Peter Peregrinus Ltd and Institution of Electrical Engineers , History of Technology Series Malicorne sur Sarthe, 72, Pays de la Loire, France 1992 Book condition, Etat : Bon hardcover, editor's binding, under editor's printing blue dust-jacket, illustrated by a portrait in colour of Lord Kelvin grand In-8 1 vol. - 116 pages
14 text-figures 1st edition, 1992 "Contents, Chapitres : Contents, Acknowledgments, Introduction, ix, Text, 107 pages - Kelvin and the electrical science - Kelvin and the metric system - Metric controversy in Britain and the USA - Electrical measurements - Kelvin and the British Association Electrical Units - International electrical congresses - Units and standards for the electrical century - Kelvin, Crompton and the electrical industry - Appendices - Index - Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time in introducing accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. From around 1880 he was aided by the electrical engineer Magnus Maclean FRSE in his electrical experiments. In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he endorsed Westinghouse's alternating current system which had been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair of that year. Even after Niagara Falls Thomson still held to his belief that direct current was the superior system. Acknowledging his contribution to electrical standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission elected Thomson as its first President at its preliminary meeting, held in London on 2627 June 1906. ""On the proposal of the President [Mr Alexander Siemens, Great Britain], secounded [sic] by Mr Mailloux [US Institute of Electrical Engineers] the Right Honorable Lord Kelvin, G.C.V.O., O.M., was unanimously elected first President of the Commission"", minutes of the Preliminary Meeting Report read. (source : Wikipedia)" rather fine copy, no markings, inside is fine, with the errata folio