Why it is Current?

We have to call it something!

I don't know. What do you call it?

Ditch the all-caps.

a) Because it was thought to be analogous to a current in fliuds

b) To make the joke about strong currants work.

And please don't shout. There's really no need.

The source of all the difficulty lies with Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, who, upon taking his Orlon socks out of the drier one cold morning, discovered the stuff. Since Coulomb spoke French, he used the first word that came to mind, "corant" which means lively or swift. Cavendish, who probably thought all Frenchmen impossible snobs, Anglicized the spelling to "current".

I'd never heard that one before. It makes perfect sense, especially when you remember that courir means "to run".

Thanks TVP

You left out the part where Coulomb (1736 - 1806) invented Orlon long before DuPont (1940s) and how he built his own clothes drier too.

What about that really, really happy kind of electricity? The kind they call 'ecstatic'?

Is that the same as the religious type?

As in "ecstatic discharge"?

That's hard to control because you never know exactly when it will gush forth.

Proper grounding will take all the fun out of it.

Sufficient insulation will inhibit it.

Unless you have a quantum device and you get tunneling.

Careful....that's how KrisDel™ and LynDoor® got started....

And you lot have the NHS to provide modern insulation. We colonials must rely on the old-fashioned knob and tube method.

The thing with the modern insulation, is that you have to watch out for interactions with other components. Sometimes, we still have to shell out for the old-fashioned kit.

Insulation? Insulation??????

We don't need no stink-in' insulation!!!!!!!!

(From "Treasure of the Sierra Mamas".)