On 04/11/2018 20:09, rry wrote:
> Jak rezystancja, to i kapazyzstancja... ;)



"Kondensator" (Condenser) zapożyczony był z angielskiego w latach
przedwojennych i tak już pozostało. Cały świat zrozumiał że to
nieprawidłowe określenie i zaczęto się przestawiać na Capacitor. W PL
zostano przy Kondensator choć z kondensacją to nie ma nic wspólnego.
Kiedyś tłumaczono elektrykę przez analogię do wody a condenserem
nazywano zbiornik ciśnieniowy w maszynie parowej.





As the term has been traced (thanks to @helloworld922) back to 1782,
it's worth noting this is the year James Watt patented the compound
steam engine, having conceived the separate condenser in 1765, and
patented it and produced efficient condensing steam engines in the 1770s.

So the term was very much cutting edge at the time, and scientists
tended to read much more widely across disciplines than we can possibly
do today, so certainly Volta would have been aware of it.

In those days, electrical concepts were explained by analogy with fluid
flow concepts, with pressure corresponding to voltage and current
corresponding to ... current.

So, because a condenser absorbs large volumes of steam at very low
pressure, it offers a good analogy for a device which can absorb a lot
of charge at relatively low electrical pressure. (However the analogy
breaks down when you try to recover the steam : the condenser can only
deliver water!)

Interesting, while books of a hundred years ago talk of electrical
pressure (measured in volts) and electrical current (measured in amps)
we have dropped the former term in favour of "voltage", it still looks
odd to see "amperage" instead of the word "current", and I can't recall
seeing "ohmage" in place of "resistance".

The "Admiralty Handbook of Wireless Telegraphy" (1925 edition)
consistently uses the term "condenser" while calling its storage
capacity "capacity". The book introduces both the "practical unit" of
the Farad, (millifarad, microfarad, and micromicrofarad, so apparently
"pico" wasn't in use yet) and the "service unit" of the Jar. (by 1925,
"electrical pressure" has given may to"Electro-Motive Force" or EMF,
which is still occasionally seen in the wild today)

The original condensers were actually glass jars (Leyden jars),
presumably of a standard size, because the book introduces the "service
unit" which is the Jar, where 1 Jar = 1/900 uF. (It then goes on to
inconsistently use jars and farads throughout the remainder of the book!)

So we have consistently dropped some of the contemporary terms, kept
some others, and inconsistently dropped others - "condenser" is still
the term in the spare parts catalog for my outboard motor while
"capacitor" is seen elsewhere.


c.