At 12:16 PM 11/28/2009 -0600, The Roxter wrote:
>...
>I have always wondered why we call a capacitor a "condenser" just
>because it's on a car.
>....
Ah, history time. The term "condenser" is not unique to automobiles
use. The device was originally called a condenser long before it
became known as a capacitor.
According to Wikipedia, "The term [condenser] was first used for this
purpose by Alessandro Volta in 1782, with reference to the device's
ability to store a higher density of electric charge than a normal
isolated conductor". Apparently Wikipedia is wrong, and that was not
the first use of the term (or the original concept).
See here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3726/is_200506/ai_n13643083/
The term "condenser" was earlier applied to application of the Leyden
Jar (invented 1745), used to collect and store an electrical charge,
assumed at the time to be a condensed fluid. For the next two
centuries, devices used to retain electrical charges were called
condensers [and sometimes still are].
More recently the device came to be called "capacitor" when it became
easier to calculate the actual capacity of the device to store
electrical charge, and devices were invented that had the capacity to
store much larger charges. Now lets see if someone can find the date
of first use of the term "capacitor" for this device.
Incidentally, there is one electrical condenser that is definitely
not a capacitor, the synchronous condenser (more like an electric
motor with no output shaft).
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