112 Professor Renwick on the 



has been made in a private house, that cannot be reasonably 

 considered as accessible for public purposes ; that the length 

 there determined has been assumed to be the univ^sal length 

 in the same parallel of latitude, while it has been conclusively 

 proved that this length is influenced by local causes, a fact, 

 that although not then absolutely demonstrated, was so far 

 foreseen by the French commission, that they define, as the 

 means of restoring the metrical system, if lost or impaired, not 

 the pendulum of the latitude of Paris, but that of a specific 

 place, tlie national observatory in that city ; that the unit of 

 weight (one nearly abandoned in this country) is derived from 

 an experiment that requires a legal enactment to define and 

 perpetuate an arbitrary thermometric scale, instead of taking, 

 as is here proposed, a temperature defined by a physical fact, or 

 law of nature, unsusceptible of modification or mistake under 

 any circumstances ; that the bulk of the water whose weight is 

 given (a cubic inch) is much too small for accuracy ; and that 

 the unit of measures of capacity is deduced from that of weight, 

 upon principles equally objectionable with those on which 

 the latter is derived from the lineal measure. In addition, it 

 is to be remarked, that the direct comparison and transfer of 

 measures of length is hardly susceptible of accuracy equal to 

 that obtained by means of the pendulum ; that the system pro- 

 posed, looking for its era to the date of the declaration of the 

 independence of our State, would be exclusively and pre-emi- 

 nently American. Another strong and important argument 

 may be used : the city of New York possesses artists adequate 

 to the construction of almost every part of the necessaiy ap- 

 paratus ; their skill and talent is now devoted to objects of 

 inferior importance, that neither enhance their reputation nor 

 add to the mechanical credit of the country : let them be em- 

 ployed upon an object of national, nay, universal, interest, and 

 the name they will acquire will probably create a branch of 

 commerce in similar articles, that will add much to the wealth 

 and resources of the state. The importance of this argument 

 was well understood by the French government, and such was 

 success of the attempt, that it transferred to France, for the 

 supply of its own demands, a branch of manufacture that had 

 previously carried large sums to Great Britain, and struck the 



