I just noticed the "Tip of the Day" posted on this Website. I have to express a bit of disagreement. I don't usually care what name someone uses for a device as long as I understand the reference. But claiming there are strict rules to the names of instruments we use? Come on!
I have studied the history of man's understanding of electricity over time. I have read a lot of Patents. Maybe I missed something, but I have yet too see a trademark put on to the word "ammeter" or the phrase "amperage gauge." From my own experience, they often mean exactly the same thing. Mr. Ampere (where the word "amp" comes from) called one of the earliest current-measuring devices a "Galvanometer." He named it after Mr. Galvani. After that? Many meters made to measure electrical current called all sorts of things. Early ones were just compasses laid on a wire.
The "Tip of the Day" here today, states . . "An ammeter shows amps being charged (+) or dis-charged (-) and reads from center to a range like -30 to +30, whereas an amperage gauge shows just the amps flowing in the electrical line. "
I say that is nonsense - and here is one example (I have many) showing a meter actually named "AMMETER" and not having a centered scale. Kind of a silly discussion but - somebody might read today's "Tip" and take it as gospel truth.
Besides the actual history of what various companies chose to call the meters they made - there is also the issue of common day American English. If a neighbor asks you if you have an "amp gauge" - are you going to say "NO" because all you have is a current reading meter with a centered scale? Or vice versa?
I have studied the history of man's understanding of electricity over time. I have read a lot of Patents. Maybe I missed something, but I have yet too see a trademark put on to the word "ammeter" or the phrase "amperage gauge." From my own experience, they often mean exactly the same thing. Mr. Ampere (where the word "amp" comes from) called one of the earliest current-measuring devices a "Galvanometer." He named it after Mr. Galvani. After that? Many meters made to measure electrical current called all sorts of things. Early ones were just compasses laid on a wire.
The "Tip of the Day" here today, states . . "An ammeter shows amps being charged (+) or dis-charged (-) and reads from center to a range like -30 to +30, whereas an amperage gauge shows just the amps flowing in the electrical line. "
I say that is nonsense - and here is one example (I have many) showing a meter actually named "AMMETER" and not having a centered scale. Kind of a silly discussion but - somebody might read today's "Tip" and take it as gospel truth.
Besides the actual history of what various companies chose to call the meters they made - there is also the issue of common day American English. If a neighbor asks you if you have an "amp gauge" - are you going to say "NO" because all you have is a current reading meter with a centered scale? Or vice versa?