How did they decide to use a horse to jugde power, was a baby horse, an old horse, a sick horse, a healthy horse, how come they didn't use an ape instead?

 

because when the first cars came out it.. most carrages were pulled by horses.

an engine that could pull a carrage that would normally take 4 horses would be considered 4 horespower... i believe anyway..

 

they should have had apes pulling the carrages

 

The measure of horsepower was invented by James Watt in the 18th century. Watt was one of the pioneers of steam engine design, and his engines were the first based on a rotary design. Watt then applied for and received a Parliamentary patent that prevented anybody else from making a rotary steam engine. As a marketing ploy (and as justification for his prices, which where exorbitant) Watt compared his engine to the work that a horse could do, which he calculated as the ability to pull 180 lbs. When he made a machine, he described its power in relation to his theoretical horse. When someone bought one of his machines, Watt figured out how much money the new engine would save over the use of an equivelant team of horses for 25 years (feed, stabling, etc.) and then charged a flat 1/3 of this amount for the engine.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with the modern horsepower measurement (33,000 lbft/min), but that is the origin of the term.

 

teamredlines2k....LOL...HAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAH
i'm reading this post at 8:00 in the morning at work and just started cracking up. TOO FUNNY!!! we have 240 apes under our hood...
TonyJ

 

I believe HP was actually "under-rated" as well, so when they said it had "4hp", it was really equilivant to 5-6 "real" horses...

 

Girls say guys who drive horses are gay, maybe Amish.

 

They should have a conversion rate from like Horsepower to other animals, there is probably a mathematical solution to it too, hmm 1 Horsepower = 1000 micepower....

 

they shouldnt have used horse, because 1 horse might be able to pull more then another. What if the horse was on steroids, then he really counts as 4, and what if 1 horse was real lazy, then hes like 1/2, they should have used something mechanical to messure