Search the Dictionary

A box through which the main conductors of a system of electric distribution pass, and where connection is made with branch circuits.

One who, or that which, leads or conducts; a guide; a conductor. Especially:

ator or instrument. It consists of a short circuit to the ground interrupted by a thin nonconductor over which lightning jumps. Called also lightning discharger. -- Lightning bug (Zoöl.), a luminous beetle. See Firefly. -- Lightning conductor, a lightning rod. -- Lightning glance, a quick, penetrating glance of a br…

One who manages; a conductor or director; as, the manager of a theater. A skillful manager of the rabble. South.

A conductor; an officer in the ancient church who gave the signal for the choir to sing, and who beat time with the hand, and regulated the music. Moore (Encyc. of Music.)

gain; -- treated by the poets as identical with the Greek Hermes, messenger of the gods, conductor of souls to the lower world, and god of eloquence.

by the variations in the contact resistance of conducting bodies, especially of imperfect conductors, under the action of acoustic vibrations.

aterial, made by blowing a powerful jet of air or steam through melted slag. It is a poor conductor of heat.

A lightning conductor erected, as in a vineyard, for drawing off the electricity in the atmosphere in order to prevent hailstorms. [France] Knight.

A conductor of lightning; a lightning rod.

g tube or hollow body of wood, metal, earthenware, or the like: especially, one used as a conductor of water, steam, gas, etc.

mark (') called a prime mark. Prime and ultimate ratio. (Math.). See Ultimate. -- Prime conductor. (Elec.) See under Conductor. -- Prime factor (Arith.), a factor which is a prime number. -- Prime figure (Geom.), a figure which can not be divided into any other figure more simple than itself, as a triangle, a pyram…

class of yellowish brown solid inflammable substances, of vegetable origin, which are nonconductors of electricity, have a vitreous fracture, and are soluble in ether, alcohol, and essential oils, but not in water; specif., pine resin (see Rosin).

e offered by conducting bodies. It bears an inverse relation to the conductivity, -- good conductors having a small resistance, while poor conductors or insulators have a very high resistance. The unit of resistance is the ohm. Resistance box (Elec.), a rheostat consisting of a box or case containing a number of resist…

An armature for a dynamo or motor having the conductors wound on a ring.

A circuit formed or closed by a conductor of relatively low resistance because shorter or of relatively great conductivity.

To join, as the electrodes of a battery or dynamo or any two points of a circuit, by a conductor of low resistance.

A conducting circuit joining two points in a conductor, or the terminals of a galvanometer or dynamo, so as to form a parallel or derived circuit through which a portion of the current may pass, for the purpose of regulating the amount passing in the main circuit.

A disruptive discharge between a conductor traversed by an oscillatory current of high frequency (as lightning) and neighboring masses of metal, or between different parts of the same conductor.

That through which anything spouts; a discharging lip, pipe, or orifice; a tube, pipe, or conductor of any kind through which a liquid is poured, or by which it is conveyed in a stream from one place to another; as, the spout of a teapot; a spout for conducting water from the roof of a building. Addison. "A conduit wit…