STANDARD. 



double what it now is." According to thij fimple flcetch, it 

 will be readily confefled that the nomenclature adopted by 

 the law of 1795, is more methodical, more conformable to 

 the principles of common numeration, and therefore more 

 fufceptible of all applications of the decimal calculation. 



Some laws applied alfo the decimal fcale to the divifum of 

 the day and of the year, which did not require fuch a 

 change ; they have been fucceffively repealed. 



Extraft from the law of the i8lh Germinal, 1795, '■^^^' 

 tive to weights and meafures. 



Art. II. Tiiere (hall be t)Ut one (tandard of weie;hts and 

 meafures, — it fliall be a rod of platina, on which the metre, 

 the fundamental unit of the whole fyftem of meafures, (hall 

 be traced. 



The fecond article of the law of the 19th Fiimaire, 1800, 

 acknowledges alfo the kilogramme for the ftandard. 



Art. V. Their nomenclature is definitively adopted as 

 follows : 



Metre, the meafure of length, equal to the 1 0,000,000th 

 part of the arc of the terreftrial meridian, contained be- 

 tween the north pole and the equator. 



yire, the meafure of fuperficies for land, equal to a fquare 

 of ten metres each fide. 



Stere, the meafure particularly intended for fire-wood, and 

 which fhall be equal to the cubic metre. 



Litre, the meafure of capacity, both for liquids and dry 

 goods, the contents of which (hall be equal to the cubic 

 metre. 



Gramme, the abfoliite weight of a volume of pure water, 

 equal to the cube of the hundredth part of the metre, of 

 the temperature of melted ice. 



The \mit of monies (hall be called y>jnc, to replace the 

 name iivre. ufed hitherto. 



Art. VI. The tenth part of the metre (hall be called de- 

 elmetre, and its loodth part centimetre ; what fhall be called 

 decametre is a meafure equal to 10 metres, which fupplies a 

 convenient meafure for furveying. HeSometre (hall fignify 

 the length of 100 metres. Kilometre and myr'iametre fhall 

 be lengths of 1000 and 10,000 metres, and (hall defignate 

 principally itinerary diltances. 



Art. VII. The denominations of the meafures of other 

 kinds fhall be determined according to the fame prin- 

 ciples as thofe of the preceding article. 



Thus, decilitre (hall be a meafure of capacity ten times 

 f mailer than the litre ; centigramme (hall be the lOodth part 

 of the weight of a gramme. 



Decalitre (hall likewife be ufed to defignate a meafure 

 containing 10 litres ; heliolitre for a meafure equal to 100 

 litres ; a kilogramme fhall be a weight of 1000 grammes. 



In a fimilar manner the names of all other meafures fliall 

 be compofed. 



For a comparifon of the French and Engli(h weights and 

 meafures, fee our articles Measuke and Weight. 



Prefent State of Standards of IVeights and Meafures in 

 France. — The fuccefs of the metrical fyltem adopted in 

 France is a fubjedl of interelting and important inquiry. 

 The plan was originally confidered fo excellent, that 

 hopes were entertained of other nations following the 

 example. This cxpeftatioii, however, has not been realized, 

 nor has that beautiful and fcientific theory been found un- 

 exceptionable in praftice. On the contrary, it met with 

 fuch oppofition on account of the Greek and Latin terms, 

 and the decimal divifions, that in i8ol the government 

 allowed the people to ufe, for a limited time, their ancient 

 vocabulary of names, applying them to the new ftandards, 

 which are ftill retained. And in 1812, a further concef- 

 Con was made, by the imperial government, to the pre- 



judices and habits of the people. They were allowed to 

 continue the ancient vocabulary applied to the new ftandards, 

 with the word ufuel added to each : thus, two metres are the 

 toife ufuelle ; half a kilogramme, the livre ufuelle. Sic. : and 

 thefe units are not divided decimally, but into halves, 

 quarters, and eighths : the long meafures are alfo divided 

 duodecimally. 



Befides the binary divifions of weights, the iivre vfuelle 

 is divided into ounces, gros, and grains, like the ancient 

 Iivre, poids de marc. Hence, the new ounce and its divifions 

 depart fo widely from the gramme, that the proportion 

 cannot be afcertained without a troublefome calculation. 



Thus, after more than twenty years of troublefome ex- 

 periment and trial of the metrical fyltem, the only advantage 

 that has been gained is that of edablidiing one common 

 (tandard, the metre; but uniformity might as well have been 

 obtained by making their ancient toife, (fo univerfally 

 known,) their ftandard. The chi.f recommendation of 

 the metre, as dated in the foregoing decree, as well as by 

 the authors on the metrical fydem, Brillat, Briflbn, and 

 Tarbe, is, that (hould it be ever altered or lod, it may be 

 eafily redored, not by a fecond mea'^urement of the meri- 

 dian, but by a comparifon with the pendulum. Thus 

 they allow the pendulum to be the regulator of linear 

 meafure as well as of time, and, in (hort, the ultimate crite- 

 rion, and of courfe the principal dandard. 



The following tables diew at one view the labours of the 

 greateft mathematicians and philofophers to determine 

 the figure of the earth, and thence to deduce ftandard 

 meafures. But it may be proper firft to premife, in addition 

 to our account of experiments on the pendulum by the 

 Englilh and French aftronomers, what thofe of Spain have 

 recently done in difterent parts of the globe, in purfuit 

 of the fame important objeft. 



About the year 1789, the Spanilh government fent out 

 an expedition of two frigates, the Defcubierta and the At- 

 trevida, under the command of Alexander Malafpina, in 

 order to make experiments with the pendulum in different 

 parts of the world, and particularly with a view to afcer- 

 tain if the fouthern hemifphere differed from the northern, 

 as was fuppofed, and indeed warranted, by the few mea- 

 furements antecedently made on the fouth fide of the 

 equator by La Caille and Bouguer. 



The new experiments were made with a deal rod pen- 

 dulum, and other necedary apparatus, under the direftion and 

 management of M. Cifcar, who appears to have been well 

 qualified for the undertaking. The particulars of his im- 

 portant labours are detailed by M. Mathieu, in the " Con- 

 noiffance des Terns" of the prefent year (1816), who dates 

 that M. Cifcar made fixteen experiments, from N. lat. 595° 

 to S. lat. JI^", and in very diderent longitudes ; and com- 

 pared them vifith the theory which Laplace eftablilhed in his 

 " Mecaniqiie Celefte," on fifteen meafurements of the pen- 

 dul im, which led, by one method of calculation to make 

 the earth's ellipticity -v4 t, and by another ji-. The re- 

 fults deduced from M. Cifcar's experiments do not determine 

 which is correft, but they tend to (hew that the two he- 

 mifphercs are nearly alike, as may be feen by the following 

 table of ellipticities. 



As to the lengths of the pendulum, they do not differ 

 materially from thofe already computed, making allowance 

 for its being lengthened, in order to make the fame num- 

 ber of vibrations in a vacuum as it did in the air. The 

 calculations giv -n of thefe alterations, according to the 

 variable ftate of the atmofphere, are very curious, and well 

 worthy the attention of philofophers engaged in experiments 

 on the pendulum. 



Length 



