76 



NATURE 



[June 6, 1918 



to dispense with the benefits of the metric system and 

 to ignore the convenience of its overseas consumers, 

 that is no adequate reason in itself why all the other 

 industries of the nation should be deprived of the 

 support they would derive from Great Britain's adop- 

 tion of the metric system. It may be recalled that 

 the watch industry of Switzerland similarly held out 

 against the Swiss adoption of the metric system, and 

 that it was accommodated by being specially 

 exempt from the compulsory provisions of the 

 Metric System Act. But what was the sequel? A 

 very few years' experience proved to the Swiss watch- 

 makers that they had denied themselves advantages 

 which their fellow-countrymen enjoyed, and they then 

 accordingly voluntarily fell into line. It is to be 

 hoped the British textile industry will note and profit 

 by this example. 



' In the meantime, it is well also to bear in mind the 

 facts recorded by the Committee in chap. ii. that "of 

 the yarns exported in 19 13, about one-third was taken 

 by Germany " (already a metric country), and that 

 "rather more than half of the total exports of piece- 

 goods went to British Possessions," which, as men- 

 tioned above, only await the lead of the Mother 

 Country to justify their adoption of the metric system. 



The Educational Aspect.— The Committee's attempt 

 to discount the advantages of the metric system in 

 educational matters is ery weak, and niay be use- 

 fully contrasted with the authoritative statements pub- 

 lished in the recently issued " Report of the Committee 

 Appointed by the Prime Minister to Inquire into the 

 Position of Natural Science in the Educational System 

 of Great Britain" (Cd. 901 1). One of this Com- 

 mittee's summarised conclusions reads :— " That the 

 present chaos of English weights and measures causes 

 waste of time and confusion of thought, and that 

 there are strong educational reasons for the adoption , 

 of the metric system." 



The ''Improvement'' of the Imperial System. — 

 Realising that although it cannot recommend the 

 metric system it also cannot establish the superiority 

 of our existing system, the Committee adopts the 

 expedient of advocating the so-called "improvement" 

 of the Imperial system. To that end the members 

 " emphasise the advantages, already widely recog- 

 nised, of using decimal subdivisions of our basic units, 

 such as the inch and the pound weight." This leaning 

 to decimalisation is especially noteworthy in view of 

 the contradictory opinion expressed elsewhere in the 

 report that "for practical purposes binary divisions 

 are better than decimal." 



In this connection it is instructive to recall the 

 recommendations of the Select Committee of the 

 House of Commons which so long ago as 1862 re- 

 ported that "it would involve as much difficulty to 

 create a special decimal system of our own as simply 

 to adopt the metric system in common with other 

 nations, and If we did so create a national system 

 we would in all likelihood have to change it again In 

 a few years as the commerce and intercourse between 

 nations increased into an International one." That 

 was fifty-six years ago. Further comment is 

 superfluous. If. instead of decimalising English units, 

 we could agree forthwith to express all weights and 

 dimensions In terms of single units {e.g. pounds, 

 yards, and gallons), abolishing all the chaotic multiples 

 i)f 12, 3, 5^, 40, 8, etc., the way would be paved for 

 our early adoption of the metric system. 



Decimal Coinage. 

 The report reviews the various proposals which 

 have been made from time to time, and concludes 

 that our ultimate choice must rest between (a) the 

 retention of the £ sterling as the monetary unit and 

 its division into 1000 parts, or (b) the creation of a 

 NO. 2536, VOL. lOl] 



new monetary unit equal to 100 halfpence — viz, a 

 gold dollar of 45. 2d. 



After recording its opinion as being strongly in 

 favour of the first of these alternatives, the Com- 

 mittee enlarges upon the difficulties incidental to the 

 decimalisation of the £ sterling, and concludes, by a 

 majority (not unanimously), that the change would 

 be inexpedient at the present time or in the immediate 

 future. 



The above-mentioned difficulties fall chiefly under 

 two heads, viz. : — (i) The necessary alteration of the 

 value of the penny. (2) The use of three fig^ires after 

 the decimal point. 



Of the former it may be said at once that it is 

 high time the penny coinage was changed, because 

 of Its failure to meet fluctuations in currency values 

 and gradual changes in the prices of small articles 

 and services. 



By way of illustrating the failure of the penny to 

 meet present-day needs, it will have been noted that 

 while the cost of many daily necessaries may have 

 been increased by (say) 20 per cent.. It has been 

 necessary to raise the price of halfpenny goods and 

 services by loO per cent, to one penny, and of penny 

 ones by 50 per cent, to i^d., because of our lack of 

 coins to represent intermediate values. The case of 

 the penny stamp is a recent example. This unsuitably 

 steep grading of the present coinage has proved a 

 source of hardship, especially to the poorer classes, 

 who are obliged to purchase food and other daily 

 requirements in "pennyworths." 



The provision In the new Bill of an enlarged range 

 of low-value coins should greatly facilitate the change 

 from pence to mils.' As, for example, neither the 

 4-mIl nor the 5-mIl coin would be exactly equal to 

 the present penny, it is thought better to include both 

 coins than arbitrarily to say that the new penny shall 

 be either 4 per cent, less or 20 per cent, more than 

 the present penny. In course of time any coins which 

 experience had shown to be superfluous could be 

 withdrawn from circulation. 



The equivalent in mils of any sum now stated In 

 pence would be ascertained by adding one-twenty- 

 fourth part to the number of farthings contained 

 therein, from which It will be seen that each com- 

 plete sixpence would have Its exact equivalent in 

 twenty-five mils. On this basis all new coins could 

 be Issued to the public in exact exchange for existing 

 coins, thus avoiding loss to either the individual or 

 the State. 



In order to meet the second difficulty, which is 

 more apparent than real, of employing three figures 

 after the decimal point. It is suggested^ that the present 

 three-column method of cash entry might be retained. 

 The existing cash columns, rechristened £ f. m. 

 instead of £ s. d., would conveniently separate the 

 pounds from the florins and the florins from the mils, 

 and no decimal point would be required. Instead of 

 learning "12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a 

 pound," school children would be taught " 100 mils in 

 a florin and 10 florins in a pound." Under this ar- 

 rangement prices lower than a £ would be quoted 

 In florins and mils just as we now employ shillings 

 and pence. 



In Its criticism of a draft Bill (submitted by the 

 Institute of Bankers) the Committee makes the 

 erroneous statement that this has been adopted also 

 bv the Association of Chambers of Commerce and 

 the Decimal Association. What really happened was 

 this : After the bankers' draft Bill had been sub- 

 mitted to the Committee, conferences took place 

 between the three above-mentioned organisations, and 

 a new Bill (based upon the bankers' draft but con- 

 taining Important modifications and Improvements) 



