Horsepower: James Watt and the Transition from Horse to Steam
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- čas přidán 14. 01. 2021
- How much power is there in a horsepower, where does the term come from, and how did it become the most common way of talking about the power of a car engine? In fact the history of horsepower begins in the 18th century, and with a man whose name has become synonymous with a measurement of power - James Watt. It is history that deserves to be remembered.
This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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Script by JCG
#history #thehistoryguy #Horsepower
At the Ontario Science Centre, there is a stationary bicycle that measures the "horse power" of the rider. I was able to generated one half of an HP. Which half of the horse I am, is debatable.
Slap my donkey and call me Sally.
Ha ha
Your wife will know. :)
In the mid-70's they had those bikes power a car stereo.
Pedalling your nuts off got you a few seconds of music.
@@lakrids-pibe Blackadder?!
How about an episode on Rudolph Diesel? The industrial revolution was a great time in human history that deserves to be remembered.
Especially if adding in the other chaps whom had a concomitant role in developing what we'd now call the Diesel Engine.
(a bit like many other innovations; Von Diesel wasn't the only person working on one)
Then you might enjoy the guy who plays Hagrid in Harry Potter giving you the history of Rudolph Diesel and his engine in this video: czcams.com/video/pzFiRsJQvqc/video.html
I love the smell of gas and diesel. Fire is pretty
Wondering who has more HP Rudolph or Donner.
As long as THG includes the interesting mysterious circumstances around his death....
He was despairing that he would stay in the minor leagues and suddenly he was in the big leagues, reaping the rewards of many years of hard work. I love stories like this!
It's interesting that a history video on CZcams gave a more complete explanation of how many horsepower a horse can produce than any other source I've seen.
You were in the military, weren't you?
Funny, I was watching the "Mission Impossible" franchise this past weekend and noted some of the helicopters they used. And of course, some were the UH1 Iroquois.
@@cedricgist7614 I've never been in the military. I was just wanted to fun of someone a couple years ago who identified as an attack helicopter.
@@hueyiroquois3839 - Well, you got me!
Richard Trevithick (born April 13, 1771, Illogan, Cornwall, England-died April 22, 1833, Dartford, Kent) was a British mechanical engineer and inventor who successfully harnessed high-pressure steam and constructed the world's first steam railway locomotive (1803).
Acoustic guitar - Spain
Hair dryer, photography, balon d'or - france
Periodic table - Russia
Lazer, gps, keyboard, CZcams, vogue magazine, synthesizer, bra, electric guitar 🇺🇸, USA
Video games, watch, car - Germany
Fountain pen, helicopter, Rubik's cube 🇭🇺 Hungary
Direct descendant of James Watt here. Thank you for this presentation. He was an amazing man whose contributions to all humanity are often overlooked today.
I'm also a descendant of James Watt (or so my parents say), I grew up in the midwest
I know it's a little niche, but I'd love to see a couple videos on the history of machine tools. The history of lathes, milling machines, and early precision machining tools like gauge blocks and micrometers are absolutely fascinating to me. The industrial revolution was dependent on these developments, and I feel like it is history that deserves to be remembered.
I agree with you. I also know that you've done your own research from time to time on different media, and you could likely do a video or a talk on the subject yourself.
Yet, like me, you'd appreciate seeing how The History Guy tackles the topic and how he can make it "worth remembering." Good comment!
@@cedricgist7614 I've done the research and the information has been lost in time. Maudslay gets the credit but he was not the first. He's only the first we know of. Supposedly the first may have been a French man? But who exactly that was no one knows today. It is literally history no one remembers.
Yes. I've long questioned who and where our lathes come from
@@BuzzinVideography The principle is an ancient one, probably dating back to Middle Eastern or Far Eastern times. The development of viable axles for the better functioning of wheels, or of wheel based machines, or of making the wheels themselves, would have generated a need for some sort of rotation acting against cutting and grinding implements
Check out a channel called "Machine Thinking"
As an engineer, I am aware of this history. However, many people are not. Thanks.
Appreciate your taking time to comment. I was in a Mechanical Engineering program that got the best of me after two years. Still, I took away the definition we were taught my first week: "Engineers are problem-solvers."
I have had a respect for those who completed their courses in their disciplines ever since. The thing I haven't appreciated is those engineers who don't relate to the guy in the field, designing tools, machinery, processes, systems, etc. that tax human workers as if they are machines.
I guess I'm a little bitter because of my youngest brother's experience on two jobs in the auto industry. I apologize. I know management has a lot to do with a worker's experience.
Still, I appreciate your comment. The History Guy does a good job.
My father was an engineer- Watt, and the measurements of horsepower- especially the claimed measurement in automobile horsepower vs actual power delivered at the end of the crankshaft were some of his favorite subjects which he entertained me with as I learned to rebuild engines as a 10 year old kid and onward
I never get tired hearing the stories of these great men. There is a nice antique steam engine in the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit - highly recommended.
Funny, the first steam engines were used in breweries. Priorities.
They also had the demand to meet.
I wrote a paper in college about how beer production affected many industries such as refrigeration and transportation.
🍻
I remember reading a long time ago that some of the first boilers used in steam engines were copper vats used in the brewing industry.
The first steam engines were used to pump water out of mines. The coal was mostly used for heating fuel, Britain long having logged their old growth forests.
You are the history guy that deserves to be remembered!
Still the only CZcams channel that rates a thumbs up before it even starts. Phenomenal presentation, sir!
My favourite channel too, every episode is top notch and I find myself engaged even in topics I’d never dream of searching for. A delight to watch :-)
You need more Mark Felton
True.. I've never watched a video from the history guy that didn't deserve a thumbs up
Well done indeed...
@@giebby369 Mark Felton is also top notch.
The powerhouse museum is around the corner, walked past that steam engine that many times without knowing what it was. Ill have to go back, as a mechanic that is pretty cool.
A mexhsjicnw mechanic 2ho doesn't know what a steam engine is? That's a hit and a miss.
Ehehehe I'm a brain mechanic and I call your bs. Show us your steamy engine around the corner.
@@derrekvanee4567 hahah sorry mate but the one he was referring to is here in Sydney no need to be so but hurt jeez
Admire the engine and James Watt then have a BEER, and if people ask what you are doing, say it is a "homage" and have another one ....
That's very cool.
@@mbbb9244 I went to Nasas kennedy centre for a school trip and saw the one there too which was awesome
Your explanation of the terms "horsepower" and "watt" reminded me of my HS physics teacher's favorite joke: "What were the names of the elves who invented electricity?...Amp, Ohm and Erg!".
Ohm never forgot his dying uncle's advice: With great power comes great current squared times resistance.
@@vbscript2
🎶Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 🎶
🎶Power equals i squared r!🎶
Mrs. Watt: "You need to quit horsing around and get a job".
Mr. Watt: "Quit bugging me, I'm really getting steamed"
Ba dum tssssssssss
😄
Everyone has their neighsayers
Shouldn't it have been quit nagging me?
Oh, Nyuk!
I remember an episode of "Connections" where James Burk said his major improvement to the steam engine was made when he was hired to repair a huge lift pump engine. It had broken the massive rocker arm. Watt noticed that the beam was not rotten, but perfectly sound, but somehow the engine had produced so much power that it snapped an 18" square beam like a toothpick. This engine had a huge cylinder (over 6 feet in diameter) that was surrounded with a cold water bath. The steam would be let in allowing the piston to rise, then shut off at the top of the stroke. The cooled walls of the cylinder would condense the steam causing a vacuum that pulled the piston down. The engine had a very slow cycle on the order of 2 minutes per stroke. What had happened was that the outer wall of the cylinder had worn thin over the years and a small hole was opened, when the piston rose and exposed the hole, a small amount of cold water entered the 100% steam atmosphere. This caused the steam to almost instantly flash condense creating an enormous vacuum compared to normal, the piston yanked down with over 50 times its normal power and broke the beam. If you look a at steam locomotives you can see they are always dripping a lot of water around the pistons. They used a lot of water and had to stop frequently to take on water far more than fuel.
So the vacuum causes even more force, huh? 🤔
@@Matt02341 In this case yes. Remember these were very early, very large steam engines, very low pressure, very long cycle. They were maybe at most 2 PS on the inflate cycle and at most 1/2 psi on the deflate cycle. When the water flash condensed the steam, it created a vacuum on the order of 12 to 13 PSI. Modern steam engines routinely work at 600 to 3000 PSI for pistons to turbines, and they are proportionally smaller.
Also, most modern steam engines have huge condensers. From 300 foot high cooling tower to the entire ocean (or a fast running river) as the heat sink. No days we primarily use the pressure side of the cycle to derive power, but back then they used both sides. With a locomotive running 20 to 30 PSI on the supply and -14 on the sink, it made small high power locomotive possible. Just look at how small the piston assemblies were on steam locomotives. Usually only 4 8" to 10" pistons could drive a normal 10 car train. When we needed more power there were monsters like 16 to 32 cylinder shays that could deliver well over 7000 HP.
@@Matt02341 particles cause the force. The excess on one side and the lack thereof on the other side.
Intersting! Thank you!
Q: Watt is a unit of power? A: Yes.
Q: Who's on first?
A: Do I really have to?
Power (watts)= amperage X volts = watts
@@petersack5074 What's on second.
@@petersack5074 actually a watt is defined as
1 joule consumed per second
A fellow Scot 🙂. Amazing for a small nation . Gave the World some great inventions. Long live Bonnie Scotland 🙂.
🤘🏻😎🏴
@@larrywalling2844 🙂👍🍀😀🍻.
The Scots have always been notable engineer's. See Scotty on Star Trek.
Also gave the world one of the best philosophers ever, Hume.
also Rootes blower.
(a type of air compressor)
Oh, but, the true power of a horse is over their owner’s heart.
In my family, we refer to that as "the illness." We've lost a couple to the illness over the years. They become unemployed and effectively homeless, but they have their horsie, so they're happy.
I would say the same for engines.
😀
Never fall in love with your tools doing so always results in massive financial loss. Yes a horse is a tool.
@@thomaslemay8817 I found quite a few people to be "tools", too. :D
@@sharonmullins1957 But there are far more people who are Useful Idiots.
Every time I watch your videos, I wonder why a network hasn't offered you a Saturday or Sunday morning 30 minute program. I'm amazed just how good everything is about your videos, from the information, to the pictures/videos, to the sound of your voice. You need a marketing team!!
Interesting video for my husband. Suggested topics - history of knitting, crocheting, and weaving. Something we take for granted because it is everywhere but where + when did they start? Thanks.
Weaving is especially interesting because you can directly trace computer science to weaving on automatic looms.
Actually, I second that. Textiles are nearly disposable nowadays. (To our own shame.) There fact that we start with sheep hair or flax stalks, and turn them into cordage, and then into fabric (knitted or woven,) and then further into clothing, is quite astonishing, when you think of it.
For example (at the newer end of this development line,) consider the geometry of pants.
Weaving is actually what started the Industrial Revolution. Just ask any Luddite.
The Science Museum in London has James Watt's workshop in one of their display halls. As you'd expect for an inventor, it crammed full of 'stuff'.
That's what I tell my wife when she looks in the garage "crammed full of stuff". "Honey, I'm inventing" Wife: "Yeah a junk pile"
When it was being collected the contractor said "Do you want the dust?" "Of course" was the response. Among the contents was a stamp that suggested that Watt could produce "copies" of valuable Italian flutes!
As Edison said: "What you need to invent stuff is an idea and a pile of junk."
James: "Hey look I invented a better steam engine!"
Friends: "You invented WATT?"
Thays very torqey
Get out! GET OUT!
And take this up vote with you.
"No, it was earliest ancestor that "invented" Watt. They were handing out names and he was next in line. When he was asked what he wanted, he replied 'Jes'. They came back with 'what'? And he said 'Jes' again. They thought he said 'yes' to that and so he was handed the name 'What' which he changed to 'Watt'."
@@tenhirankei But who's on first?
🤣🤣🤣
At 75 years of age, you provide me such wonderful perspective of my, and my distant family's life. Much obliged, Dear man. 🤠
This was a great.... All the early "beam" steam engines were big and usually built in place. They were low pressure steam engines, about 3 or 4 psi. Not until high pressure steam engines were they able to be put in motion as in a road or rail locomotive. High pressure steam, around 1800, is much more efficient use of fuel than low pressure, a safer boiler was the key and the invention of the double-acting cylinder. I love history. Long live the "ROCKET"
the atmospheric steam engine of Newcomben was far less efficient as Watts improved steam engine. The irony is that Watt's patent and control also stifled the technology because he wasn't interested in high pressure steam engines developed by Trevithick as he thought they were too dangerous. The high pressure engines were able to really proceed after Watt's death.
I think Watt's engines may have worked around 21 psi. I think the later steam engines which worked on about 50 Psi
Watt guarded his patents closely as you said and. on discovering that a patent on the crank already existed, created the Sun & Planet drive to get round someone else's patent.
Daniel, I see what you did there....
Yep, the sun and planet drive is less efficient, more difficult to manufacture, and requires more maintenance. It does however run the flywheel at a higher RPM than 1 revolution per stroke of the piston.
As soon as the patient on the crank ran out everyone building engines switched to it.
Great work as always, sir. Consider the history of the Rock Island Arsenal in Rock Island Illinois. Active since the civil war.
I don't even need to get through the beginning ads and I already hit like. This man doesn't have a video out that doesn't deserve at least two thumbs up a person
I live a few blocks from the Power House Museum and never knew the oldest rotating steam engine was there.
Amazing what you can learn on CZcams 😁
Horsepower is directly converted to watts. European motorcycles are rated in watts output partly because there are at least three different horsepower ratings that yield different numbers.
Dr fact sheet strikes again. He brings graphs he brings super trivia skills he is Mr fact sheet with. His side kick Zoogle
Good point! The most commonly used definitions of a horsepower are metric (1hp ≈ 735.5W) and mechanical (aka imperial: 1hp = 33,000/min as mentioned in the video or about 745.7W) but then there are also electrical horsepower, boiler horsepower, in short, a general zoo of definitions[1] 🙂, as it turns out. What you wrote about European motorcycles is true, by the way, for all vehicles and other powered devices sold in the EU, e.g. also pumps, drills, chainsaws etc. (Metric) horsepowers are only allowed as a supplementary unit in sales and advertising and probably also other commercial contexts.
[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower#Definitions
Watt sense does that make?
We can always count on The History Guy to tell us what's Watt.
Thanks for this excellent episode. Having spent most of my working career in electronics and measurement science, I am very familiar with the watt as a unit of energy, and it's relation to horsepower. Yet I had not heard before that the invention of the term "horsepower" was a marketing strategy by James Watt. I learned something new to me, which makes the day a success! Thank you.
THG: Another terrific episode. The quality of writing and video presentation in your programs show the true, underlying value, and the potential for education, of You Tube. Also, you stimulate some of the pithiest and most insightful comments seen anywhere on YT. Nice work by any measure. Oh, and cool bow tie.
James Burke: Connections
To the brig for you salty one. Two step it scally wager!
@@derrekvanee4567 Nay! I will not go.
yes, yes, Connections was awesome, a must see
luved it
*arc lamp ignites*
There's an old saying in the car business: Horsepower sells engines, Torque wins races
Been that way since the beginning.
Well horsepower is really just the rate at which torque is developed, so how much torque over time... if you're in a speed contest, time matters right?
Is there somebody named Torque too?
@@utubecustomer0099805 Actually, yes. Jacques du Merd Torque was a French priest who went to Quebec as a missionary. His evangelical skills were lacking, but he found regional acclaim as an itinerant storyteller.
Along du Merd Torque's normal circuit, one particular farmer let him sleep in a barn, where the farmer kept a primitive steam engine that he tinkered with, hoping to devise a way to card his sheeps' wool. The farmer's wife was loving, but very religious, and she permitted no gambling on their farm. She was so severe, that she tolerated carding & dyes only in the most distant outbuilding.
After a few visits, du Merd Torque started tinkering alongside the farmer. At one point, one of the men's jackets (accounts differ) got caught in the machinery & pulled to shreds. While extricating the shreds, they realized the machine had somehow knitted the pieces together. They replicated the accident & refined the machine. Before long, the two were able to create small batches of knitted wool with it.
Long story short, the farmer & wife created large batches of knit hats, which du Merd Torque sold for great profit as he toured his circuit.
His tombstone reads: _Here lies a man of the cloth, a spinner of yarns. Through all angles, Torque is a tour de force._
© 2021
That saying, if real, is simply false. The engine's power gets to the wheels via a gearbox. The ratio in the gearbox can give you any torque you care to design for.
Engineers - kindly remain civil with the non-technologists.
Anyone wanting a lite technical primer on _T vs P_ may get one from czcams.com/video/u-MH4sf5xkY/video.html.
The History Guy proves, once again, his sublime grasp of history
Thank you for choosing James Watt. He is a distant relative of mine and it’s not often that he is recognized as a father of the industrial revolution.
As an inventor myself I can relate to his opinion about nothing in life more foolish than inventing.
@David Single It can be done easily enough today. The main problem with it, though, is that, for whatever job it's intended to help the human do, it's usually significantly more efficient to build it to just do that job without the human inside.
Right. Inventing is a very speculaive venture. Heard of a guy who invented sponge rubber heels for flaminco dancers to save their kidneys...didn't sell.....
But you can't help it! Inventors are engineers, and engineers are problem-solvers, and that's what you were made to do.
You can supplement your lifestyle by doing other things, but your life's passion is solving-problems to benefit others.
Hats off to you!
Small correction: watts are the unit of electrical power input to a light bulb, not the output, which is light in in lumens.
Since energy is neither created nor destroyed the the energy put into the light bulb is the same as the energy output. In incandescent bulbs, those lumens are a small proportion of the total energy output with heat being the majority.
But, yes, if you’re talking light output, it makes more sense to use lumens, since there is no direct correlation between electrical energy input and light output.
@@q.e.d.9112
He said "light"
Your quibble did really apply.
I have known for many years, that a 'horsepower' was a derived measurement and that it was James Watt who quantified it. What I didn't realise was; A) his given value - 33000ft/lbs/min - was actually 10% more than the value he actually calculated from horses and B) the type of horse. I sort of 'assumed' (yes, I know the admonition) that Watt would have selected a 'representative horse i.e; not a Shire horse, because they were almost preternaturally powerful, nor a 'pony' because they were rather too light. I imagined horses that pulled canal boats or - my favourite for his choice - the horses which pilled 'Hackney Carriages'. Utilitarian, powerful enough and reliable, a true 'midrange horse'.
Thank you also, for pointing out Watt's engine from the Whitbread Brewery in Chiswell Street. I used to work as a Field Engineer on NCR Accounting Machines in the City of London and the surrounding areas. Although the brewery has now gone, at the time (early to mid seventies,) Whitbread kept their Horses there (I think in Chiswell Street) and routinely delivered beer to the City Pubs by dray, I am very grateful that someone, from far, far away at the time, understood the historical value of this engine and worked very hard to preserve it.
Yet another great vlog THG, thank you.
In the town where I live we have a museum (Eskilstuna Stadsmuseum) with a fair number of full size steam engines. I don't know about now (I worked there for a short time as a youth - at that time they ran the machines every Sunday), but I think they run them at least a couple of times a year. Mondays the museum was closed and that was steam-engine/boiler cleaning/maintenance day (draining water/oil from cylinders, check lubrication, sweep the heat tubes of the boiler, etc). Quite nice to have done that, not many have in these days I guess. Every other day was some time spent chopping wood for the boiler - not that fun, especially if the wood was struts from demolished buildings. What I wanted to say is that it quite awesome to see these machines running, the installation there kept all exhausts outside so these sometimes a couple of 100 HP machines runs almost dead silent. But you can feel the power in the floor and air. Pretty awesome.
Watt is one of my heroes, along with Charles Parsons and John Harrison the clock maker
I go with Harrison, Trevithick and Brunel.
Mine are Harrison and Tesla
Is Parsons the steam turbine guy? My heroes are James Watt and William Shockley, the steam engine and the transistor are probably the most important inventions in human history.
@@gregorymalchuk272 Yes the turbine guy. Shockley is another hero of mine of course. Wright brothers are another example.
@@gregorymalchuk272 Agreed - but Brattain and Bardeen were also critically important to the invention of the transistor. The three co-inventors of the transistor all brought their unique skill sets to the table and the result changed human history in a big way. At this point the transistor is the most numerous human created artifact on this planet by a wide margin.
If you want to know Watt happened in the past, THG is your man.
He makes so much more sense then measuring horses
You got that right.
Weak
I see watt you did there
I live in Birmingham UK, and have visited the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and seen the Whitbread engine. The Powerhouse is well worth a visit (and so is Sydney!)
I enjoy these videos, but this one misses out one important, I think, fact. And that is that Birmingham was the home of Boulton & Watt, which wasn't mentioned, although Boulton was. Watt was a member of the Birmingham Lunatic Society, whose members were many leading scientific lights of the era - Priestley, Wedgwood, etc etc. And Watt is buried in Handsworth, Birmingham, so this great city featured greatly in his life. And before anyone says anything, I was born and brought up in the South of England!
“Your father is the inventor of the steam engine, Harry”
“I’m a Watt?”
A unit correction- a couple of times when describing how the horse power came about- you said it was the "energy" to move 33,000 lb-ft in one min. That's actually a unit of power- the energy part is the 33,000 lb-ft. Once you divide that by time, it becomes power. I know it can be hard, as it's easy to mix up the units- in this case, units and what they are called matter quite a bit.
And while we do use HP in the US, the Watt (and kW) is a far superior dimension to use. Especially when converting from one kind of power to another- such as electrical to mechanical. Or chemical to mechanical.
Yes, but we love confounding the world with Freedom Units :)
@@jamesengland7461 I'm sure few here remember that congress passed the Metric Conversion Act in 1975. Didn't go over well. History that deserves to be remember that we forgot.
@@alfamaize True, the act didn't have much effect in public daily life, but it is still in force (if widely ignored.) Thus we now have the distinction of being the _only_ nation on the planet (along with Liberia) that does not teach or use the Metric system in common daily life. However it is widespread to the point of being extremely common in the sciences and engineering, and therefore in the products of those fields.
I remember the conversion to metric that started in the late'70's. If they hadn't stopped the process in the early '80's we'd be fully converted and everyone except really old people would be comfortable with it. As a side note, the Philippines is all metric except when you ask someone how tall they are. Then they will tell you "I'm 5-3" or however tall they are.
@@alfamaize I remember that. We went metric for a week. Everything was OK until everyone went to fill their gas tanks at the end of the week. Then it was not OK. Because the oil companies put the US on the international price. Gas went from $1 a gallon to $1 a liter. Which is a 3.8 X increase! Then discussion focused on where we were going to start shooting politicians. And just like that metric went away.
Not the output of a lightbulb, it is the consumption of a lightbulb.
Output would be measured in lumens or candela.
You could do another of these industrial revolution pieces on the history of lighting.
From braziers, oil lamps, candles, gas lamps, incandescent, fluorescent and LED lighting.
High _lighting_ the reduction of soot in the home and the move away from whaling as electric lighting became more common.
English mother commenter. Do you speak it. I'm double dog dare you to try thst comment again!
@@derrekvanee4567 I'm not sure what you're asking.
Try _what_ again?
I speak American.
if read the packaging on early light bulbs in the uk they range from 40 to 100 watt
@@williamclegg9105 Much the same for incandescent bulbs here in the U.S.
But that denotes how much electricity they consume, not how much light they emit.
@@jimurrata6785 American isn't a language.
Well, the tale lacks pirates but it has horses and beer so, as always, thumbs up! ;)
The steam engine and the transistor (and the integrated circuits and computers it makes possible) are probably the most important inventions in human history.
I read an article a few years ago that one of the best inventions from the 90s was the ink jet printer.
The control systems are considered the forerunner of the 3D printers.
One day a 3D printer will be like the microwave.
A simple appliance.
Need something print it.
The plastics and processes will only get better, easier and more affordable.
Student: Teacher, I have a question about energy.
Teacher: Watt is it?
“Which horse?” LOL
"So, are you going to buy the horse or not?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure… how many horsepowers does it have?"
😉
Always buy a pregnant horse- that way you get 2 horsepower for the price of 1.
Terrible discrimination. Horse Power is species-ist
Having eaten horsemeat as a kid during the 1970s spike in beef prices (fillet' a' la' Secretariat, we called it, though filly might have been more accurate), I now reckon that those animals prefer their flesh to remain " on the hoof"!
Good video as always.
I had to click on this because late in my career, I find myself working with machinery to some extent.
Our plant has among its equipment two similar fiber processing machines - one motor rated at 7.5 hp and the other at 10 hp.
Our semi-retired maintenance supervisor once remarked, "I'm careful around anything that moves faster than I do."
I modified his statement from my experiences: "I'm careful around anything stronger than I am." That probably spurred me to investigate the concept of horsepower.
As the video relates, James Watt was brilliant in defining his machine output in terms of "horsepower," which he defined mathematically/ scientifically. What surprised me is that what might be a crude measure from today's standard was quite accurate and stands up to this day.
In the video, I was surprised to learn a horse can generate up to 14hp at peak exertion, but average, sustained exertion is about 1hp. I had also learned that a man at peak exertion can generate about 1hp or so.
Made me think about Louis Cyr, the legendary Canadian strongman, who could keep his hands clasped while two teams of horses - 4 (?)on either side - attempted to pull them apart.
Bottom line: I'm careful around anything stronger than I am. Good video.
I always wondered who Coined the Term: Horsepower! Now I know!
Watt is probably the only person in history who conservatively rated the horsepower of his engines.
That isn’t quite true. In its early years NASCAR required its race cars to post the horsepower on the sides of the cars. “Come on, man,” would you really expect people like Smokey Yunick to really tell how much HP his cars actually had?
Japanese manufacturers are known to do this on their performance cars.
Many steam traction engines when tested on a dynamo will exceed their ratings.
@@chasebarber6154 In the ‘70s when BS scientists began telling us we were running out of oil, American car manufacturers changed their HP ratings. I remember that Pontiac TransAms went from nearly 300 HP @ about 5,000 rpm to 145 HP @ 2,800 rpm. which was true. But they still had about 300 HP when at 5,000 revs.
@@jockellis It wasn't BS. Under the circumstances at the time, it was true. It was market restrictions and other factors causing the "oil shortage". It would take too much space to go into all of the factors. Technological changes in oil production also factored into the current resurgence in supply. Eventually, (100 years? 200 years? a very short time) the supply will be depleted.
What's homophone is a wonderful boon to 'dad' jokes.
Child: "Hey dad, you know what?"
Dad: "Yes kid, he made a steam engine."
Child: "No daaaad!"
Whitbread’s Brewery in Chiswell Street still exists as an event venue.
Fun fact the unit horsepower can be related back to James Watt in the
metric system. Since the unit horsepower is a unit of power it can be expressed
in Kilowatt. 1HP equals 0.7457kW which is commonly used to measure and
calculate in the present.
It has gone full circle and is a real legacy!
According to "How Scots Invented the Modern World," the prominence of Scots in 18th century science and technology can be attributed to free schooling and the leap forward in literacy.
excellent point- and very true
His clients stopped paying him...bet that left him steamed!
HG you never cease to amaze and intruct me. Thank You!!
Excellent, we are getting closer to the history of the Refrigerator
Fun fact the steam engine in Sidney Australia's Powerhouse Museum has been restored to full working order.
Great museum for those interested in such thing. I visited the museum in 2016 when my family travelled from Kansas, US to Sidney, down under, to visit family and tour parts of Australia.
Thank you for that info. I already new about most off that history and the missing pierces have been filled in. I live in Byron Bay Australia just to let you know your reach. Keep up the good work. Love your styles
Love your channel. Have been binge watching.
Great video as always, History Guy!
Entertaining and informative as always.
You sir look like Anthony vordosine i suggdzt you share you nummy drugs and stories.
Watt's invention of the "sun and planet" method of converting reciprocating motion to rotation was simply because the simple crank had been patented by someone else!
I had to check that, but you are right! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_and_planet_gear
Loved this history video, the whitbread engine is the oldest surviving rotative engine, the oldest Watt engine is the “Smethwick” engine 1775 , it can be seen working today at the Birmingham think tank museum , and as you drive into Birmingham along the A38 expressway, you can see the huge Boulton & Watt “Grazebrook” blowing engine built in 1715. We also have a fantastic gilded bronze statue of Boulton, Watt, and Murdoch in the city, Watt’s body is interred near his old home in Handsworth, Birmingham . Thanks for doing the video 👍🏻😎
Another well presented Factual story from the History Guy. I live just a short walk from the sight of an old Whitbread Brewery in Cheltenham England. Part of it has been preserved and incorporated into a new entertainment complex. In fact, remember it operating back in the 1960's and 70's. Looking at the drawings in your presentation. The Whitbread Brewers depicted were instantly recognizable by the exact same architecture of the one near me. Especially the Coupola ( with ornamental Weathercock atop) high above the rest of the works.
There has got to be a way to help and encourage the inventiveness of most if not all people.
It is called something like eddymukayshun. Most people won't do enough of it.
You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think!
@@jerrymiller276 Far easier to indoctrinate children in ideological nonsense than to teach them reading, writing, math, and science.
There isn't.
@@RCAvhstape Don't forget that exactly half of the people are less bright than the average! Most schools are not designed to challenge the brightest students, but to help the slightly slower than average student catch on. The very brightest seek out their own education, often enlisting mentors to assist. Gregg Weber's original post is just wishful thinking. You can't reliably overcome laziness or lack of motivation.
@@jerrymiller276 What you're saying is that IQ is just two numbers? Or, is IQ just two letters? I always forget which one...
I love your little snippets of history but I have to pick you up on what is meant by foot pounds. It is a measure of torque, being twisting force. It is a measure of how much twisting power is needed to lift a pound at 1 foot from the centre of the shaft. In other words, it isn’t the power needed to lift a pound a foot. Sorry to be picky. Otherwise it is another great video.
That is one of several definitions.
The foot-pound is a unit of energy.
The pound-foot is a unit of torque.
@@jeffreytoole2719 you are quite correct and I hang my head in shame for not listening properly. Oops. So, another great episode without an error.
I really enjoy your series. And thank you SO much for simply speaking, without distracting music or sound effects! Rock on, THG!
Another amazing video. I love the way you always seem to change a few of your back round pieces on the shevles. It keeps us on out toes!
So very cool, I never knew this. Well momma never lies You need to learn something every day to have a great day.
Thanks for proving her right.
Your momma never lies. She never paid for 1st grade learnings for ya. And it's true. Thank you for showing her truths as correct
Let’s drink a beer to Mr. Watt’s. Now we just need to figure how to get the pollution out of the air from the coal powered heating systems that powered their boilers! It’s not a perfect world but it’s the only one we have. Love it!!
Still largely coal powered to heat your phone and tea kettle and Nissan leaf. Trump makes coal first! Da man of da hour fuels America. Coming again to save the horse drawn world yeah. So suck up my ground water and get your horse outta the way yeah.
@@derrekvanee4567 _ actually the natural gas fired generators or one of the biggest manufactures of electricity and if they use good scrubbers they aren’t that bad for now. But with the removal of these scrubbers that the Trump administration authorized because they cause a loss of efficacy they pollute more now than ever. Reinstall the scrubbers because people want to breathe and low the carbon footprint.
@@MrWATCHthisWAY are you sure about that? I spoke with an electrician who works at the Trenton generating station and they use the scrubbers and precipitaters.
@@waynejedynak9443 - state law may require them but several hundred power stations have removed them everyone in Texas. The number maybe in the thousands.
Replacing the coal fired boilers with nuclear reactors to produce steam does the trick.
I don't comment often but here it comes. History Guy,,, I have NEVER stopped one of your videos before the end and that is because of one simple fact. You have never posted a video that wasn't stuffed full of interesting and (too) little known information. You keep posting them brother and I'll keep watching them. Well Done sir! And Thank you...
This is fascinating. Thanks for covering this @The History Guy
My truck has 550 horsepower. I'm just always grateful I don't have to raise the hood every day and feed it oats 😏😉
Just put gas in it once a week. 🤔Of course I don't know how to farm gasoline.
@@robertthompson3447 You can always switch to forestry and get a wood gas generator for your car. 😁
@@TruthNerds West Virginia and Kentucky would love it if you made coal gas instead.
I wonder if in Scotland they felt the need to replace work-horses because the people were eating all the oats?...
That's what you say now. Just wait until oil hits $300 a barrel.
Great content as always.
Have you seen the Sterling engines used prior to steam engines?
The Stirling engine was invented AFTER the steam engine. It was developed as an alternative to the early steam engines whose boilers had a tendency to explode when not operated correctly.
Splendid episode. Your passion for history is infectious. I enjoy your enthusiasm. Thank you.
Excellent video. Out of all the different methods I have heard used to describe horsepower, this was by far the most educational and useful. Well said, History Guy!!!
Whitbread trophy bitter - best still made!
Didn't Watt's patent hold back the development of the high pressure simple expansion steam engine? He argued that the cylinder was equivalent to a separate condenser.
Probably, and because somebody else owned the patent on a crank and connecting rod, Watt had to use a ridiculous system of two gears, with one of them fixed to the shaft and one left freely rotating in order to bypass the patent. You can see it on the flywheel at 4:00 . I genuinely am starting to think that the patent system stifles innovation.
@@gregorymalchuk272 Absolutely. I've no doubt that the metallurgy existed for the development of the simple expansion engine then, and it was the litigation associated with patent law that held it back. That and a few dozen boiler explosions. Thanks.
@@gregorymalchuk272 he could have licensed the crank and connecting rod system. It would increase the cost of his steam engine but if it’s truly better than the alternative, customers should be willing to pay the premium. The owner of crank/connecting rod patent would have an incentive to keep the license fee reasonable precisely to avoid someone developing an alternative and bypassing their patent. I’m curious to know if he tried and failed to get the license or if he just decided to develop his own alternative system.
@@demorgenstern7680
He was absolutely opposed to licensing anyone else's patent. The idea that patents limit rather than foster innovation is contested. IBM did an internal audit that found tha the value of their cross-licenses (ability to use the patents of other people in the cross-license agreement) outweighed IBM's potential to enforce license requirements on everybody by 10 to 1.
In part. Watt vehemently opposed 'high pressure' steam applications (where positive steam pressure is the driving force) because of the numerous devastating failures of early pressurized boilers. The metallurgy/technology did not exist at that time to make safe pressure boilers ('high' pressure being ~5 to 15 psi). The original Newcomen/Watt engines were 'atmospheric'. Steam at atmospheric (0 gauge) pressure was drawn into the cylinder on the upstroke and then chilled to condense, forming a partial vacuum which then pulled the piston down (the engines were 'upside down' to modern eyes) for the power stroke. It was Richard Trevithick who championed 'pressure engines' resulting in the first locomotives.
excellent. Thanks History Guy, always a fascinating topic. My niece appreciated how many horses were in this one.
Being a science/ math nerd, in high school, my friends would often have esoteric discussions. Inevitably, someone would walk by and say "What?" to which we often chorused "A unit of power measurement." Which often lead to "Are you serious?" The answer of course, "The Dog Star!" If you follow the line of stars created by Orion's Belt...
Who's on first?
In my physics classes I do a similar thing, I ask my students "Watt is the unit of power?" they reply "watt", and then I say "I asked you, watt is the unit of power?" this can go on for quite a while, pretty silly and corny, but memorable, I hope.
I like how you incorporate Sirius into your "bit".
The was a "powerful" video. 😁
Watt?
I "popped" my hood , all I could see was plastic and wires , I believe there is and engine or motor down there somewhere ,but I'll be damned if I can see it by just "pop" the hood .
Hi THG. I am from India and the kind of narration you have done in this video is just awesome. Thanks for such good knowledgeable content.
Have not read much about Watt. Thanks for the history.
I hate it when it is said that Watt “perfected” the steam engine. L. D. Porta invented a new four port exhaust , announced in 1974, that allowed the Red Devil narrow gauge locomotive in Africa to produce a staggering 3,500 drawbar horsepower. In the ‘30s a young Italian automobile engineering student named Caprotti invented the first modern VTEC system because his first love was steam engines and a professor had told his class that such engines were inherently poor performers. Before this, improvements like combustion chambers and over fire jets allowed more complete combustion and super heaters invented about the fin de siecle/end of the 19th century allowed the 2,500 degree exhaust gasses to be used again. However, to date no steam locomotive has been built with all the advancements so no one knows what the potential efficiency would be with current improvements.
Let's not forget the Doble steam cars of the 20's
@@fubarmodelyard1392 Never heard of them. I’ll google.
Interesting tidbit. The year that Watts patent ran out at least 2 Newcombe style engines were sold for every Watt engine.
The story of Watt vs Newcombe has a lot of parallels to Apple vs IBM pc.
When your name is used as the unit of power you've perfected something. Everyone's heard Watt's name. That Porta clown, not so much. We do have a Capriotti's sub sandwich shop here though. Maybe they're related? The spelling is awfully close.
Back in the saddle again!
You can gallop right out of here with that comment.
@@abrahamlincoln9758 Don't mind if I do. I'll be on the last stagecoach before sundown
And he's wanted. Dead or alive. A steel cage of knowledge he rides. Bringing the truth straight up your side. Hes hungry. Almost starved and deprived.
Derrek Van Ee .that is such a good song.
Oh, were talking about a song? Whoops, I thought this was a pun thread. My bad.
This is a wonderful way to start my day. You managed to combine two of my favorite subjects, history and science!! (With a sprinkling of math to boot!!) Excellent episode, well done as usual!
Nicely done!
Person 1: James just revolutionized energy measuring!
Person 2: James Watt?!
My Great Grandfather pulled an early tractor out of deep mud with a team of Belgian Drays he used to farm.
@David Single I love Marry Fergusons but point was how it took a team of drays to pull the unknown brand of tractor out of deep mud
@David Single I was happy to hear from a fellow antique tractor fan. Horses and oxen can get down and give straight line of torque. They keep it constant and big drays can pull hard and a long time, if they are constantly working on a farm, pulling logs etc.
Thank you for your videos, at present we live in worrying times, and we appreciate the dedication you put into your history site.
It’s a place to go to for clear, and concise entertainment.
Best wishes to you, and your team.
You mentioned King George III visiting the Chiswell Street brewery in 1887 but I think you meant to say 1787- brewing there ended in 1976 and it is now a venue for events. You may be interested to know that with all the London breweries and gin distilleries closing down, along with a vast amount of industry, that the water table has risen because the huge volume of water extracted by these industries suddenly ended. This has resulted in some deep underground railways encountering ingress of water which never occurred when they were built. Notice the name- Chiswell- so many streets in London have names of wells- the most famous being the Sadler's Wells Opera House while the Gordon's Gin Distillery was in Goswell Street. I was given a tour of the distillery shortly before it closed in 1983.
If a horsepower is the work done by one horse, is a kilowatt the work done by one thousand James Watts?
Yes, and
1 milihelen is the beauty needed to launch a ship.
In the world of US Mechanical Engineering we use H.P. everyday.
And every other country in the world except the republic of some tim buk too African state disagrees.
Another GREAT addition to your ever expanding portfolio of fantastic videos.
Great video, Sir!! Thanks!!