current, currant, curraunt

& s. [O. Fr. curant; Fr. courant, pr. par. of O. Fr. curre to run; Fr. courir; Lat. currens, pr. par. of curro.] A. As adjective: IMG:content-1603.png:[blocks in formation] "-Sir W. Temple: To Arlington (Sept. 1688). *(4) Flowing, moving easily. "What shall I name these current traverses, That on a triple dactyl foot do run?" Davies: Orchestra, lxix. IMG:content-1604.png:[blocks in formation] *(4) A movement, direction, or carrying to a place. drew on a resurprise of the castle, a recovery of the town, and a current of the war even into the walls of Sparta."- Bacon. II. Technically : 1. Hydrol ., Physical Geog., .: (1) River currents: Rivers have currents varying in strength, chiefly according to the inclination of the bed down which they flow. (2) Sea currents : There are currents in the sea vastly broader than any existing even in the largest rivers, while the length is indefinite, for each is so connected with all the rest that the whole surface waters of the ocean resemble a very much curved and contorted chain, which, notwithstanding the exce ive irregularity of its figure, so moves as perpetually to return into itself. In the Atlantic the chief currents were long held to be, first, the Gulf-stream, from the Gulf of Mexico in a northeasterly direction, a branch ultimately reaching the Azores and another the British Islands. This current was counterbalanced by a Polar one moving southwestward and carrying escaped icebergs in the direction of America. The Gulf-stream was partly fed by the Equatorial current, running from the coast of Africa to the Caribbean Sea. But Dr. Carpenter has shown that not merely the Gulf-stream, but a great part of the surface of the Atlantic, is moving northward. (GULF-STREAM.] An Antarctic drift current originates a great Equatorial current in the Pacific Ocean, which flows north around the western shores of South America, and then west through the Pacific, filling the entire tropics. Strong land currents sweep from it round East Australia, through the China Seas, and by the coast of Japan. The movement of currents from warmer or colder regions, or vice vers a , modifies the temperature of the several regions through which they pa . Thus the Equatorial current, which cro es from Africa to Brazil and the Caribbean Sea, being 3° or 4° cooler than the ocean at the equator, diminishes the heat of the latter region. The Gulf-stream, on the contrary, brings with it heat, the temperature of the Mexican Sea being 7° above that of the Atlantic in the same latitude. 2. Geol .: The effects of currents in rivers and those in the ocean are the same. They waste away the land, and transport detritus to greater or le distances. They also deposit strata. They transport the seeds of plants from region to region, thus diffusing alge, it is believed, from the Antarctic to the Arctic ocean. 3. Navig .: A flow or stream of a body of water, more or le rapid, by which ve els are compelled to alter or modify their course or velocity, or both, according to the set or drift of the current. sin, as; expect, Xenophon, exist. ph = f. 4. Elect.: The pa age of electricity from one pole of a battery, pile, coil, ., to the other. The investigation of the laws regulating the attraction and re. pulsion of electric currents by other currents of the same kind, or their operation upon magnets, constitutes the science of electrodynamics-that of electricity in motion-as opposed to electrostatics, electricity atrest. The numerous phenomena connected with the former science can be explained by carrying out to their remote consequences the two following simple laws: (1) Two currents which are parallel and in the same direction attract one another; two currents parallel but in contrary directions repel one another. The word current is used also in connection with electrostatics. (See the example.) "In electrostatics, the numerical value of a current (or the strength of a current ) is the quantity of electricity that pa es in unit time." - Everett: The C. G. S. System of Units (ed. 1875), ch. xi., p. 65. 5. Build .: The fall or slope of a platform or sheet metal roof, to carry off the water. Gutters usually have a current of a quarter-inch to the foot. The technical language in which the flow of water and its channels are known and described is as follows: The bed is the water-course, having a bottom and two sides or shores. When the latter are described as right or left hand, going down stream is a umed. The transverse section is a vertical plane at right angles to the course of the current. The perimeter is the length of this section in the bed. The longitudinal section or profile is a vertical plane parallel to the course of the flowing water. The slope or declivity is the mean angle of inclination of the surface of the water to the horizon. The fall is the difference in the height at any two points of determinate distance apart, as, for instance, eight inches to the mile. The line of current is the direction of maximum velocity. The mid-channel is the deepest part of the bed. The velocity is greater at the surface than at the bed. The surface is higher in the current than at the shore when the river is rising, lower than at the shore when the river is falling. The direction is the set of the current; the rate is the drift of the current. ( Knight .)