Mav 1. 1920.] 



TUB INDIA RU3BER WORLD 



481 



The Metric System Applied to the Rubber Industry. 



By C. C. Sluts} 



T^ELATIVE C0MPA"RIS0N 



OF 



English and Metric Units 



INCH 

 TOOT 

 YA'RD 



CENTl-METER 

 BECI- METER 

 METET^ 



AT THE PRESENT TIME a great deal is being written in the 

 ^ technical and industrial press of the country on the intro- 

 duction of the metric system into the business affairs of 

 the nation. Newspaper articles are also appearing on the sub- 

 ject, some laudatory of the system and some condemning it. It 

 is being discussed from many angles. Both information and mis- 

 information is quoted and enlarged upon. 



This agitation in favor of the metric system has become of 

 late more persistent. Investigation has shown that determined 

 efforts are being made at Washington to induce Congress to 

 pass laws for the "com- 

 pulsory" use of the metric 

 system of weights and 

 measures. Members of 

 both Houses of Congress 

 have received a deluge of 

 communications urging 

 enactment of compulsory 

 metric legislation and in 

 the absence of opposition 

 the opinion may be 

 formed that such senti- 

 ment actually exists. 

 Right here we must 

 remember that the use of 

 the metric system is legal 

 in the United States, and 

 has been so since 1866. 

 Any one, therefore, is at 

 liberty to use it. There is 

 no objection to such vol- 

 untary use. 



Should "compulsory" 

 legislation be passed it 

 would mean that after a 

 period of say, two or 

 three years, it would be 

 obligatory under penalty 

 to use only the metric 

 system and to discard our 

 present English system. 

 Such a change may ap- 

 pear simple in the abstract, 

 yet touching as it does 

 the every-<day affairs of 

 everybody without excep- 

 tion, it contains large 

 potentialities for mischief. 

 For this reason it is wise 

 to look into this problem 

 by giving a brief outline 



of the metric system itself, and then taking up the conditions 

 that such a change would create, first in a general way and 

 second, how it would affect the rubber industry. After that, 

 the advantages claimed for the metric system will be considered. 

 THE METRIC SYSTEM. 



The metric system was, no doubt, at the time the eminent 

 scholars conceived it, an earnest effort to create a scientific sys- 

 tem ')f weights and mca.sures. Unfortunately in those days in- 

 dustrial development was in its infancy and the men charged 

 with the task having no practical considerations to guide them 

 brought out a system based purely on scientific lines. 



C. Stutz, a mechanical and electrical 

 vork here and abroad, was educated i 



a naturalized citizen, familiarized hinis< 

 iting from five to twelve years. 



V///////7///A 



IGAL 



iQt 



Since then conditions have changed. Industry has claimed an 

 increasingly important position and has enlisted in its service 

 an ever growing number of individuals. This multitude of 

 artisans, in whose hands any system of measurements is but a 

 tool like any other, has progressed or lagged behind according 

 to the handiness and convenience of the system imposed upon 

 it. To-day the great industrial nations are the United States 

 and Great Britain, both of which have resisted the introduction 

 of the metric system as an implement lacking the qualities so 

 necessary for rapid development. This does not imply that the 

 English system of meas- 

 urements is perfect. Some 

 of its units and sub-di- 

 \isions have become obso- 

 lete by disuse. This is as 

 it should be. It is a mat- 

 ter of evolution and 

 growth stimulated by e.x- 

 perience and changed 

 conditions, and applies to 

 most criticisms of this 

 system. 



The accompanying illus- 

 tration shows some rela- 

 tive comparisons of Eng- 

 lish and metric units of 

 length and volume. A 

 study of Inch-Foot- Yard 

 and Centimeter-Decimeter- 

 Meter will show at once 

 that the former three di- 

 mensions harmonize per- 

 fectly for practical use, 

 while in the latter the unit 

 sub-divisions of the meter 

 represent too great a step 

 from the meter itself. In 

 the "inch" and "centi- 

 meter" the same defect is 

 apparent to which is 

 added the "indivisibility" 

 of the centimeter as com- 

 pared with the inch. To 

 the mathematician this is 

 a matter of indifference, 

 but not so to the work- 

 man. Divide the inch into 

 lOOOth's and the milli- 

 meter into lOOth's, as re- 

 quired in work of pre- 

 cision, and the metric 

 unit is too small. There is no metric unit comparable with the 

 "foot." This English dimension is used so universally that it 

 would be a hardship to use the meter in its place. Similar 

 observations hold good for measures of volume and wci.ght. 



Briefly stated the metric system is devoid of the English sys- 

 tem's handiness and convenience ; its units are either too large 

 or too small for the every-day requirements of industrj-. 

 GENERAL RESULTS FOLLOWING ADOPTION OF METRIC SYSTEM. 

 Irrespective of the merits of the metric system, its compul- 

 sory adoption will in a general way affect the whole country. 



1 , . 1 I . 



/4 /4 )a Kg /4a IcTTv 5 tn-m \-m-m 

 THE INCH THE CENTI -METER 



fl 



•IPt 



•ic 





Some Relative Comparisons of English and Metric Units of 

 Length and Volume. 



