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tourelles

English translation: 4-decade resistance box

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:boîte de résistance 4 tourelles
English translation:4-decade resistance box
Entered by: STEVEN DEWITT

22:39 Mar 14, 2007
French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Electronics / Elect Eng
French term or phrase: tourelles
From an inventory list for a laboratory on electricity:
"Boîte de résistances 4 ***tourelles*** en coffret, commutateurs rotatifs avec douilles de sécurité F 4 mm comprenant des groupes de 10 résistances de 1 W, 10 W, 100 W, 1000W, courant max : 20 mA à 700 mA"
Many thanks in advance.
STEVEN DEWITT
Canada
Local time: 12:03
4-decade resistance box
Explanation:
I have to own up that this is a pure guess — but an intelligent one, I hope, that may possibly start you off on the right track.

The way these resistance boxes are usually arranged, they have (say) 4 knobs, one for the units, one for the tens, one for the hundreds, and one for the thousands of OHMS — I think this is what your text is trying to way, although it unfortunately uses 'W' which makes it sounds like 'Watts'! However, that would not be technically logical — a 1 kW resistor?! Unlikely!

But do remember that the symbol for the Ohm is Ω, the Greek letter capital omega, which is of course = W! Now if someone had carefully entered Ω in Symbol, and then someone else has globally changed the entire document to another font, hey presto! Ω becomes W.

As far as the 'tourelles' are concerned, I don't know ewactly what they mean, except that such things are (were) often built around wafer switches, which when clad with resistors do look rather 'turret-like' — and 'turret switch' is indeed a term used to describe just this sort of switch arangement, as used to be used for clunky old channel-change switches in the days when TVs only had about 11 channels to choose from!

So I think the FR 'tourelle' describes the TYPE of switch used, whereas normal EN usage would describe the FUNCTION of that switch, i.e. as a 'decade' switch.
Selected response from:

Tony M
France
Local time: 17:03
Grading comment
Sorry for the delay in closing this question! Thanks again for your help.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
1 +24-decade resistance box
Tony M


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 1/5Answerer confidence 1/5 peer agreement (net): +2
boîte de résistance 4 tourelles
4-decade resistance box


Explanation:
I have to own up that this is a pure guess — but an intelligent one, I hope, that may possibly start you off on the right track.

The way these resistance boxes are usually arranged, they have (say) 4 knobs, one for the units, one for the tens, one for the hundreds, and one for the thousands of OHMS — I think this is what your text is trying to way, although it unfortunately uses 'W' which makes it sounds like 'Watts'! However, that would not be technically logical — a 1 kW resistor?! Unlikely!

But do remember that the symbol for the Ohm is Ω, the Greek letter capital omega, which is of course = W! Now if someone had carefully entered Ω in Symbol, and then someone else has globally changed the entire document to another font, hey presto! Ω becomes W.

As far as the 'tourelles' are concerned, I don't know ewactly what they mean, except that such things are (were) often built around wafer switches, which when clad with resistors do look rather 'turret-like' — and 'turret switch' is indeed a term used to describe just this sort of switch arangement, as used to be used for clunky old channel-change switches in the days when TVs only had about 11 channels to choose from!

So I think the FR 'tourelle' describes the TYPE of switch used, whereas normal EN usage would describe the FUNCTION of that switch, i.e. as a 'decade' switch.

Tony M
France
Local time: 17:03
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 2116
Grading comment
Sorry for the delay in closing this question! Thanks again for your help.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Terry Richards: a 1kw resistor is an electric heater! Good catch on W = Ω in symbol.
7 hrs
  -> Thanks, Terry! My thought exactly! Oh, y'know — been there, done that, got caught out myself ;-(
agree  Charles Hawtrey (X): ...and these boxes were wooden when I first worked in a standards lab. Are they still?
9 hrs
  -> Thanks, Charles! Me too, though no doubt now they've been 'improved'... oh dear, I'm beginning to sound like an 'old git'!
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The asker has declined this answer
Comment: Sorry for the delay in closing this question! Thanks again for your help.



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