The Power or the Speed with which Work is Done

Man's Way of Helping Himself:
A man can load a wagon more quickly than a growing boy. The work done by the one is equal to the work done by the other, but the man is more powerful, because the time required for a given task is very important. An engine which hoists a 50-pound weight in 1 second is much more powerful than a man who requires 50 seconds for the same task; hence in estimating the value of a working agent, whether animal or mechanical, we must consider not only the work done, but the speed with which it is done.

The rate at which a machine is able to accomplish a unit of work is called power, and the unit of power customarily used is the horse power. Any power which can do 550 foot pounds of work per second is said to be one horse power (H.P.). This unit was chosen by James Watt, the inventor of a steam engine, when he was in need of a unit with which to compare the new source of power, the engine, with his old source of power, the horse. Although called a horse power it is greater than the power of an average horse.

An ordinary man can do one sixth of a horse power. The average locomotive of a railroad has more than 500 H.P., while the engines of an ocean liner may have as high as 70,000 H.P.