Taylor.] Od4: [Oct. 21, 



like that and every other useful and complicated invention, it could not 

 be struck out perfect at a heat. Time and experience have already dic- 

 tated many improvements of its mechanism. But all the radical principles 

 of uniformity are in the machine. * * * Uniformity of weights and 

 measures — permanent, universal uniformity, adapted to the nature of 

 things, to the physical organization and to the moral improvement of man 

 — would be a blessing of such transcendent magnitude, that if there 

 existed upon earth a combination of power and will adequate to accom- 

 plish the result by the energy of a single act, the being who should exer- 

 cise it would be among the greatest of benefactors of the human race. 

 The glory of the first attempt belongs to France. France first surveyed 

 the subject of weights and measures in all its extent and all its compass. 

 France first beheld it as involving the interests, the comforts and the mor- 

 als of all nations, and of all after ages. * * * In freely avowing the 

 hope that the exalted purpose first conceived by France may be improved, 

 perfected and ultimately adopted by the United States and all other 

 nations, equal freedom has been indulged in pointing out the errors and 

 imperfections of that system, which have attended its origin, progress 

 and present condition." 



Looking at the French metre simply as a practical material standard, the 

 first criticism we would naturally have to make upon it, is that it gives us 

 a measure most unfortunate in its size. 



In selecting a standard of measure (without any reference to its ideal 

 derivation) two considerations of very obvious and primitive notice im- 

 pose a tolerably definite limit as to what should constitute the length of a 

 useful, popular measuring rule. The first is that it should be conveniently 

 portable,* if not in a pocket, at least in a satchel, or upon the thigh ; the 

 second is that when held by one hand in careful and precise position for 

 taking or giving measures its two ends should each be distinctly within 

 accurate view, and within easy reach of the free hand for minute mark- 

 ing without any constraint or efibrt of the body. These two conditions, 



*" Perhaps for half the occasions which arise in the life of every individual for the 

 use of a linear measure, the instrument to suit his purposes must be portable and fit to 

 be carried in his pocket * * * For all the ordinary purposes of mensuration, except- 

 ing itinerary measure, the metre is too long a standard unit of nature. It was a unit 

 most especially inconvenient as a substitute for the foot, a measure to which, with 

 trifling variations of length, all the European nations and their descendants were accus- 

 tomed. The foot-rule has a property very important to all the mechanical professions 

 which have constant occasion for its use ; it is light and easily portable about the per- 

 son. The metre, very suitable for a staff, or for measuring any portion of the earth, has 

 not the property of being portable about the person ; and for all the professions con- 

 cerned in ship or house building, and for all who have occasion to use mathematical in- 

 struments, it is quite unsuitable. It serves perfectly well as a substitute for the yard or 

 ell, the fathom or perch, but not for the foot. This inconvenience, great in itself, is made 

 irreparable when combined with the exclufeive principle of decimal divisions. The 

 union of the metre and of decimal arithmetic rejected all compromise with the foot. 

 There was no legitimate extension of matter intermediate between the ell and the palm, 

 between forty inches and four. This decimal despotism was found too arbitrary for en- 

 durance " {Adams' s Report on Weights and Measures). 



