New science-new language

This article on changing technology and language was excerpted from previously unpublished portions of an earlier article about David Prince, the main body of which was published in a previous issue of this magazine (see ibid., vol.7, p.12-19, 2001). The original article was quite lengthy and edited to meet available space. This excerpt was set aside for later publication since it contains some interesting background on switchgear ratings. The original excerpt is expanded somewhat to promote the idea of historical value in tracking word origins