Adrian Jadic asked in USMA 11572: ><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> ><HTML> ><HEAD> ><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> ><META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 5.5.2653.12"> ><TITLE>RE: [USMA:11572] Re: What is bhp</TITLE> ></HEAD> ><BODY> > ><P><FONT SIZE=2>BHP could also mean "boiler horse power". I >wonder if this is not a reminesce from the old steam engines.</FONT> ></P> > ><P><FONT SIZE=2>A boiler horsepower is equivalent to 9.8030 kW</FONT> ></P> > ><P><FONT SIZE=2>Adrian</FONT> ></P> > ><P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [<A >HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>]</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Tuesday 13 March 2001 08:44</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: U.S. Metric Association</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: [USMA:11572] Re: What is bhp</FONT> ></P> ><BR> > ><P><FONT SIZE=2>[EMAIL PROTECTED] asked in USMA 11568:</FONT> ></P> > ><P><FONT SIZE=2>>Some countries like Britain, India, etc use the term</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>>bhp to define the power of an automobile.</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>>Can someone explain what is its equivalent in terms >of</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>>kilowatts.</FONT> ></P> ><BR> ><BR> > ><P><FONT SIZE=2>bhp probably is brake horsepower.</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>1 horsepower = 550 foot-pounds per second = 0.745 7 kW</FONT> ></P> > ><P><FONT SIZE=2>Joseph B. Reid</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>17 Glebe Road West</FONT> ><BR><FONT SIZE=2>Toronto M5P >1C8 > Tel. 416 >486-6071</FONT> ></P> > ></BODY> ></HTML> Good question. I searched my old Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition. I found brake horsepower, which is the actual useful power output of an engine, but I could find no mention of boiler horsepower. The Canadian Metric Practice Guide gives a value of 9.809 50 kW for the boiler horsepower, but no definition. It would seem to be based on an efficiency of 7.6 %, which seems rather low. There is obviously a wide variation in the efficiency of steam engines, which makes the definition of a boiler horsepower rather arbitrary. That makes me inclined to vote for bhp to mean brake horsepower. Since the references to bhp occurred with reference to automobiles, the boiler horsepower would not apply. And bhp certainly does not mean braking horsepower. Joseph B. Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
