The West American Scientist. 
Rapost impossible to transform all the existing standards into ~~ 
fractions of the metre and its derivitives. The existing standards 
must dis: appear in order to make way for the new. An instance 
will suffice for illustration. The number of screw thienle to 
‘the inch now standard (the Whitworth system in England, and 
the Sellers in the Wnited States) must be altered entirely if a defi- 
nite integral number of threads to the centimetre are to be cut 
upon bolts and in nuts. The sizes of iron and steel bars, and 
the thickness of boiler plates, as manufactured, must be changed, 
ogether with the standard sizes of gas pipes and tubes of all 
ads. Gas pipe threads, like those of bolts and nuts, would 
“The advent at new sizes fad standards would hamper the 
ility with which repairs to Sane, SerEConres and mnaciinpe 
. cot great Licklity. does not lend itself at all readily for daily 
e by the bulk of the people who are engaged in buying and sel!- 
ng articles or substances in small quantities. A fifth or a 10th 
| to it only disappeared after the conpulsory adoption of the : 
tem had removed all free choice in the matter from them. __ 
