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Electric current   /ɪlˈɛktrɪk kˈərənt/   Listen
Electric current

noun
1.
A flow of electricity through a conductor.  Synonym: current.



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"Electric current" Quotes from Famous Books



... and delight in these things, I reached the railway station at Lauterbruennen, from whence the little train is driven far up the mountain, even into the very heart of the Jungfrau, by an electric current generated by a turbine, itself driven by the torrent at our feet, the waters of which have descended from the glaciers far above, to which it will carry us. In a few minutes I was gently gliding ...
— More Science From an Easy Chair • Sir E. Ray (Edwin Ray) Lankester

... when he was back from one of those mysterious long excursions he takes in that weirdly different aircraft of his, about which he is so secretive, he told me that he was conducting experiments to prove his belief that the human brain generates electric current, and that the electrical impulses in the brain set up radioactive waves that some day, among other miracles, will make thought communication possible. Perfect man, he says, will perform mental feats which will give him complete ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science February 1930 • Various

... wire stays cool is this: All substances that conduct electricity resist the flow somewhat; there is something like friction between the wire and the electricity passing through it. The smaller around a wire is, the greater resistance it offers to the passing of an electric current. The filament of an electric lamp is very fine and therefore offers considerable resistance. However, if the filament were made of copper, even as fine as it is, it would take a much greater flow of electricity to make it white hot, and ...
— Common Science • Carleton W. Washburne

... of an electric current as it passes through a solution is distributed among three factors, first, its potential, which is measured in volts, and corresponds to what is called "head" in a stream of water; second, current strength, which is measured in amperes, and corresponds to the volume of water passing a cross-section ...
— An Introductory Course of Quantitative Chemical Analysis - With Explanatory Notes • Henry P. Talbot

... while fish rush upstream like flashes of silver light and the very trees clap their hands in praise, it is not conceivable that man, God's masterpiece, should be insensible to this season of the year. A sudden thrill like an electric current passes through his being; a subtle exhilaration, as when a man is filled with wine, possesses him, and he is in touch with the new life, whether he goes afield with team or plow or hunts the forest ...
— The Kentucky Ranger • Edward T. Curnick

... non-navigable streams usually results from dropping a little water a long way. In the mountains water is dropped many hundreds of feet upon the turbines which move the dynamos that produce the electric current. Water power on navigable streams is usually produced by dropping immense volumes of water a short distance, as twenty feet, fifteen feet, or even less. Every stream is a unit from its source to its mouth, and the people have the same stake in the control of water power in one part of it as in another. ...
— The Fight For Conservation • Gifford Pinchot

... strength. Then, Murder! Thieves! and Fire! I shouted loud, For tightly clasped in writhing pain I bowed Within the thief trap, where I had been caught, Which Harry had explained, but I'd forgot; The sharp, excruciating agony, From the electric current, cruelly Vibrated through me from my head to feet, Urging the goaded blood to fever heat. At last the cruel knocks and shaking ceased, And from the horrid thing I got released; I dropped bewildered on a chair hard by, With tortured body and despairing ...
— Home Lyrics • Hannah. S. Battersby

... liquid metal—an alloy mainly composed of lead—is run, and left to cool. All these five toys have wheels that move. They are electro-gilt—that is, the gilding is fixed on them by means of a bath through which an electric current passes. ...
— Chatterbox, 1905. • Various

... the electron as the common constituent of all the bodies previously described as chemical elements, the minute particles of matter in question had been identified with the cathode rays observed in Sir William Crookes' vacuum tubes. When an electric current is passed through a tube from which the air (or other gas it may contain) has been almost entirely exhausted, a luminous glow pervades the tube manifestly emanating from the cathode or negative pole of the circuit. ...
— Occult Chemistry - Clairvoyant Observations on the Chemical Elements • Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater

... has such a facile, emotional tail as the red squirrel. It seems as if an electric current were running through it most of the time; it vibrates, it ripples, it curls, it jerks, it arches, it flattens; now it is like a plume in his cap; now it is a cloak around his shoulders; then it is an instrument to ...
— The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers • John Burroughs

... Niagara, a magnificent new frigate of the United States Navy; but, when five miles of cable had been paid out, it caught in the machinery and parted. On the second trial, when two hundred miles at sea, the electric current was suddenly lost, and men paced the decks nervously and sadly, as if in the presence of death. Just as Mr. Field was about to give the order to cut the cable, the current returned as quickly and mysteriously as it had disappeared. The following ...
— Pushing to the Front • Orison Swett Marden

... war of "defense" and all other national interests are controlled by the "high commandment," consisting at the most of forty or fifty men, while the remaining sixty-five millions of the people are obedient puppets, nourished on falsehoods, where the popular emotion can be turned on like an electric current at the order of the "high commandment,"—now against this enemy, now against that one,—first hate of English, then hate of Italians, now hate of Americans—it is natural that a high government functionary ...
— The World Decision • Robert Herrick

... strap. The knot was covered with a thin coating of ice, and it was several minutes before he could loosen it. But his teeth finally pulled it apart, and with the reins in his hands he sprang upon the wheel. And as he stood so, a shock of fear ran down his back like an electric current, his breath left him, and he stood immovable, gazing with wide eyes ...
— Gallegher and Other Stories • Richard Harding Davis

... you stands a respected member of our association. His specialty is breaking open safes, iron strong boxes, and other receptacles for monetary tokens. In his night work he sometimes avails himself of the electric current of the lighting installation for fusing metals. Unfortunately he has nothing on which he can demonstrate the best items of his repertoire. He will open the most elaborate lock irreproachably... By the way, this door here, it's ...
— Best Russian Short Stories • Various

... and hold up your hands. You can feel the sharp tingle of the electric current as it escapes from your finger-tips. The storm is soon over, and you can see the sunbeams gilding the upper surfaces of the white clouds that sway and swing below you half way down the mountain sides, and completely hide from view the world beneath. The scenery shifts, ...
— My Native Land • James Cox

... surrounding them with bodies which did not conduct it; and in 1745 the Leyden jar was invented, which led to the knowledge that the force of electricity could be extended through an indefinite circuit. The French savants conveyed the electric current through a circuit of twelve ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XI • John Lord

... Drying Oils; The Bleaching of Linseed Oil — The Manufacture of Boiled Oil; The Preparation of Drying Oils for Use in the Grinding of Paints and Artists' Colours and in the Manufacture of Varnishes by Heating over a Fire or by Steam, by the Cold Process, by the Action of Air, and by Means of the Electric Current; The Driers used in Boiling Linseed Oil; The Manufacture of Boiled Oil and the Apparatus therefor; Livache's Process for Preparing a Good Drying Oil and its Practical Application — The Preparation ...
— The Dyeing of Woollen Fabrics • Franklin Beech

... the present author, but with PROF. C. H. BOLLES, of Philadelphia, their discoverer, from whom the writer received his first introduction to them. Yet, the explanations here given of the Law of Polarization, as respects the electric current in the circuit of the artificial machine, as well as respecting the natural magnets and magnetic currents of the human organism; the introduction of the long cord, with the explanation of its advantages; and also nearly everything of ...
— A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication • Daniel Clark

... the pulsing streets, began the quiver of activity. As though a great electric current had been run through its cubes and shafts and hollows, the hotel crackled. Desk clerks clicked bells and bell boys hopped. Elevators rose and fell. In the cellar, wine bottles were dusted by quick, nervous hands. In the kitchen, a towering ...
— Celebrity • James McKimmey

... An electric current seemed to pass from her arm into mine. Besides I noticed that she too seemed pleased with me, and that naturally raises one's spirits. My scrutiny from an artistic point of view proved highly satisfactory. There are faces that seem to be a translation ...
— Without Dogma • Henryk Sienkiewicz

... crystal, not his sudden electric outbursts, when the great man seemed on fire; the something that men have tried in vain to analyze, was his character—goodness and sincerity glowing and throbbing in and through words, just as the electric current glows and throbs through the connecting wires. Another such man, but lesser, was Lamartine. During the French Revolution, when the mob poured through the streets, sweeping before it the soldiers who opposed its progress, Lamartine made his ...
— A Man's Value to Society - Studies in Self Culture and Character • Newell Dwight Hillis

... interesting thing about this mixture, which we call air, is that the only really "live" and vital part of it for breathing purposes is the one-fifth of oxygen, the four-fifths of nitrogen being of no use to our lungs. In fact, if you split up the air with an electric current, or by some other means, and thus divide it into a small portion of pure oxygen (one-fifth), and a very much larger portion (four-fifths) of nitrogen, the latter would as promptly suffocate the animal that tried to breathe it as if ...
— A Handbook of Health • Woods Hutchinson

... and proceeded towards the broad oak staircase, with Musard close behind her. Detective Caldew followed more slowly, noting his surroundings. When they reached the head of the staircase Miss Heredith switched on the electric current, and the bedroom corridor sprang into light. Detective Caldew was ...
— The Hand in the Dark • Arthur J. Rees

... false smile, which she knew so well, and the voluptuous glances of the musician, evidently excited her. I saw that, after the first interview, her eyes were already glittering, glittering strangely, and that, thanks to my jealousy, between him and her had been immediately established that sort of electric current which is provoked by an identity of expression in the smile and ...
— The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories • Leo Tolstoy

... path to the quadruplex passes through the duplex, let us consider the Stearns system, after noting one other principle—namely, that if more than one path is presented in which an electric current may complete its circuit, it divides in proportion to the resistance of each path. Hence, if we connect one pole of a battery with the earth, and from the other pole run to the earth two wires of equal resistance ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin

... business. I tested the electric signals from the gatling platform to the cave, and made sure that they were all right; I tested and retested those which commanded the fences—these were signals whereby I could break and renew the electric current in each fence independently of the others at will. I placed the brook-connection under the guard and authority of three of my best boys, who would alternate in two-hour watches all night and promptly obey my signal, if I should have ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... to see a ball of lightning in the air; it burst, and he felt the electric current strike right through his heart. The shock threw his head up with a jerk, so that his eyes gazed into a face whose beauty and tenderness were revealed to him for the first time. The face of his old acquaintance had vanished; this was a cajoling, ...
— Stories By English Authors: London • Various

... hardly spoken when a single shot startled the echoes of the rocks, and instant alertness passed like an electric current through the squadron. The advance guard, which had already entered the defile, consisted of three promising young Pathans from Denvil's troop; and anxiety for the fate of his favourites pricked the Boy to ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver

... suggestion that Green was somewhere concealed in the house; and a suggestion was only needed to cause the fact to be assumed, and unhesitatingly declared. Intelligence went through the reassembling crowd like an electric current, and ere the sheriff could manacle and lead forth his prisoner, the stairway down which he had to come was packed with bodies, and echoing with ...
— Ten Nights in a Bar Room • T. S. Arthur

... beautiful lashes and met Nathan's gaze, the gaze of a boy just turned to man: ardent, warm, compelling. There was a startled moment of recognition, a tremulous approach, almost an embrace, of regard; each sent an electric current across the protective separating space, the two pairs of eyes met and said, "I love you," in such clear tones that Nathan and Hetty marveled that the Elder did not hear them. Somebody says that love, like a scarlet ...
— Homespun Tales • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... section of Italian literature, my love," said Dr Middleton. "Well, Mr. Whitford, the laboratory—ah!—where the amount of labour done within the space of a year would not stretch an electric current between this Hall and the railway station: say, four miles, which I presume the distance to be. Well, sir, and a dilettantism costly in time and machinery is as ornamental as foxes' tails and deers' horns to an independent gentleman whose fellows are contented with the latter decorations ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... through the endless variations that succeed each other from the inane grin to the affected simper which is meant to be tender. The whole face moves perpetually, as the facial muscles of a corpse, excited by an electric current, seem to parody all the expression ...
— Greifenstein • F. Marion Crawford

... the domestic trade between the large western inland towns and the eastern seaports, especially the metropolis, is considerably facilitated. This traffic will receive a still greater importance, and can be more advantageously carried on, when the plan of utilizing the electric current for the driving power of canal-boats—a project recently tested ...
— By Water to the Columbian Exposition • Johanna S. Wisthaler

... At one end of the shaft of the latter the disk discharger is mounted, its function being to break up the train of waves into groups of waves, so as to impart a musical sound to the note produced in the receiver. A flexible cable transmits the electric current from the generator to the wagon containing the instruments. The aerial is built up of masts carried ...
— Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War • Frederick A. Talbot

... eighty-five," said Matt in his deep, abstracted voice, pointing at the bluish cylinder. "Located it about a year ago. Last of the missing elements. Does strange tricks when subjected to heavy electric current. In each of those things that look like searchlights ...
— The Raid on the Termites • Paul Ernst

... to be false reasoning in the argument from analogy which William James uses in his lectures on "Human Immortality." The brain, he admits, is the organ of the mind, but may only sustain the relation to it, he says, which the wire sustains to the electric current which it transmits, or which the pipe sustains to ...
— Under the Maples • John Burroughs

... the switchboard, and from thence to the operator's desk, where the little telegraph instruments were so soon to click messages back and forth, could convince one that the jars contained only "juice," as operators always call the electric current. ...
— A Woman's Journey through the Philippines - On a Cable Ship that Linked Together the Strange Lands Seen En Route • Florence Kimball Russel

... want of synchronism. The unequal and slow sensitiveness of the selenium likewise obstructed the proper working of the apparatus. Now, without a relative simplicity in the arrangement of the conducting wires intended to convey to a distance the electric current with its variations of intensity, without a perfect and rapid synchronism acting concurrently with the luminous impressions, so as to insure the simultaneous action of transmitter and receiver, without, in fine, an increased sensitiveness in the selenium, ...
— Scientific American Supplement No. 275 • Various

... caused exclusively by captured insects crawling over and repeatedly irritating the sensitive filaments; and this view seemed the more probable when I learnt from Dr. Burdon Sanderson that whenever the filaments of a closed leaf are irritated, the normal electric current is disturbed. Nevertheless, such irritation is by no means necessary, for a dead insect, or a bit of meat, or of albumen, all act equally well; proving that in these cases it is the absorption of animal matter which excites the lobes slowly to press close together. We have seen ...
— Insectivorous Plants • Charles Darwin

... the zero position, there being no further action during the continuation of stimulus. But on the cessation or 'break' of light stimulus, there is a response downwards, followed by the usual recovery. This reminds us of a somewhat similar responsive action produced by constant electric current on the muscle. At the moment of 'make' there is a responsive twitch, but afterwards the muscle remains quiescent during the passage of the current, but on breaking the current there is seen a ...
— Response in the Living and Non-Living • Jagadis Chunder Bose

... and Joan watched. His face grew pale and bright as though some electric current had been turned into his veins; his eyes, looking up from the writing, but not returning to her, had the look given by some drug which is meant to stupefy, but which taken in an overdose intoxicates. He turned and made for the door, holding the little gray folded paper in his hand. On the threshold ...
— The Branding Iron • Katharine Newlin Burt

... fixed at the top. On the face of the wheel a little pin rotates with the wheel. On the side of the clock case was a contact maker, which closed the circuit by the pin on the ratchet wheel, R, once every minute. The weight was lifted by the electric current, and by its fall gave an impulse to the pendulum. The pendulum was a free swinging pendulum for 59 sec., and the increase of the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888 • Various

... can't you, that if an interrupter caused the electric current to be made and broken at intervals, the number of times it interrupted per second would, for example, correspond to the rate of vibration in one of the strings? In other words, that would be the only string that ...
— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett



Words linked to "Electric current" :   alternating electric current, electrical phenomenon, thermionic current, juice



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