The mechanical efficiency of frog’s muscle

Abstract The factors determining the maximum work and the mechanical efficiency of muscle were discussed by Hartree and Hill in 1928. Work was measured with the Levin-Wyman ergometer (Levin and Wyman 1927), the muscle being allowed to shorten at constant speed, adjustable as required, and recording a tension-length curve on a smoked surface. The whole of the work which the muscle can do in a single shortening at the given speed is thus obtained, as in no other method. The mechanical efficiency, therefore, should be the highest possible.