Hi Mike
On (28 Dec 97) MIKE ROSS wrote to Alec Cameron...
 MR> Long time no see, Alec! Off on a trip someplace? We all missed your
 MR> presence. Nice to have you back...
I occasionally switch Echoes, there are so many good ones and the days are so
short.
 MR> Most emphatically NO! Unfortunately E times I equals Watts no matter
 MR> what you put in the wire, be it a semi-conductor or a semi-trailer.
When cornered, the Alec animal will use all possible tricks....
E times I does not equal watts thru a wire, a closer definition is needed.
Especially in an AC or unfiltered AC>DC rectifier in which cases E time I is
rarely equal to W.
The experiment that Sir had us do in Elec Lab class involved accounting for
the energy losses in *every* part of each machine, both rotating and static
machines ie motors, generators, transformers, rectifiers, capacitors et al 
nd
ad nauseum.
He demonstrated that the oh so familiar Ohm's Law [I squared R and all that]
would not work for the brush voltage drop in a motor or dynamo, nor for the
cathode/ plate voltage drop of a mercury arc rectifier. Our lab had an old
street car SS glass bulb rectifier, beautiful it was to watch at changing
load.
We were taught to comprehend what he called NEGATIVE RESISTANCE. A crazy
concept! The effect being that on increasing the current load, the internal
voltage drop decreased instead of increasing.
 MR> Sorry man, just couldn't let you get away with the cool diode thing...
No No No! Not cool. Just less hot!
 MR> It's easy to get confused about this if you were trained in the era of
 MR> conduction through vacuum. Luckily I got my training just as tubes were
 MR> being phased out so that I did get to learn both worlds so to speak and
 MR> I love tubes!
My workshop was illuminated by the tungar bulb half wave rectifier used to
charge the battery. The filament ran at 2volts 25 amps. The plate [anode] was
a great lump of carbon I think. The mercury arc plus the incandescent 
filament,
gave a nice glow to the bench.
Lets park this one and see if someone will take up the running. That's what I
like about Fidonet- the chain reactions!
Cheers....ALEC
..........Radioactivity fades your genes!
... 
--- PPoint 1.92
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