43 



THE YD, PENDULUM, AND METRE. 



n. 



material o' , 

 copyi'"' ""^ 

 is stUiUuu^iy 

 from the t 



and named ^ --^frw \,y -^ certain order as its successors 

 in the event oi uci;ruction or loss, omitted the clause 



'. with any numerical nuiliii)le of the 

 n, our yard is a purely individual 

 \ and perpetuated by careful 

 iiich all reference to a natural origin 

 iudcd, as much as if it had dropped 

 rt, then, from the extraordinary 

 ^ til, and from the singularly 



fortunate but ai he same lime purely accidental coinci- 

 dence which I ;all presently mention, it has no preten- 

 sions what' be regarded as a scientific unit. 



(13.) Ijct Us ow consider the claim which the pen- 

 dulum, in t : icl, as a measure of the earth's gravi- 

 tation, can al\ ICC for its reception as a fundamental 

 and universal uhrd of length (and here, incidentally 

 it may be rem jcvl that, as a Uni^hy it is not more in- 

 convenient til metre, bcini,' within about a quarter of 

 an inch thi * One of the reasons assigned by the 

 French .S'<7:,7// r their rejection of it in favour of the 

 metre, .1...., ...would api>ear, the only one which 

 weighed with tm (for their other reason ostensibly 

 advanced is a me appeal to the 

 time) was the doendence of 



The metre hasiis inconvj 

 that while the li- r cai 

 onlinary stature 

 Blring or ribbaml b 



full length of I 

 the point 

 (facin{^ 

 the aani 



