IV The Wattmeter
We were able to maintain connections between the binding posts of the ammeter and the movable armature of flexible wires because the armature never moves more than one third of a revolution, but we now wish to examine an instrument in which the armature must not only make a complete revolution but must continue to revolve in the same direction indefinitely. How are connections made so that an electric current may pass from the fixed binding posts to the wire of the moving coil? I will lift the cover off this instrument, which is called a wattmeter, and let you find the answer to that question.
I sent through the instrument the current from a 32-candle-power lamp. According to the ammeter, which was also in circuit, the amount was one ampere.
The armature of the wattmeter revolved slowly and it was not long before the boys reported that connections for the current were made by strips of metal sliding on metal plates. The ends of the armature wire were fastened one to one plate and the other to the other plate, and the metal strips brush along over the surfaces of the plates. (That is why they are called “brushes,” I said.) And the brushes slide from one plate to the other each time the armature makes half a revolution. (That is, the brushes change the connection and thus change the poles of the armature at the proper instant so that they are always attracted to the poles of the field toward which they are moving.) This is called a commutator.
Notice that while the ammeter was like the magneto in having a steel magnet for its field, the wattmeter is like the dynamo in having electro-magnets for both armature and field. Notice in the second place that this instrument is an electric motor since it is made to revolve by an electric current. If it were made to revolve by some other power it would generate electricity and would then be called a dynamo. Indeed, let me tell you something which must at present be nothing more than a puzzle to you. Every machine, while it is being driven by an electric current as an electric motor, is, at the same time, acting as a dynamo to generate a current in the opposite direction. Notice in the third place that this is a shunt-wound instrument. The current which is sent into the instrument divides, and part of it goes through the field, while part goes through the armature. Motors, as well as dynamos, are either shunt-wound or series-wound. But notice finally that the axle on which the armature is carried has a cyclometer arrangement which keeps account of the number of revolutions. The armature is going slowly enough for us to count the revolutions. With watch in hand we found that it made one hundred and twenty revolutions per minute. I next brought the current to the wattmeter through a 16-candle-power lamp and the ammeter, connected in series, showed that half an ampere was passing. We counted the revolutions of the wattmeter and found them to be sixty per minute.
Here, then, is a simple electric motor which will register the amount of electricity we use. It will register the same amount whether we use one ampere for one hour or half an ampere for two hours or two amperes for half an hour. In any case this product is called one ampere hour. But the words printed upon the dials of this instrument are not ampere hours, but watt hours and the name of the instrument is wattmeter. This next requires explanation. Follow me in a little roundabout journey and the matter will be readily understood when viewed from another approach.
When we were estimating the energy required to climb the stairs of an apartment house, we needed to take into account two factors, (1) our weight and (2) the time which we took in climbing them. The amount of coal burned, steam generated, electricity produced, to run our elevator depends upon two factors, (1) its weight and (2) its speed. That idea is fundamental. Let us get at it in still another way. Suppose we have a mill pond, (Fig. 17, A). We construct a penstock p and install a water-wheel, S, to operate a mill. Our business increases and we install more machinery in our mill and must have more power to run it. We have two ways of getting it, (1) we may lengthen our wheel and enlarge our penstock so that a greater weight of water will fall upon the wheel, or (2) we may lengthen our penstock and move the wheel farther down so that the water will fall upon the wheel with greater velocity. It is just so with the electric current. Like water it is driven on in its course by pressure. The unit for electric pressure is called a volt. If we wish to drive the wattmeter or any other electric motor twice as fast as now, we may choose whether we shall do so by doubling the volts of pressure or by doubling the amperes of quantity.
The electric pressure on our mains is about one-hundred and ten volts. We three together weigh 330 pounds. Our elevator brought us up stairs at the speed of 100 feet per minute. It requires one horse-power to raise 330 pounds 100 feet in a minute. The ammeter in the engine room showed that 7 amperes of electricity were sent through the motor of the elevator to bring us up. That is, seven amperes at 110-volt pressure give one horse-power. In the office building across the street where they use a 220-volt current 3½ amperes are required to take us up stairs at the same speed. It is necessary that the same amount of coal be consumed to furnish the horse-power of energy whether we supply it by means of seven amperes at 110 volts or 3½ amperes at 220 volts. You notice that the product is 770 in each case. The name given to this product is watts. More accurately 746 watts of electrical power are equivalent to one horse-power. The name of this unit commemorates the famous inventor of the steam engine, James Watt (1736–1819). His monument now overlooks the Clyde at his native town, Greenock, Scotland.
To light a certain lamp, to heat a certain laundry iron, to furnish a certain amount of power for an electric motor, we must have a definite number of watts. We may choose whether we will have it at high or low voltage with correspondingly low or high number of amperes.
We will now connect with our laboratory current a 32-candle-power lamp, an ammeter, and a wattmeter, all in series, Fig. 18, and in parallel with these a volt meter. This last instrument indicates the electric pressure. Its mechanism will be examined later. The volt meter indicates 110 volts and the ammeter shows that one ampere is passing. The filament in the lamp resists the passage of the current. It gets quite hot and gives forth as much light as thirty-two candles. Its resistance is just such that 110 volts of pressure send one ampere through it. We will now take the reading of the wattmeter, note the time and read it again later. One hour later its index showed that 110 watt hours of electrical energy had been converted into light and heat. This at the usual rate, costs 1.1 cents, one cent per hundred watt hours or ten cents per thousand watt hours, called a kilowatt hour. The more common 16-candle-power lamp costs about half a cent an hour to operate. It requires one horse-power to keep fourteen of them burning.
I will now take you to see the wattmeter which measures all the electric energy used in this building. You note down its reading and the date and the next time you come we will read it again and thus find out how much electricity has been used for electric lights, for electric ventilating fans, for electric elevators, for electric ovens, and electric irons in the school of household arts, for electric motors to run lathes and other machines in the school of technical arts, for electric experiments in my laboratories and lecture room, for electric vacuum cleaners and, lastly, for pumping the pipe organ in chapel.
I saw by the boys’ faces as they departed what would be the next question that they would bring to me. Knowing, however, that the hour was up, they were too polite to press it then.