THE DKCI.MAL SVSTF.M. 463 



the necessary flexibility if the metre ^^•ere increased to 40 inches 

 in length. This would, involve a chang-e in the metric standard 

 of leno-th throug-hotit 45 countries. The alternative would be 

 for the Engineering Standards Committee to compile sufficiently 

 equivalent metric sections owing to the impossibility of useful 

 conversion from the present standard sections in inch units to 

 the metric system . With reference to the cost of the trans- 

 ]>ortation industry, Mr. Aspinall, manager of the Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire Railway, estimates that the cost merely of re-tareing 

 from 1.400,000 to 1,600,000 wagons in use would be £400.000, 

 without counting the cost of regraduating weighing machines, 

 gas and water meters, etc. 



Few people realises that the Navy uses a decimal system 

 of lengths, thus : — 



The fathom=:i/iooo of a nautical mile (Definition). 

 TOO fathoms:=i cable's length. 

 10 cables =1 nautical mile. •' 



=:i,ooo fathoms. 



There are two measures of capacity, the " liquid "' and the 

 ' dry."' Many liquids are actually sold by weight, and every 

 l>urchaser can demand to have his or her " dry " purchases 

 weighed by the seller ; as a matter of fact wheat, mealies, bran, 

 beans, etc., are always sold in South Africa by weight. The 

 sale of potatoes by the bucket — mentioned by Professor Bohle — 

 is illesi'al. like sale by muid and schepel. as the only legal standards 

 of capacity in South Africa are the bushel and gallon, (juart and 

 pint. 



Engineers are by no means unanimous on the change to the 

 metric standard of length, not because it would not be as easy to 

 calculate, but because of the cost of re-standardising rolled sec- 

 tions, bars and shafts, drills and screw threads in order to give 

 even metric sizes to these; to this also would have to be con- 

 sidered the cost of carrying stocks of both inch and metric 

 standards during the transitional period. The change, there- 

 fore, could only be spread o\er a number of years, a beginning 

 being made with the redesigning of sections, etc., bv the En- 

 g^ineering Standards Committee. 



The Government of India, by the Weights and Measures 

 Act of 1871, adopted the metric system, but it was never put in 

 force and is a dead letter. In 1897 the use of metric weiglits 

 and measures was permitted by law in Cireat Britain; in IQ07 

 Lord Belhaven's Metric Bill was rejected. Some nine or ten 

 years ago the use of the metric system in the Union was permit- 

 ted by law. Permissive use side by side with existing- systems 

 will not bring- the better system into tise as long as one accepted 

 way of getting extra profits is to confuse the purchaser; conse- 

 quently only an Act legalising the metric system will protect the 

 public ifrom petty depredations. The f|uestion of the change 

 will not be decided by sentimental or educational reasons, but by 

 the cost to the commercial and. the manufacturing communities. 



