On a Uniform System of Weights, Measures, and Coins for All Nations |
Other editions - View all
On an Uniform System of Weights, Measures, and Coins for All Nations ... Henry Hennessy No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
Academy of Sciences adop adopted advantages appear April 28 Arabic numerals arise arithmetic arose arrangements Association astronomers Best Unit Britain and Ireland calculations calendar CHARLES SUMNER commissioners computation connected count countries dard decimal coinage decimal metrical system decimal scale deduced Delambre determined difficulties dimensions Dunkirk Earth Earth's figure ellipsoid of revolution England entire establishment estimated Europe favour France French metrical system geodesical operations Gregorian Calendar improvement invariable Ireland kilogramme labours latitude liquid mankind Mechain mental indolence ments meridian metres mils multiples nomenclature numerical system objects observers obstacles ordinary Paris peculiarities philosophical physical planet Poids et Mesures political possess prejudices present previously proposed provinces Pyrenees render Revolution scientific second's pendulum signals stan standard of length steeples sults supposed surface system of coins system of weights temperature tion toise triangulation trical system UNIFORM SYSTEM Unit of Length unit of weight universal system weights and measures
Popular passages
Page 22 - ... and one-third English inches. The standards of surface and capacity, as may be readily conceived, were deduced from multiples or submultiples of the linear standard. Thus a square ten metres long was designated as the standard of surface for land measure; in other words, the value of this unit is one hundred square metres. The standard of capacity for liquids was determined by finding a cylindrical volume equal to a cube whose edges are formed by tenths of the linear standard. This is the litre,...
Page 2 - What is the Best Unit of Length? An Inquiry addressed to the International Association for obtaining a Uniform Decimal System of Measures, Weights and Coins; with Answers from the British Branch of the Association, showing that the Best Unit of Length is the Metre.
Page 14 - ... that these objects should be well defined in outline and clearly visible. Such objects as towers and steeples are well adapted for this purpose ; but they are not always so situated as to meet the requirements of the system of triangulation. On this account, artificial signals have to be frequently constructed, usually pyramidal structures of wood or stone. By the aid of powerful lamps, night observations are also capable of being made with very satisfactory results. Under the existing circumstances,...
Page 19 - Sress was very slow, from the necessity of defraying all coun- expenses with the now greatly depreciated assignats. tered After an absence of several months from this quarter, in order to execute the tedious and difficult operation of determining with precision the latitude of Dunkirk, he proceeded with the work to the south of Bourges, among the central districts of France. Some trouble, and much delay, arose in this part of the country, owing to the manner in which church steeples, that would nave...
Page 14 - ... for a short time under arrest, until regularly liberated by authority. As he advanced, the obstacles to his progress gradually diminished, and he was able to commence his labours without any interference. In autumn he had completed the entire measurement of the angles of the several stations distributed across the Pyrenees and the north-east of Spain. The following winter was to be employed in astronomical determinations at the southern extremity of the arc.
Page 5 - French metrical system. entirely displaced the complex and cumbrous Roman numerical symbols among the northern nations. The Arabic numerals were unknown in Russia until the time of Peter the Great; they were employed in England about two centuries before, but there, the barbarous Roman system still lingered among the accounts of the exchequer down to a very recent time. And this improvement was even for a while successfully resisted by one of those statesmen* whose rank is usually supposed to supply...
Page 15 - Delambre despatched one of his assistants to Paris to obtain fresh passports, which were rendered the more necessary from changes that had taken place in the supreme power. He prudently abstained from presenting himself, as he foresaw that he would be told to postpone his labours to an epoch of greater tranquillity, and that with such a postponement, an indefinite period might elapse before the undertaking could be again resumed. In the meanwhile he caused his passports to be vis6d at St. Denis,...
Page 8 - The apathy or open opposition presented by successive British administrations during the last half century to the formal introduction of a uniform decimal system of weights, measures, and coins into the commercial system of England, will probably hereafter be pointed out in history as a remarkable instance of the superior influence of prejudices and mental indolence over the strongest claims of general utility and common sense. The country to which the human race owes the first The step towards the...
Page 11 - Britannic majesty, in order that he would obtain the cooperation of the English legislature with the National Assembly for the determination of a natural unit for the comparison of weights and measures, so that, with the sanction of both nations, an equal number of commissioners, chosen from the Academy of Sciences and from the Royal Society, could meet, in order to find at the parallel of latitude half way between the equator and the pole, or any suitable parallel, the length of the second's pendulum....
Page 26 - ... scientific determinations where a higher degree of precision is desirable. On this account it has even been proposed to abandon natural standards altogether, and to merely adopt the old system with additional precautions of inclosing the standards in a place of safety, whence they could be obtained for rarely occurring and important national objects, only with great trouble and with the sanction of the highest legislative authority. The estab- shown to lishment of a natural standard does not,...