International electrical units (1881 Paris Congress)
Unidades eléctricas internacionales (Congreso de París de 1881)
- Date
- 1881 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Credited to
- First International Electrical Congress
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
A congress that adopted the volt, ohm and ampere, together with the coulomb and the farad, as practical units derived from the CGS system, and confirmed the practice of naming units after scientists. It gave electrical engineering a common language for selling and designing.
The ohm was legally defined in 1884 (a mercury column 106 cm long and 1 mm²) and revised in 1893-1908. The practical units drew on the work of the British Association since 1861.
What it led to
- the SI electrical units
- international electrical congresses and the legal definition of the ohm (1884)
- international electrical trade and standardisation