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From: john@x.UUCP (John Woods)
Newsgroups: net.consumers,net.analog
Subject: Re: power meters
Message-ID: <455@x.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Apr-85 17:51:57 EST
Article-I.D.: x.455
Posted: Wed Apr  3 17:51:57 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Apr-85 03:21:42 EST
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Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA
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Xref: watmath net.consumers:2114 net.analog:257

> Domestic electricity meters *do* measure true energy.  They will even run
> backwards if there is a net outflow of energy.  My father, who has
> a graduate engineering degree, assures me that this is true.
> -- 
Alas, no longer:  this was fixed long ago.  I am told that the birth of
particle physics had something to do with it:  the cyclotron at MIT would
brown out all of Cambridge when it charged up, and then send that current
back into the power grid when the magnets discharged.  The local power company
got upset at having MIT brown out Cambridge "for just pennies a day!" :-)...
Hence, they started putting ratchets into modern meters to prevent the wheel
from turning backwards.

On the other hand, it has the flavor of an apocryphal story.  Maybe I should
borrow a 5KW gasoline generator and test it out...
-- 
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc@MIT-XX.ARPA

You can't spell "vile" without "vi".