The instrument can be calibrated by a continuous current.
If these conditions are not fulfilled, the wattmeter readings, assuming the wattmeter to have been calibrated with continuous currents, may be either too high or too low when alternating currents are being used.
The calorimeter tube was calibrated by a thread of mercury weighing 19 milligrams, which occupied eighty-five divisions.
The strength of the field is proportional to the swing of the galvanometer-needle, and, when the galvanometer is calibrated, can be expressed in C.G.S.
The wattmeter can therefore be calibrated so as to give direct readings of the power reckoned in watts, taken up in the circuit; hence its name, wattmeter.