Re: Changing Cycles 'till it Hertz

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

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Parpp807-at-aol-dot-com>
> 
> In a message dated 4/13/02 2:12:08 PM Central Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> writes:
> 
> > Problem here is that the term "cps" was also derived from the
> >  name of Charles Proteus Steinmetz
> 
> Hi Ed,
> 
> That's the most intertesting thing I have read in this entire thread. Do you
> have any
> evidence to support the C.P. Steinmetz / cps connection or is it just
> coincidence?

	Not a coincidence, just a bad joke someone thought up after Hertz came
into use in this country!  Sorry for the confusion.

> We can imagine Steinmetz in one of his laugh-a-minute lectures coining his
> initials
> as the unit of frequency. C.P. is not noted for his sense of humor.
> 
> And what is the "also" that cps was derived from? The idea of cyc and cps is
> just so
> naturally grasped when talking about cyclic events that I woulda guessed the
> terms
> just entered the electrical lexicon in normal writing and speech. No formal
> adoption
> as standardized units.

	Quite true. Came into use because of the convenience of the
abbreviation (now days it might be called an acronym, of which there are
far too many in this world of alphabet soup). Looking through 19th
century literature I can find use of vibrations per second and cycles
(presumably per second) but the first use of the expression cycles per
second is in an article by Fessenden written in 1908.  Zenneck's
"Wireless Telegraphy", or at least the english version published in
1915, uses cycles per second without abbreviation.  I can't find any
usage of Hertz in pre-WW2 literature, but the selection here is limited
to publications in the U.S. and England.
    
> Happy day,
> Ralph Zekelman

Ed