THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



The fractions or hundredths to be des- 

 ignated by a small e, in the same way 

 that cents are now designated by cts. 



Third — The unit for commercial 

 weights should be K, as harmonizing 

 with its fluid equivalent L. This plan 

 has already been adopted by the govern- 

 ment of British India. 



Fourth — The notation should conform 

 exactly to that of our currency; that is, 

 rather centisimal than otherwise: and the 

 units and hundredths should be desig- 

 nated by an upright line, on bills and in- 

 voices, as $ and cts. are. This is shown 

 in the appended example: 



These symbols would be intelligible 

 wherever the metric system is known. 

 They are preferable to such local names 

 as fass, loth, pinta, stein, stoma, &c, 

 adopted by various countries to facilitate 

 the change from their respective old sys- 

 tems into the metric. It is a noteworthy 

 fact that the most ignorant and illiterate 

 compute their wages and make change 

 with ease in our currency. That is the 

 fundamental principle on which this 

 plan of symbols and notation is con- 

 structed. 



The recollection of the symbols is 

 aided by the association of ideas Thus: 

 K, the first on the list, is the key; M 

 stands for measure: L for liquids; A for 

 area; S for solids; Kilotu for long meas- 

 ure (yi mile), and contains all three con- 

 sonants: K, L, M. T for ton or thousand 

 K; H A for hundred A (2)4 acres) 



The foregoing comprise all that are in 

 any way requisite. Being pronounced 

 kay, el, em, &c, they possess the brevity 

 of the present titles: ounce, pound, 

 quart, gallon, foot and yard. 



No mention need be made here of the 



denominations used by professional men 

 as they have already adopted the ab- 

 breviations G, mg, cc, mm, though they 

 omitted to contrive similar conveniences 

 for the transaction of ordinary business. 



The necessity for a universal standard 

 grows more urgent daily. While we 

 still adhere to the old (or Winchester) 

 pint, quart and gallon, a different sys- 

 tem, called the Imperial, has been 

 adopted in Great Britain, so that those 

 titles are misleading. They have made 

 similar indefensible changes in the old 

 standard apothecaries' weights and fluid 

 measures. Moreover, when the depart- 

 ment at Washington lately sent to Lon- 

 don to have its yard measure compared 

 with the standard there, to define the 

 discrepancy known to exist, it was found 

 that the said standard, and the only one, 

 was broken and worthless. So there is 

 no yard measure now. British writers 

 have characterized this state of affairs as 

 '' intolerable." 



The metric system being legalized, in 

 fact being the only one legalized in the 

 United States, the question arises whether 

 the government should not proceed and 

 establish it, with appropriate symbols. 



It might be well to require that after 

 some date sufficiently remote in all busi- 

 ness between it and citizens, as in con- 

 tracts, duties, taxes, &c, the metric 

 system should be used: and that it 

 should cease compelling importers trans- 

 lating their invoices into the present 

 non-legalized system. A set of stand- 

 ards might be placed with each post- 

 master — allowing him to collect small 

 fees for their use, under certain regula- 

 tions. 



Unreasonable people will complain of 

 the expense entailed by a change. Beam 

 scales and balances will not have to be 

 altered, but the dials on spring scales 

 will Platform scales and steelyards 

 will have to have sliding K weights, in- 

 stead of lbs. 



