Edison counter
The Edison meter , or STIA , was used in private households and large consumers with a direct current supply to measure the energy consumed . Today it has no more practical application.
The Edison counter was the first practical measuring device for electrical energy in the end user area. It was developed by Thomas Alva Edison and his colleague Arthur E. Kenelly based on the voltameter designed by Michael Faraday in 1834 . It was officially introduced on February 1, 1883 as a meter for billing the energy supplied by Edison's electricity company.
The Edison meter does not actually measure the electrical energy , but the electrical charge . To do this, he makes use of the chemical effect of the electric current. It consists of two zinc voltameters , in which zinc is deposited on the anode during operation . The change in weight of the anode allows conclusions to be drawn about the charge that has flowed through it and thus (with known voltage) the amount of energy consumed.
Later models then worked with a mercury voltmeter , in which the metal deposited on the anode was collected in a glass tube next to which a scale that was directly calibrated in ampere-hours was attached. By folding up the scale unit, the mercury could be transported back to the cathode after the reading and the counter could be zeroed again. Then the meter was secured with a new seal .
Since this type of measuring device only works with direct current, they lost their importance with the disappearance of direct current networks.
For today's meters for alternating current see the article Electricity meter .
literature
- Helmuth Poll: The Edison Counter , Deutsches Museum, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-924183-30-9
Web links
- Ampere-hour counter. University of Innsbruck, Department of Physics, accessed on December 29, 2013 (picture of a SITA counter).
- SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention: Edison Chemical Meter. Retrieved April 18, 2015 .