Alec Cameron said the following to MIKE ROSS on the subject of
solar power in apt? (30 Dec 97  21:43:12)
 AC> When cornered, the Alec animal will use all possible tricks....
 AC> E times I does not equal watts thru a wire, a closer definition is
 AC> needed.
While a closer definition is certainly available, I still remember the
last time I tried something like that, you cried "foul"...
 AC> Especially in an AC or unfiltered AC>DC rectifier in which cases E
 AC> time I is rarely equal to W.
You bet yer sweet bippy! (dates me, eh?) Don't forget that the effective
(or rms) voltage with 1/2 wave unfiltered AC is equal to Vavg x (pi/2)
and where the value of Vavg = Vmax / pi.  (more or less 14 times out 20)
 AC> The experiment that Sir had us do in Elec Lab class involved
 [ . . . ]
 AC> Our
 AC> lab had an old street car SS glass bulb rectifier, beautiful it was to
 AC> watch at changing load.
 AC> We were taught to comprehend what he called NEGATIVE RESISTANCE. A
 AC> crazy concept! The effect being that on increasing the current load,
 AC> the internal voltage drop decreased instead of increasing.
Water cooled 3-phase full-wave mercury arc ignitron rectifiers were a
fun light show too and they sure gave off some sweet x-rays. You know,
they kept them in steel cabinets for a reason. They had lots of negative
resistance as the arc jumped from terminal to terminal in step with the
phase. Made that memorable sound you heard in all Frankenstein movies...
 MR> the cool diode thing...
 AC> No No No! Not cool. Just less hot!
Man, you missed your true calling in life: should have been a politician.
 MR> I love tubes!
 AC> My workshop was illuminated by the tungar bulb half wave rectifier
 AC> used to charge the battery. The filament ran at 2volts 25 amps. The
 AC> plate [anode] was a great lump of carbon I think. The mercury arc plus
 AC> the incandescent filament, gave a nice glow to the bench.
What a co-incidence, I still have one of those. The sockets are on
porcelain slabs with all copper busses for its huge globe rectifiers.
Still use it from time to time for nostalgia. I did however replace the
frankly scary '20s cloth wiring with electric oven high temperature
wire. Unfortunately one MV tube has an open filament so it's really a
half-wave battery charger now. Transformer gives one a hernia to lift
and could probably double as an arc-welder if fed with 240 volts.
 AC> Cheers....ALEC
Happy New Year ALL!!!
 AC> ..........Radioactivity fades your genes!
. . . and your "jeans"...
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30
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