Force meter
A force meter is an instrument to measure the magnitude of a force. This is often just a spring contained within a cylinder that has a scale to mark the extension of the spring produced by the force. In the International System of Units, the unit of force is the newton (symbol N). A force meter that measures force in newtons may be referred to as a newtonmeter.
Units of measurement in France
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 m/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