
However, Watt didn’t let that fact bother him, and it didn’t bother his customers, either. There were a few flaws with this new measurement - the biggest being the assumption that a horse could continue to work at that consistent rate instead of tiring out. Therefore, he defined one horsepower as 33,000 foot-pounds of work per minute - or 550 foot-pounds per second. Through his experiments, he determined one horse could do about 33,000 foot-pounds of work in one minute - meaning a horse could lift a 33,000-pound weight one foot in one minute. To market his new product to this audience, Watt knew he had to come up with a way to compare the work of horses to the work of his invention. Unfortunately, comparing the steam engine to the Newcomen engine wasn’t effective marketing, as most of the population was still using horses for mechanical work. This new steam engine could do the same amount of work as the former Newcomen engine, but used only one-quarter of the fuel. In the late 1700s, a Scottish engineer named James Watt invented the first steam engine, which improved on a design pioneered by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. Today, it applies to boat and auto engines, but its original use was to describe the power of a steam engine. Horsepower is defined as a unit of power equal to 550 foot-pounds per second used to measure the power of an engine.

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Through reading this information, you’ll be able to learn more about where it came from, how it’s calculated, how to determine the amount you need and the dangers that come with having too much.

Sometimes, the follow-up question is, “Is it illegal to overpower a boat?” Whether you’ve been asking yourself one of these questions, or are just curious about how horsepower can affect the cost of fuel and insurance, we’ve gathered several pieces of information to educate you on horsepower. If you’ve been searching for a boat to purchase, or have reached the point at which you’d like to get a new engine, chances are you’ve asked the question, “How much horsepower do I need for my boat?” While the individual concerns may be different - wanting to make sure there’s enough horsepower or not too much horsepower - it’s a question many people who are interested in purchasing a new boat ask.
