OK Solberg: 00:00

I wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Get you a cup of coffee, glass iced tea, bottle of water, guys. Let's see what's happening.

OK Solberg: 00:07

Spring wheat $5.51 a bushel. 550lb steer calf $4.90 to $5.02 a pound. A butcher hog in Iowa 62¢ a pound, and a 100lb fat lamb in Billings $2.68 a pound. But guys, there's more, much more.

OK Solberg: 00:29

It's motor Monday. Let me add, it's Jay and Joe's motor Monday, the day we look at horsepower one Monday at a time. Okay. Now speaking of horsepower, you do realize there are lots and lots of horses in Bible times.

OK Solberg: 00:46

You know that, don't you? Here's a verse to prove it. Here's a verse to express that fact from the book of 1st Kings 9:19 And it says, Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen.

OK Solberg: 01:09

Now that there is a lot of horsepower. Today, on Motor Monday, since we look at horsepower all the time, let's see where that term horsepower originated. The term horsepower was popularized in the late 18th century by Scottish engineer James Watt during the development and marketing of improvements to the Watt steam engine.

OK Solberg: 01:39

See, in the 1700's horses were widely used to power machinery especially in well, like coal mines, mills, and water pumps. When Watt improved the steam engine, he needed a way to explain how much work his engine could do compared to something customers already understood.

OK Solberg: 02:00

Horses makes sense, doesn't it? And of course, we knew something like that had happened, but it's, you know, fun to check out the beginning. And just like any good teacher, Watt, he used terms that the audience can connect with. Like, let's say, for example, you're trying to explain poker to a bunch of cattlemen or cowboys. Well, you might say, poker's just cattle trading with cards instead of cows.

OK Solberg: 02:27

Your chips are your herd. Your hand is the stock you bring into auction. Betting is raising the stakes at the sale barn. See, if you got prime beef, you bid strong. If you're bluffing, you're selling a skinny steer like it's a grand grass fed champion stock.

OK Solberg: 02:47

And folding, well, that's knowing when not to sink feed into a cow that won't make the winner. In the end, it's not about the cards. It's about reading the other rancher across the table. So anyway, back to Watts. So Watts did just that, used terms as audience understood.

OK Solberg: 03:06

Watts observed horses working in mills and estimated, well, a horse could turn a mill wheel lifting 33,000 pounds one foot in one minute. So he defined one horsepower equal 33,000 foot pounds per minute. You might ask, well, why did it catch on? Well, the term was effective because farmers and mine owners already relied on horses. They understood how much work a horse could do.

OK Solberg: 03:36

Walk could now say his engine replaced X number of horses. It was a brilliant marketing strategy as much as a scientific definition. You might be interested to know horses can actually produce more than one horsepower briefly up to 10 to 15 horsepower in bursts when they lunge. But Watt? He didn't wanna use that figure if you know what I mean.

OK Solberg: 04:01

What slightly overestimated average horse output to make his engines look more powerful, which we all understand if you're trying to sell something. Right? The term remained in use even after horses stopped being common industrial power sources. And you know what? We're still using it today.

OK Solberg: 04:22

Some 257 years later, and on the subject of James Watt, not only is he credited with coining the term horsepower, but notice anything interesting about his last name? The term Watt was designated as a unit of electrical power in honor of James Watt, the Scottish engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the industrial revolution.

OK Solberg: 04:57

In 1889 at an international electrical congress meeting, delegates formally adopted the watt for the unit of power in honor of James Watt. One watt equals one volt times one amp. So if you know any electricians out there, Jay, you can say, did you realize that James Watt was instrumental in designating both the word horsepower and the word watt? What about that then?

OK Solberg: 05:32

So until next time. As you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.