engine-horse

Updated: June 23, 2025

To ask which is first is to call up the old puzzle, Which is first, the egg, or the hen that laid it? According to Professor Soddy, the engineer's unit of power, that of the British cart-horse, has to be multiplied many times in a machine before it can do the work of a horse. He says that a car which two horses used to pull, it now takes twelve or fifteen engine-horse to pull.

John Burroughs - The Breath of Life