CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES, 235 
France on the old measures. The consequence is we preserved it in France. 
You can preserve anything if you make it profitable for it to be preserved 
The man who gains by Black Art will fight for that by which he profits, 
ee an to make the people believe that if they abandon it they will 
Mr. Harry Atcock said: I agree with Mr. Sheppard that it is superfluous 
to dwell upon the beauties of the metric system before a body of scientific 
people. We shall have to make up our minds on what lines reform shall be 
approached. ‘here are two schools. One says you retain our present measures 
inch and pound and gallon, and divide them into decimal portions. In that way 
you will get the advantage of the decimal; but the most superficial examination 
will satisfy us that this is indefensible. The manufacturer must have his inch 
the surveyor and civil engineer his foot, and the navigator his fathom. In 
addition to that, one has to bear in mind that after you had succeeded in 
adapting the system of British weights and measures to these alterations you 
would still have a bad system, because there would be no correlation between 
the units in the same simple delightful way we have in the metric system. So 
we find we could not very much improve our system by simply re-arranging 
existing units on the decimal system. It comes back to this: we must have 
one universal unit of quantity by which manufacturers and consumers can 
communicate without any possibility of doubt. 
On the question of the metric system becoming uniform throughout the 
world, the speaker referred specifically to America and Russia as follows : 
America’s trade is largely a domestic trade. The market for her manu: 
facturers has been until quite recently a domestic market. | What happens 
as soon as a nation aspires to become an exporting nation? People tell you 
that if you are to cater for the foreign markets you must adopt a new system. 
Comparing Great Britain and America, we depend on the volume of our export 
trade, and it is therefore very much more to our interest that we should change 
to the metric system than even America; and once we have taken the plunge 
here we shall be followed by America. 
Russia is quoted as a non-metric country; but it is an interesting fact that, 
in so far as she is a manufacturing State, work has been for some years 
conducted on the metric basis. The Russian measures relate to the land 
measurements, railway measures, and so on; but in trade and manufacture these 
are already converted to the metric system. 
We could not have a suitable discussion of the metric system without paying 
tribute to the very excellent work done in the interest of the system by Lord 
Kelvin. He was a stalwart advocate of it; he was in advance of his time; but 
when the turmoil of the war opens our eyes to the weakness of our national 
system we shall achieve the reform which Lord Kelvin so strenuously adyocated 
for many years. 
At the end of the war we shall be burdened with a huge national debt. 
The only way to remove the pressure of that burden will be to export produce 
in enormously increased quantity, and export it throughout the world. We 
shall be awfully lacking if we continue to use our British weights and measures 
and absurd arrangemerts when we attempt to trade with nations abroad who 
have adopted what we are now advocating. 
- The Prusipenr said: I am sure we are indebted to Mr. Hart Gordon 
and Mr. Alcock for their remarks, and also to Mr. Sheppard for his paper. 
One point that has not been touched upon is the immense amount of saving 
the metric system would be in education. It would take years of school life, 
or, rather, the children would be able to do so much more in other ways which 
they cannot possibly now do, because they have to learn our intricate system 
of weights and measures. I have a good deal of calculation to do myself, 
and I very frequently put the figures into decimals, and work out my cal- 
culations and re-convert them into our system. That would not have to be 
done if we had the metric system established. Not only in such calculation, 
but in all commercial transactions, in all book-keeping, an increased amount of 
work could be done in the same time. I believe there are some here who are not so 
fully alive to the advantages of the metric system as I am. They will have a 
good opportunity to-morrow morning of stating their views. 
