Dear Mike Sinclair
The term horsepower was invented by the Scotish engineer James Watt. Watt b.
1736 d. 1819.
Watt was working with ponies lifting coal at a coal mine, and he wanted a
way to speak about the power available from one of these animals. He found
that, on average, a mine pony could do 22,000 foot-pounds of work in a
minute. He then increased that number by 50 percent and pegged the
measurement of horsepower at 33,000 foot-pounds of work in one minute. It is
an arbitrary unit of measure.
The only Sinclair connection to Watt I know of is The Shropshire Code for
Mines contained 208 rules but written for James Watt & co that was based on
Coal Mining Law by J Sinclair 1958, published by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons
London.
Sinclair
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