4i6      Metric  System  of  Weights  and  Measures.  {^'SSerSi 
damaged  parts  of  a  locomotive  that  has  been  in  use  for  years,  we 
will  appreciate  that  it  would  not  do  in  practice  to  depend  on  the 
measuring  stick,  or  measuring  ability  of  the  different  men  that 
handle  each  one  of  these  separate  pieces. 
According  to  Mr.  Vauclain,  the  only  department  of  a  modern 
machine  shop  where  actual  measures  are  used,  is  the  draughting- 
room,  and  here  the  introduction  of  the  metric  system  would  be 
hailed  as  a  distinct  advance,  facilitating  as  it  would  the  making  of 
drawings  to  scale,  on  account  of  the  interchangeability  and  decimal 
character  of  the  units  or  subdivisions  of  the  lineal  measure.  The 
chief  advantage  of  the  metric  system,  and  the  one  that  is  admitted 
by  its  most  violent  opponent,  is  the  correlation  that  exists  between 
the  fundamental  units.  As  was  pointed  out  by  another  member  of 
the  Franklin  Institute,  this  harmony  of  relation  tends  to  facilitate 
computation,  and  also  reduces  the  strain  on  the  memory  in  arith- 
metical calculations. 
This  is  of  great  importance  at  the  present  time,  where  technical 
or  commercial  calculations  play  so  important  a  part  in  the  conduct 
of  every-day  business  transactions.  It  will  readily  be  admitted  that 
if  all  factors  could  be  reduced  to  decimals  a  considerable  amount  ot 
time  could  be  saved  in  making  the  extended  and  many  times  com- 
plicated computations  that  are  necessitated  by  modern  commercial 
or  industrial  practices. 
Another  advantage,  and  one  that  should  not  be  lightly  gone  over, 
was  dwelt  on  by  Mr.  Christie,  of  the  American  Bridge  Company. 
This  is  the  facility  with  which  one  can  retain  in  memory  the  funda- 
mental elements  of  the  metric  system,  and  the  ease  with  which  a 
clear  comprehension  of  these  elements  may  be  impressed  even  on 
the  mind  of  a  child.  We  will  appreciate  this  the  more  if  we  com- 
pare it  with  the  complicated  tables  that  must  be  memorized,  if  we 
wish  to  retain  even  a  most  elementary  off-hand  knowledge  of  our 
complicated  systems  of  weights  and  measures. 
One  other  objection  that  is  usually  made  to  the  metric  system  is 
the  complicated  and  to  us  foreign  nomenclature.  It  is  usually 
asserted  that  there  are  too  many  units,  or  too  many  names  to  be 
memorized.  In  answer  to  this  it  has  been  repeatedly  pointed  out 
that  this  is  no  valid  objection,  but  that  in  actual  practice  many  of 
these  different  names  rapidly  disappear.  In  the  case  of  our  decimal 
coinage,  mills,  dimes  and  eagles  are  seldom  used  or  even  referred 
to,  the  dollar  and  cent  being  the  only  units  in  practical  use. 
