International Era (1875 Onwards)
During the early part of the twentieth century, the French introduced their own units of power - the poncelet which was defined as being the power required to raise a mass of 100 kg against standard gravity with a velocity of 1 km/s giving a value of 980.665 W. However many other European countries defined their units of power (the Pferdestärke in Germany, the paardekracht in the Netherlands and the cavallo vapore in Italy) using 75 kg rather than 100 kg which gave a value of 735.49875 W (about 0.985 HP). Eventually the poncelet was replaced with the cheval vapeur which was identical to equivalent units of measure in neighbouring countries. In 1977 these units, along with the stere and the livre (and amongst others, the German pfund) were proscribed by EEC Directive 71/354/EEC which required EU member states to standardise on the International System of Units (SI).
Read more about this topic: Units Of Measurement In France
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