682 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 516. 



GERMANY AND THE METRIC SYSTEM. 



To THE Editor of Science: In a recent 

 issue of your journal a correspondent re- 

 peated ilip statement that the weights and 

 measures of Germany were changed in 1870 

 from the old to the metric standards in a very 

 short time ; as he expressed it, it took " if not 

 a fortnight, certainly only a few months, to 

 make the ' masses ' familiar with it, and about 

 a year after the introduction there were but 

 a few old and decrepit people that had been 

 unable to master it." 



This statement has frequently appeared in 

 but a slightly modified form and backed by 

 more or less high authority. Thus: 



Lord Kelvin in tlie House of Lords, February 

 23, 1904 : In Germany, France and Italy no incon- 

 venience resulted from the introduction of the 

 metric system, and there was no such thing as a 

 complaint. The change in Germany occupied 

 only two years. Sir W. Ramsay wrote : ' I was 

 in Germany during the change there; it gave no 

 trouble whatever and was recognized within a 

 week.'' 



A witness before the Committee on Coinage, 

 Weights and Measures at Washington, February 

 6, 1902: In talking to my head man about it- 

 strange to say, we have one employee in a very 

 important position, a German, who was in Ger- 

 many in a somewhat similar position at the time 

 the metric system was made compulsory there — 

 he informed me that there is no real difficulty in 

 making the change. 



William Mauer, Secretary of the Germania 

 Mills, Holyoke, Mass: The writer lived in Ger- 

 many in 1871, when that country adopted the 

 metric system, which gave great satisfaction, and 

 the German population regretted at that time 

 that they had not had the system long before. 



Under any conditions such a radical change 

 in the weights and measures ■ of a country 

 would be a cause of wonder. The very rapid- 

 ity with which it is said to have been effected 

 excites incredulity, which neither the emi- 

 nence of the authorities who vouch for it nor 

 a knowledge of the thoroughness of the rule 

 of blood and iron by the Bismarckian regime 

 can wholly remove. This doubt is further 

 strengthened by testimony as t.o present con- 

 ditions in Germany, of which a few examples 

 follow : 



Friedrieh Frowein, Barmen, 1901, ' Kalkulator 

 fuer Artikel der Textilbranehe,' a handbook for 

 textile workers. Gives complicated formulas for 

 converting difl'erent standards, including the Prus- 

 sian, Wiirtemberg, Baden and Bavarian ells. 

 Gives calculations of cost, all involving a variety 

 of standards. In the one for cotton tape there 

 are the French inch, the English yard, the French 

 line, the English pound and the meter. 



Leipziger Monatschrift, October 31, 1902. A 

 yarn calculation table based on the Vienna inch, 

 English yard, English pound and the meter. 



The same journal, July, 1903. An article on 

 textile calculations in which are found the Saxon 

 inch, English yard and pound and the metric 

 standards. 



Donat, ' Methodik der Bindungslehre,' Leipzig, 

 1901. Gives a list of standards in use in Ger- 

 many which include the following: Leipzig, 

 Bohemian, Berlin, Brabant, Vienna, English and 

 French ells; English, Liepzig, French and Vienna 

 pounds; Leipzig, English, Vienna and French 

 inches. 



Sixteen different systems of numbering yarn 

 are in use in Germany based on the Berlin pound, 

 the kilogram and half-kilogram, the English yard, 

 the Berlin, Brabant and Leipzig ells and the 

 meter. 



Muenchner Allgemeine Zeitung, 1902. At the 

 session of the tariff commission on June 24, 1902, 

 the introduction of the metric system for cotton 

 yarn came up for discussion. According to 

 Abgeordnete Muench-Ferber, who is a manufac- 

 turer of cotton and woolen goods at Hof, Bayern, 

 the introduction of the metric system would throw 

 the German weaving industry into heillose 

 Verwirrung because the German machinery is 

 based on the English system. 



In the light of this evidence as to the 

 present conditions of German standards, those 

 who seek the truth about the metric system 

 have a right to ask for something more con- 

 vincing than a repetition of the old story 

 about a miraculous change in Germany thirty- 

 four years ago. The evidence in conflict with 

 that story can not be laughed to one side. The 

 fact that the weights and measures of a great 

 German industry are in a state of chaos to-day 

 is proof that what we are asked to accept as 

 the miracle of 1870 is, in fact, a myth of 1904. 



Samuel S. Dale. 

 Boston, Mass., 

 October 18, 1904. 



