Instead of a "babe-magnet" like Twoey, I've become a "question-magnet."
At a recent celebration function an old friend said, "Jim, where does the term 'horsepower' come from?"
Although I had three semesters of engineering physics in college that was a few decades ago and the complete answer didn't fly out of the disc storage that masquerades as my mind. Therefore, I turned to my reference library. It rarely disappoints me.
We can hold Scottish inventor James Watt responsible for the term.
James (no relation) performed a number of experiments on horses pulling coal drays. He determined that the average horse was able to pull 22,000 foot-pounds every one minute. He then defined a horsepower as the amount of power exerted to move 22,000 pounds of coal one foot in one minute.
But, oops, he decided this number was too low, that the average horse was more powerful than his calculations so he increased it by 50 percent to 33,000 foot-pounds per minute.
The whole situation arose because the steam engine that Watt developed had no way to express its power.
He was happy with his work, but shortly thereafter in 1806 some other mechanical engineers criticized his work stating "Measurement of engines by horsepower is wrong because a typical horse can barely raise 20,000 pounds one foot in one minute." They claimed that using heavy dray horses for such an experiment was not representative.
"Shockingly unscientific" was the expression for his definition.
The debate raged for most of the 19th century, yet future electric and gasoline engines continued to be rated by Jim W's definition.
We live with it today as the U.S. standard method of measuring horsepower is called "brake horsepower," the power generated by an engine at maximum performance less the power lost from friction, heat, and the expansion of the engine.
Even then, the normal human can generate only one-third of a horsepower for a few minutes and a tenth of a horsepower over a longer period of time.
It all goes to prove that even if you're wrong, if you repeat something for long enough people will accept it.
- In what may be a related item, in a normal lifetime the average among us will have his or her car towed eight times.
- As inventions go, it won't edge out many of the big ones but we can recognize Humphrey O'Sullivan for his contribution. Humphrey O patented the first rubber heel for shoes in January 1899. His creations lasted longer than the leather heels in use at the time.
- And they don't typically eat at fast food restaurants. The collective weight of the planet's insect population is about 12 times that of the human population.
- Eugene Burtin has it all figured out, "Mother Nature is wonderful. She gives us 12 years to develop a love for our children before turning them into teenagers."
- I believe they'd find it more difficult than they think. Four of every five Americans believe they could write a book. Twenty-eight percent would create a "do-it-yourself" or a self-help book, while 27 percent would write fiction.
- "This hamburger tastes strange," said Tom hoarsely.
Jim Willard, a Loveland resident since 1967, retired from Hewlett-Packard after 33 years to focus on less trivial things. He calls Twoey, his bichon frisé-Maltese dog, vice president of research for his column.