during the same time. A common source of trouble is the short
circuiting of the shunt coils owing to the shellaced cotton covering
of the wire becoming moist.
A good meter should start with a current which is not more than 2% of its full load current. With a supply pressure of 200 volts a 5 c.p. carbon filament lamp takes only 0·1 ampere; hence unless a meter will begin to register with 110 ampere it will fail to record the current consumed by a single small incandescent lamp. In a large supply system such failure would mean a serious loss of revenue. The resistance of the meter coils causes a fall in voltage down the series coil which reduces the supply pressure to the consumer. On the other hand the resistance of the shunt coil absorbs energy which generally varies from 1 to 3 watts and is a loss either to the consumer or to the supply company, according to the manner in which the shunt coil is connected. In those meters which are compounded—that is, have a shunt coil wound on the field magnets to compensate for the friction of the train—it is important to notice whether the meter will operate or continue operating when there is no current in the series coil, since a meter which “runs on the shunt” runs up a debt against the consumer for which it gives no corresponding advantage.
Generally speaking, the price of the meter is a subordinate consideration. Since the revenue-earning power of a supply station depends entirely upon its meters, inaccuracy in meter record is a serious matter. The cost of measuring current by the aid of a meter is made up of three parts: (1) the prime cost of the meter, which varies from £2 to £6 for an ordinary 25-light house electric meter; (2) the capital value of the energy absorbed in it, which if the cost of the energy is taken at 2d. per Board-of-Trade unit, with interest and depreciation at 6%, may amount to £10 per customer; and (3) the annual working costs for repairs and also the wages of the staff of meter men, who take the required monthly or quarterly readings. In the case of small and irregular consumers, such as the inhabitants of model dwellings and flats inhabited chiefly by working-class tenants, coin-in-the-slot meters are much employed. The customer cannot obtain current for electric lighting until he has placed in a slit a certain coin–say, a shilling—entitling him to a certain number of Board-of-Trade units—say, to 2 or 4, as the case may be. In the Long-Schattner electrolytic meter, the insertion of the coin depresses a copper plate or plates into an electrolytic cell containing a solution of sulphate of copper; the passage of the current dissolves the copper off one of the plates, the loss in weight being determined by the quantity of the electricity passed. As soon as the plate has lost a certain amount of weight corresponding to the value of the electric energy represented by the coin, the plate rises out of the liquid and cuts off the current.
Authorities. H. G. Solomon, Electricity Meters (London, 1906); C. H. W. Gerhardi, Electricity Meters: their Construction and Management (London, 1906); L. C. Reed, American Meter Practice (New York, 1904); J. A. Fleming, A Handbook for the Electrical Laboratory and Testing Room (London, 1904); T. P. Wilmshurst, “Electricity Meters,” Electrician (1897), 39, 409; G. W. D. Ricks, “On the Variation of the Constants of electricity Supply Meters, with Temperature and Current,” Electrician (1897), 39, 573. (J. A. F.)
METHODISM a term[1] denoting the religious organizations
which trace their origin to the evangelistic teaching of John
Wesley. The name “Methodist” was given in derision to those
Oxford students who in company with the Wesleys used to meet
together for spiritual fellowship; and later on when John Wesley
had organized his followers into “societies” the name was
applied to them in the same spirit. It was however accepted by
him, and in official documents he usually styles them “the
people called Methodists.” The fact that standards of Methodist
doctrine are laid down as consisting of “Mr Wesley’s Notes on
the New Testament and the 1st Series of his Sermons” (fifty-three
in number), might seem to indicate a departure from
existing systems, but it was not so. He fully accepted the
recognized teaching of the Church of England, and publicly
appealed to the Prayer Book and the Thirty-nine Articles
in justification of the doctrines he preached. Methodism
began in a revival of personal religion, and it professed
to have but one aim, viz. “to spread Scriptural holiness
over the land.” Its doctrines were in no sense new. It was
the zeal with which they were taught, the clear distinction
which they drew between the profession of godliness and the
enjoyment of its power—added to the emphasis they laid upon
the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit on the consciousness
of the Christian—which attracted attention, gave them distinction,
and even aroused ridicule and opposition. Wesley and
his helpers, finding the Anglican churches closed against them,
took to preaching in the open air; and this method is still
followed, more or less, in the aggressive evangelistic work of all the
Methodist Churches. As followers rapidly increased they were
compelled to hold their own Sunday services, and this naturally
led them to appoint as preachers godly laymen possessing the
gift of exhortation. These followed their ordinary avocations
on week-days, but on Sundays preached to congregations in their
own immediate neighbourhood, and hence were called local
preachers as distinguished from travelling preachers. The extent
to which the employment of the local preacher is characteristic
of Methodism may be seen from the fact that in the United
Kingdom while there are only about 5000 Methodist ministers,
there are more than 18,000 congregations; some 13,000 congregations,
chiefly in the villages, are dependent on local
preachers.
In the organization adopted to foster spiritual life the very characteristic “Class-meetings for Christian fellowship” take a prominent place. Membership in the church depends solely upon being enrolled as a member of one of these meetings for Christian fellowship, and thus placing oneself under pastoral oversight.
The Wesleyan Methodists now represent the original body as founded by John Wesley in Great Britain and Ireland; but in America those who looked upon him as their founder adopted the episcopal mode of Church government after the War of Independence, and have since that time been known as Episcopal Methodists (see below). It should be noted that the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists are only slightly connected with the original body. They were indirectly the outcome of the evangelistic efforts of Howell Harris and Rowlands. Their work received the sympathy of Wesley and liberal financial help from the Countess of Huntingdon (see Calvinistic Methodists). For a time Whitefield was leader, and we find a reference to the “Whitefieldian and Wesleyan Methodists” in the Supplement to the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1747, p. 619. The theological views of these teachers proved quite incompatible with the Arminianism of Wesley, and a definite breach between them and him took place in 1770. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists are now a branch of the Presbyterian Church. Other divisions have been formed at various times by secessions from the Wesleyan Methodists (see separate articles). They are: Methodist New Connexion (founded 1797–1798); Bible Christians (1815); United Methodist Free Churches[2] (about 1836); Primitive Methodists (founded 1807–1810); Independent Methodist Churches (about 1806); Wesleyan Reform Union (1850, reorganized 1859). These bodies have separated solely on matters of Church government and not on points of doctrine. The Primitive Methodists in Ireland were a small body who in 1817 seceded because they wished to maintain that close connexion with the Church of England which existed at the time of Wesley’s death, but in 1878 they rejoined the parent body. Methodism has always been aggressive, and her children on emigrating have taken with them their evangelistic methods. (For the American branches see below.)
The statistics given in the following table (not including Junior Society Classes) are from the Minutes of the Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church for 1909. At the death of Wesley the figures were: 313 preachers, 119 circuits and mission stations and 76,968 members. In the United States: 97 circuits, 198 preachers and 43,265 members.
In 1837 the membership in Great Britain and Ireland was 318,716; in foreign mission stations, 66,007; in Upper Canada, 14,000; while the American Conferences had charge of 650,678 members. Total for the world: 1,049,401, with 4478 ministers.
Three Oecumenical Conferences have been held—two at City Road, London, in 1881 and 1901, and one at Washington in 1891. The statistics presented at the last showed that the Church during the preceding decade had gained about a million members and three million adherents. At the same time there has been a steadily
- ↑ “Methodism” is derived from “method” (Gr. μέθοδος), a rule. A “Methodist” is one who follows a “method,” the term being applied not only to the Wesleyan body, but earlier to the Amvraldists, and in the 17th century to certain Roman Catholic apologists.
- ↑ These first three were joined in 1907 under the name of the United Methodist Church.
