carcel
Sign in to saveThe carcel is a former French unit for measuring the intensity of light. The unit was defined in 1860 as the intensity of a Carcel lamp with standard burner and chimney dimensions, which burnt colza oil (obtained from the seed of the plant Brassica campestris) at a rate of 42 grams of colza oil per hour with a flame 40 millimeters in height.
Wikidata facts
- Country
- France
Show 2 more facts
- conversion to SI unit
- 9.74
- measured physical quantity
- luminous intensity
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1 sectionsContents
- References
The carcel is a former French unit for measuring the intensity of light. The unit was defined in 1860 as the intensity of a Carcel lamp with standard burner and chimney dimensions, which burnt colza oil (obtained from the seed of the plant Brassica campestris) at a rate of 42 grams of colza oil per hour with a flame 40 millimeters in height.
In modern terminology, one carcel equals about 9.74 candelas.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “carcel” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.