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When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - Printable Version

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When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - chris25260880 - 05-07-2013

When I was learning electronics from my Dad in the 50's he always referred to condensers, as I moved into a career in the late 60's and 70 they had become capacitors. When and why the terminology
change?

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - morzh - 05-07-2013

Well, they were the Leyden jars first.
The "condenser" was first used by Volta in 18th century.
In my country we called them (and it is still the case) "kondensator".
I suspect the capacitor became common some time in 60-s-70-s.

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - Arran - 05-08-2013

I've seen both terms used interchangeably on original parts lists issued by the manufacturers. In the service literature for my CGE J86 from 1932 the parts list calls them capacitors, but the service literature for other manufacturers calls them condensers. It seems that it was a matter of personal preference and that there wasn't really any convention.
Regards
Arran

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - morzh - 05-08-2013

Actually same is true today for inductances.

We call them "inductance" or "inductor" if not wanting to be very specific, or "choke" if it is a filtering element, or "coil" if it is a part of a resonant tank / tuned circuit.
Although the borders are blurred and one could hear any inductance called any name from the above.

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - codefox1 - 05-08-2013

In the 60's the old timers called them condensers.

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - morzh - 05-08-2013

I interviewed once an engineer, fairly recently, some less than 4 years ago, he, when speaking of his career, used the word "kilocycles". I think he was about 70 years old at the time.

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - codefox1 - 05-08-2013

Don't think kilocycles is obsolete yet, is it?

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - BrendaAnnD - 05-08-2013

Cycles were replaced with Hertz sometime in the 60's. Personally, I still like to call them cycles, a much better descriptive term.

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - morzh - 05-08-2013

It is obsolete in the engineering world though.
In schools they teach to call the units in the SI.
For that reason the conductivity is no longer Mho, but Siemens.
Then I think US was the only country that called Hertz "a cycle".

Hey, we still are using imperial system...even the UK ditched it in engineering.

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - Arran - 05-08-2013

That figures, standard international units means renaming something after a German, interesting how they didn't name anything after James Clark Maxwell but tried to rename something after Siemens. I'm sure Siemens and Halske had something to do with that form of product placement. I believe that the used cycles per second in most English speaking countries, possibly Japan as well since they used to emulate the U.S, as old appliances in Australia have the line frequency quoted in cycles not Hertz.
Regards
Arran

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - morzh - 05-08-2013

This is simply not true.

BTW one Maxwell is the unit of mag. flux in CGS system.

Newton - after Sir Isaac Newton, an Englishman, a unit of force.
Coulomb - after a Frenchman Charles Augiustin de Coulomb, a unit of charge.
Ampere - after Anfre Marie Amper, a frenchman., a unit of current.
Volt - after Alessandro Volta, an italian, a unit of voltage.
Kelvin - a scottsman, 1st Baron Lord Kelvin, England - a unit of temperature.

BTW there are only two named units amongst the base units and those are Ampere and Kelvin.

And it is no one's fault that most of the prominent physicists were from Germany.
And Maxwell was BTW one of the most active proponents of the SI.

And, speaking of civilization....three countries in the whole world have not adopted the SI.
Those are:

Burma
Liberia
USA


We are in a mighty good company....

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - GarySP - 05-08-2013

Just for the record...when I work on older muscle cars and do tune-ups I still buy points and CONDENSORS, not capacitors. Some times refuse to die! Take care. Gary

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - codefox1 - 05-08-2013

Agreed KHC and MHZ are correct, and I am now an old timer.

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - Arran - 05-08-2013

I meant retroactively renaming a unit of measurement after a German, decades after it was established under a different name, Volts, Ohms, Amps, Farads have been used since the beginning. The one that gets me is Hertz, they had cycles per second used for almost a century, maybe longer, and they already had Hertzonian waves named after the man. As for the U.S not adopting Si units, whatever, it didn't stop them from putting several men on the moon, invent the triode vacuum tube, the transistor, the integrated circuit, the internet, satellite television, etc.
Regards
Arran

RE: When did the terminology change from condenser to capacitor - BrendaAnnD - 05-08-2013

At the risk of exposing my ignorance, what are SI units?