To be able to charge a licensing fee after inventing his rotating steam engine, Watt needed an economic equivalent with which he could equate the power output of his steam engine.
At the time when James Watt a Scottish Engineer invented the rotative steam engines, he needed a universal factor with which he could equate the rate of work done by his steam engines. Then, horses were primarily used at the mills for work. He used the horses at Whitbread's brewery that were made to work at a rate of 144 times per hour (that is 2.4 times per minute), around a circle of 24-foot diameter, and an applied force of 180 pounds. He thus arrived at the equation;
P = (180 lb) (144 × 2π × 12 ft)/ 60 min
P = 32, 572.03263..lb ft/min
Approximately,
P = 33,000lb ft/min.
Conclusively, the need to charge a licensing fee made James Watt seek a universal constant with which he could equate the power of his steam engines.
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