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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Last revised: 16 January 2010.