Lithanode.
A block of compressed lead binoxide, with platinum connecting foils for
use as an electrode in a storage battery. It has considerable capacity,
over 5 ampere-hours per pound of plates, but has not met with any
extended adoption.
Load.
In a dynamo the amperes of current delivered by it under any given
conditions.
Local Action.
(a) In its most usual sense the electric currents within a battery, due
to impurities in the zinc, which currents may circulate in exceedingly
minute circuits, and which waste zinc and chemicals and contribute
nothing to the regular current of the battery. Amalgamated or chemically
pure zinc develops no local action.
(b) The term is sometimes applied to currents set up within the armature
core or pole pieces of a dynamo. (See Currents, Foucault.)
Local Battery.
A battery supplying a local circuit (q. v.); in telegraphy, where it is
principally used, the battery is thrown in and out of action by a relay,
and its current does the work of actuating the sounder and any other
local or station instruments. (See Relay.)
Local Circuit.
A short circuit on which are placed local apparatus or instruments. Such
circuit is of low resistance and its current is supplied by a local
battery, q. v. Its action is determined by the current from the main
line throwing its battery in and out of circuit by a relay, q. v., or
some equivalent.
Local Currents.
Currents within the metal parts of a dynamo. (See Currents, Foucault.)
In a galvanic battery. where there is local action, q. v., there are
also local currents, though they are not often referred to.
Localization.
Determining the position of anything, such as a break in a cable, or a
grounding in a telegraph line. In ocean cables two typical cases are the
localization of a break in the conductor and of a defect in the
insulation admitting water. The first is done by determining the static
capacity of the portion of the line which includes the unbroken portion
of the conductor; the other by determining the resistance of the line on
a grounded circuit.
Locus.
A place. The word is used to designate the locality or position of, or
series of positions of definite conditions and the like. Thus an
isogonic line is the locus of equal declinations of the magnetic needle;
it is a line passing through all places on the earth's surface where the
condition of a given declination is found to exist.