In the December 1884 issue of Mechanics (page 268) the Swedish-American civil engineer and inventor John W. Nystrom wrote, as part of a rather confused discussion of electrical units:
It would be well to establish regular units and
nomenclature of quantities of electricity
based upon the metric system
corresponding with mechanic work, namely, the main standard of quantity should
be that quantity which represents the work of one kilogram meter.
The two
sub-units should be grammeter and milligrammeter. For distinction in the
application of these terms to quantities of electricity it would be well to
abbreviate them as follows:
Kramet for kilogrammeter.
Gramet for grammeter.
Milgramet for milligrammeter.
Is it necessary to add that these proposed units were never used? Their significance is simply that they are illustrative of the time when the current definitions of electrical units were being formulated, and some understanding of their relation to mechanics was diffusing among the interested public.
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