The so-called international electrical units

Abstract

As one of the most important questions likely to be considered by the St. Louis International Electrical Congress will be that of redefining the fundamental electrical units, it may therefore not be out of place to briefly review the efforts which have thus far been made to bring about international uniformity. The need of a definite and universal system of electrical units was early recognized, and became a necessity as soon as industrial applications of electricity were made. At first the principal measurements were those of resistance (line resistance, insulation resistance, measurements for the location of faults, etc.). These were expressed in terms of some entirely arbitrary standard, such as the resistance of a given length of an iron or copper wire of given cross section. This natu-