No. 19. [From The Times, February, 1903. 



THE METRICAL SYSTEM 



IN view of the agitation to induce Parliament to make 

 the use of the metrical system of weights and measures 

 compulsory in this country, it may not be amiss to direct 

 attention to some matters relating to this system which have 

 not recently been brought prominently under the notice of 

 the public. 



Laplace, in his Exposition du Systemc du Monde, gives 

 a short and clear account of the reasons which actuated the 

 "Assemblee Constituante " when it referred to the Academy 

 of Sciences the duty of preparing a new system of weights 

 and measures, and of the system which the committee 

 appointed by the Academy produced in response to this 

 remit. As Laplace was a member, and perhaps not the 

 least influential member, of this committee, the account 

 which he gives can be accepted without question. It really 

 forms a digression in the chapter dealing with the figure 

 of the earth and the variation of the force of gravity at 

 its surface. Although the force of gravity is different at 

 different localities on the earth's surface, it is believed to 

 be constant in the same locality. Consequently the length 

 of the pendulum which beats seconds in any locality is 

 a constant length and can at any time be recovered. The 

 idea that this might be made the basis of a metrical 

 system suggested the digression on the subject of weights 

 and measures. 



The committee appointed by the Academy to deal with 

 this matter consisted of Borda, Lagrange, Laplace, Monge, 

 and Condorcet, all of them distinguished mathematicians. 



