Februaey 19, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



297 



R. E. We will send this to you as soon as possible, 

 with the portion relating to our experience marked. 

 Meanwhile, in case it does not reach you to he in time 

 for use, we will state here that our reasons for adopt- 

 ing the metric linear measures were mainly two, both 

 commercial : ( 1 ) To enable us to continue the inter- 

 changeable system, on which we work with our Con- 

 tinental licenses, and ( 2 ) to promote the sale of our 

 engines in countries using the metric system. 



It was considered possible that, although a specialty, 

 the fact of our engines being figured in inches might 

 tell against them when competing with others figured 

 in millimetres. The results have been most satis- 

 factory in all departments. In the drawing oflSce it 

 has been found that the change makes it easier to de- 

 sign, calculate, plot dimensions, check and read 

 drawings. No mistakes have been made that can be 

 traced to the change. In the works, where we chiefly 

 work to gauges, there has been no difficulty in mark- 

 ing the latter, and marking o2 is easier. In a short 

 time the men preferred metric measurements, and the 

 change has involved no difficulty whatever. Trusting 

 this may be of service to you, we are, sir, 

 Yours faithfully, 



(Signed) Willans & Eobinson. 



There were also presented the following 

 extracts from British Consular Reports col- 

 lected by the New Decimal Association 

 established to Promote the Adoption of a 

 Decimal System of "Weights, Measures and 

 Coinage in the United Kingdom : 



EOTTEEDAJI, October 22, 1894. — "The simplicity 

 of the Decimal System is so obvious that its adoption 

 in England cannot fail to be of great advantage to all 

 interested in the trade with those counties where it 

 already is in vogue. ' ' 



Milan, Italy, October 18, 1894.— "As an engi- 

 neer of some 20 years' residence upon the Continent, 

 I have no hesitation whatever in stating that the 

 present system of English weights and measures is 

 detrimental to British commercial interests in coun- 

 tries like this, where the Decimal and Metrical System 

 is in force. 



" The sooner the Decimal System is adopted by 

 Great Britain the more advantageous for her commer- 

 cial interests when trading with the Continent in par- 

 ticular, as also to facilitate home calculations, espe- 

 cially in engineering departments, where excessive 

 accuracy is an absolute necessity." 



Varna, October 23, 1894. — " If the quotations and 

 specifications in Trade Lists are made out in English 

 Standards of Weights and Measures, intending pur- 

 chasers here generally throw them aside and consult 



others which give the required information in metres, 

 kilogrammes, etc. 



" In the Varna Trade Report for 1892 it is men- 

 tioned thatitis especially in hardware and machinery 

 that the non-adoption of the Metrical System acts 

 most prejudicially against British manufactured 

 goods. 



" Commission agents here have repeatedly told me 

 that though they represent British firms also they have, 

 when a customer requires precise data as to the work- 

 ing and capabilities of a machine, to refer to some 

 rival foreign maker's catalogue, with the result that 

 the order is often placed with the latter. 



"Not long ago a man came to me with the 

 price list of a British machinery maker, and I con- 

 verted for him the specifications into their metrical 

 equivalents. He then said that the machine in ques- 

 tion seemed just what he wanted, and that he would 

 order one for trial, and give repeat orders if it turned 

 out satisfactory. Meeting him again some time after, 

 he told me that, although he would have preferred 

 buying the English machine, he had imported one of 

 German make, firstly, because he could not be 

 bothered with recurring calculations based on an un- 

 familiar system, and secondly, because the measure- 

 ments did not properly coincide with his existing 

 machinery plant of Continental make." 



Constantinople, October 22, 1894. — "There is 

 no doubt that the complicated and puzzling system of 

 weights and measures still obtaining in England is 

 long out of date, and has become more and more of 

 an anachronism as England has increased her foreign 

 trade. 



' ' Personally I have, during my long official career, 

 seen so frequently the inconvenience of the old system 

 that I have for very many years been a convert to the 

 ideas of your Association. " 



EoDEN, October 24, 1894.— " Within the past 16 

 years I have served as H. M. 's Consul in three coun- 

 tries using the Metric and Decimal Systems, and I 

 have not unfrequently had occasion to observe the 

 maze into which an English trade prospectus or cir- 

 cular, if drawn up only on the British system, throws 

 a foreigner accustomed from childhood to the perfect 

 simplicity of the Metric System. And there is no 

 doubt in my mind that the uncertainty and confusion 

 thus created at times leads to the rejection byawould- 

 be purchaser of a British manufacturer's circular or 

 offers of sale. 



"The British customs tariff is a model of brief 

 simplicity, and yet we are often called upon to ex- 

 plain it. Within the past month I have been asked 

 to explain 'what a duty of 14/6 a gallon means and 

 what is 7/- a cwt. for dried fruit?' That is to say, 

 what are their equivalents in metric weights and 



