To prove its superiority, he measured a horse walking in circles to turn a grindstone in a mill. He multiplied distance it walked by its ~180 pounds of pulling force&came up with a new measure: horsepower
To prove its superiority, he measured a horse walking in circles to turn a grindstone in a mill. He multiplied distance it walked by its ~180 pounds of pulling force&came up with a new measure: horsepower
Apparently he deliberately measured the horses on the generous side, so that customers were pleasantly surprised by a Watt engine of, say, 2hp doing noticeably more work than 2 horses.
ReplyDeleteAt least in the early days he also didn't sell engines, just leased them. They had a counter mounted on the cross beam to register the amount of work they did. Customers weren't charged until they'd already saved more than the cost using horses to do the same job.