier for the scientifically uneducated to
explain to the scientifically uneducated.

Matt D.
G3-1085