Origins of the Coulomb - Understanding How the Unit of Charge Came to Be

[gammastate]

I'm having a difficult time understanding how the coulomb came to be around as a unit of charge. The definition that a coulomb is equal to the charge of 6.24151×10^18 electrons and that the charge of one electron is -1.602176487(40)×10^19 seems to me like circular reasoning. The other definition that a coulomb is equal to the charge that flows every second when the current is 1 A also seems to be based on circular reasoning.

After doing some research I still have not been able to find a concrete definition of the coulomb. Thus far I have been making the assumption that the coulomb as a unit of charge was created before Millikan's oil drop experiment (please correct me if I'm mistaken). I have also considered the possibility that the the coulomb as a unit of charge means that at some certain distance two objects of 1 coulomb of electric charge will exert a force on each other (although now that I think of it the constant k in Coulomb's Law may be the arbitrary value).

Anyways, I hope that I've made the dilemma clear enough and I hope that some of you may be able to shed some light on the origins of the coulomb.

 

[nasu]

The ampere is the fundamental unit in SI. Is defined with no reference to charge.
Then the coulomb is 1Ax1s. No circular definition here.

The ampere is defined based on the electromagnetic force between two conductors.

The charge of the electron was measured, not defined.
And saying how many e charges are in a coulomb is not a definition but just some (useful) information.