358 > . REPORT — 1866. 



2. The introduction of the system into the Post-offices, by making a 

 single letter weigh 15 grammes, instead of 14-17 grammes or half an ounce. 



3. To cause the new cent and two-cent pieces to be so coined that they shall 

 weigh respectively 5 and 10 grammes, and that their diameter shall be made to 

 bear a determinate and simple ratio to the metric unit of length. 



Such were the recommendations which the National Academy of Sciences 

 forwarded to Congress in January last. The Report was at once referred to 

 a Standing Committee of the House of Eepresentatives on Weights, Measures, 

 and Coins, which had been wisely constituted at the beginning of the present 

 Congress to take cognizance of this important subject. This Committee was 

 constituted chiefly through the exertions of the Hon. J. A. Kasson, who 

 became its Chairman, and to his energy its prompt action is greatly due. 

 He obtained the assistance of Professor Newton, of Yale College, a well- 

 known man of science, as Clerk to the Committee ; and with his aid a Eeport 

 was prepared and printed in May last, which is well worthy of the attention 

 of all friends of the metric system. 



After examining at some length the whole subject of weights and measures 

 in the United States, Mr. Kasson's Eeport proceeds to demonstrate the 

 progress which is being made by the meti'ic system throughout the world. 

 With regard to the action of England, it declares that the course taken by 

 the House of Commons " must be regarded as evincing a deliberate intention 

 to introduce the meti'ic system into England, and as giving up any purpose 

 of creating a separate system founded upon the yard, the foot, or the inch, 

 and as paving the way for the ultimate exclusive adoption of the metric 

 system." 



The Report next points out and illustrates by Tables the inconveniences 

 and want of system of the weights and measvu'es now in use in America, 

 with all which we are sufficiently acquainted, and contrasts therewith the 

 order, simphcity, and perfect harmony of the metric plan. 



The Report pronounces strongly on several grounds against a change of 

 nomenclature, and after illustrating by a Table the somewhat astonishing 

 fact that of the total value of the imports and exports of the United States for 

 1860, which amounted in all to 762,000,000 dollars, the amount of nearly 

 700,000,000 doUars was with nations and their dependencies that have 

 now authorized or taken the preliminary steps to authorize the metric system, 

 concludes as follows : — 



Your Committee imanimousl}^ recommend the passage of the Bills and joint 

 Resolutions appended to this Report. They were not prepared to go, at this time, 

 beyond this stage of progress in the proposed reform. The metric system 

 is already used in some arts and trades in this country, and is especially adapted to 

 the wants of others. Some of its measures are ah-eady manufactured at Bangor, 

 in Maine, to meet an existuig demand at home and abroad. The manufacturers of 

 the well-known Fairbanks scales state, "For many years we have had a large 

 export demand for om* scales with French weights, and the demand and sale is 

 constantly increasing." Its minute and exact divisions specially adapt it to the 

 use of chemists, apothecaries, the finer operations of the artisan, and to aU scientilic 

 objects. It has always been and is now used in the United States' coast survey*. 

 Yet in some of the States, owing to the phraseology of their laws, it would be 

 a direct violation of them to use it in the business transactions of the com- 

 munitv. It is therefore very important to legalize its use, and give to the people, 

 or that portion of them desiring it, the opportimity for its legal employment, 

 while the knowledge of its characteristics will be thus diiiused among men. 



* I ascertained that the metric weights are in use in the Assaying Department of the 

 U.S. Treasury at New York, and by analytical chemists generally throughout America. — 

 H. Y. T. 



