Excerpt from A Determination of the International Ampere in Absolute Measure Inasmuch as precise electrical measurements are usually made in terms Of standard resistances and standard cells, it would simplify the problem if a voltage instead Of a current were directly determined in absolute measure. The direct determination Of the volt with precision in absolute measure, however, presents very formidable difficulties and has never been made. It was largely for this reason that the ampere was chosen as the second independent unit instead Of the volt. Many absolute measure ments Of the ampere and Of the Ohm have, however, been made since Gauss and Weber first showed in 18 32 that a system Of absolute units is possible. These determinations, having been made at different times and at different places, can be com pared only by comparing the various concrete standards adopted at the different times. As there can be no concrete standard ampere, two expedients have been adopted for preserving the results Of the absolute measurement Of current. That most favored in the past is to determine the mass Of silver deposited per second in a silver voltameter by a current Of one ampere; the other, which in many cases in the past served as intermediary between the absolute determination and the silver voltameter measurement, is to determine the electromotive force of a certain standard cell in terms of a standard of resistance and the absolute ampere determined by the balance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.