The British Association for the Advancement of Science

the long version

If you've ever wondered what a Volt, or an Ohm, or an Ampere (French spelling: André-Marie Ampère) is, then this book is a good place to start. It provides a background to how these fundamental electrical units were defined and named. The combined reports of the Standards Committees is in two other books. "Reports of the committee on electrical standards, reprinted by permission of the Council; a record of the history of "Absolute Units" and of Lord Kelvin's work in connexion with these (1913)" and "Reports of the committee on electrical standards, 1873" both BAAS. The former contains most of the content of the latter and is the best one to read.