SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON TWO BILLS AND A JOINT RESOLUTION RELATING TO
THE METRIC SYSTEM, JULY 27, 1866.
May 18th, Mr. Sumner moved the appointment by the Chair of a
special committee of five, to which all bills and measures
relating to the metric system should be referred; and the
motion was agreed to.
May 23d, the Chair appointed Mr. Sumner, Mr. Sherman, of Ohio,
Mr. Morgan, of New York, Mr. Nesmith, of Oregon, and Mr.
Guthrie, of Kentucky. Two bills and a joint resolution which
had passed the House of Representatives were referred to the
committee, and July 16th reported to the Senate by Mr. Sumner,
with the recommendation that they pass, namely:--
“A Bill to authorize the use of the metric system of
weights and measures.”
“A Joint Resolution to enable the Secretary of the Treasury
to furnish to each State one set of the standard weights
and measures of the metric system.”
“A Bill to authorize the use in post-offices of weights of
the denomination of grams.”
July 27th, on motion of Mr. Sumner, these were taken up and
passed.
MR. PRESIDENT,--At another time I might be induced to go into this
question at some length; but now, in these latter days of a weary
session, and under these heats, I feel that I must be brief. And yet
I could not pardon myself, if I did not undertake, even at this time,
to present a plain and simple account of the great change which is now
proposed.
There is something captivating in the idea of weights and measures
common to all the civilized world, so that, in this at least, the
confusion of Babel may be overcome. Kindred is that other idea of one
money; and both are forerunners, perhaps, of the grander idea of one
language for all the civilized world. Philosophy does not despair of
this triumph at some distant day; but a common system of weights and
measures and a common system of money are already within the sphere of
actual legislation. The work has already begun; and it cannot cease
until the great object is accomplished.
If the United States come tardily into the circle of nations
recognizing a common system of weights and measures, I confess that
I have pleasure in recalling the historic fact that at a very early
day this important subject was commended to Congress. Washington, in
a speech to the First Congress, touched the key-note, when he used
the word “uniformity” in connection with this subject. “Uniformity,”
he said, “in the currency, weights, and measures of the United States
is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly
attended to.”[51] Then again in a speech to the next Congress he went
further, in expressing a desire for “a standard at once _invariable and
universal_.”[52] Here he foreshadowed a system common to the civilized
world. It is for us now to recognize the standard he thus sententiously
described. All hail to a standard “invariable and universal”!
I shall not occupy time in developing the history of these efforts
on the part of our Government; but I cannot forbear mentioning that
Mr. Jefferson, while Secretary of State, made an elaborate report,
where he proposed “reducing every branch to the same decimal ratio
already established in the coins, and thus bringing the calculation
of the principal affairs of life within the arithmetic of every man
who can multiply and divide plain numbers.”[53] Here is an essential
element in the common system we seek to establish. This was in 1790,
when France was just beginning those efforts which ended at last in
the establishment of the metric system. The subject was revived at
different times in Congress without definite result. President Madison,
in his annual message of 1816, called attention to it in the following
words:--
“The great utility of a standard _fixed in its nature
and founded on the easy rule of decimal proportions_ is
sufficiently obvious. It led the Government at an early stage
to preparatory steps for introducing it; and a completion of
the work will be a just title to the public gratitude.”[54]
Out of this recommendation originated that call of the Senate which
drew forth the masterly report of John Quincy Adams on the whole
subject of weights and measures, where learning, philosophy, and
prophetic aspiration vie with each other. After reviewing whatever had
appeared in the past, and subjecting it all to careful examination, he
says of the French metric system, then only an experiment:--
“This system approaches to the ideal perfection of uniformity
applied to weights and measures, and, whether destined to
succeed or doomed to fail, will shed unfading glory upon the
age in which it was conceived and upon the nation by which its
execution was attempted and has been in part achieved.”[55]
This was in 1821, when the metric system, already invented, was still
struggling for adoption in France.
This brief sketch shows how from the beginning the National Government
has been looking to a system common to the civilized world. And now
this aspiration seems about to be fulfilled. The bills before you have
already passed the other House; if they become laws, as I trust, they
will be the practical commencement of the “new order.”
* * * * *
Before proceeding to explain the proposed system, let me exhibit for
one moment the necessity of change, as illustrated by weights and
measures in the past.
Language is coeval with man as a social being. Weights and measures are
hardly less early in origin. They are essential to the operations of
society, and are naturally common to all who belong to the same social
circle. At the beginning, each people had a system of its own; but as
nations gradually intermingle and distant places are brought together
by the attractions of commerce, the system of one nation becomes
inadequate to the necessities of the composite body. A common system
becomes important just in proportion to the community of interests.
Next to diversity of languages, discordant weights and measures attest
the insulation of nations.
The earliest measures were derived from the several parts of the
human body. Such was the cubit, which was the distance between the
elbow and the end of the middle finger, being about twenty-two inches.
Such also were the foot, the hand, the span, the nail, and the thumb.
These measures were derived from Nature, and they were to be found
wherever a human being existed. But they partook of the uncertainty in
the proportions of the human form. When Selden, in his “Table-Talk,”
wittily likened Equity, so far as it depended on the Chancellor, to a
measure determined by the length of the Chancellor’s foot, he exposed
not only the uncertainty of Equity, but also the uncertainty of such a
measure.
Even in Greece, where Art prevailed in the most beautiful forms, the
famous _stadium_ was none the less uncertain. It was the distance that
Hercules could run without taking breath, being six hundred times the
length of his foot.
Our own standards, derived from England, are of an equally fanciful
character. The unit of _length_ is the barley-corn, taken from the
middle of the ear and well dried. Three of these in a straight line
make an inch. The unit of _weight_ is a grain of wheat, taken, like
the barley-corn, from the middle of the ear and well dried. Of these,
twenty-four are equal to a pennyweight. Twenty pennyweights make an
ounce, and twelve ounces make a pound. The unit of _capacity_ is
derived from the weight of grains of wheat. Eight pounds of these make
one gallon of wine measure.
Nor are the extreme vagueness and instability of these standards the
only surprise. There is no principle of science or convenience in the
progression of the different series. Thus we have two pints to a quart,
three scruples to a dram, four quarts to a gallon, five quarters to
an ell, five and a half yards to a perch, six feet to a fathom, eight
furlongs to a mile, twelve inches to a foot, sixteen ounces to a pound,
twenty units to a score.
Then, as if the only ruling principle governing the selection were
discord, we have different measures bearing the same name, such as the
wine pint and the dry pint, the ounce Troy and the ounce avoirdupois.
Take these last two measures as illustrating the prevailing confusion.
Both seem to come from France. The Troy weight is supposed to derive
its name from the French town of Troyes, where a celebrated fair was
once held. The term “avoirdupois” is French, and seems to have been
part of a statute which declared how weights should be determined. But
Troy and avoirdupois are different measures.
These measures, having constant differences, had accidental
differences also, in different parts of England, and also in different
parts of our own country. Even where the names are alike, the measures
are often unlike. In England the diversity was almost infinite, so that
these same measures differed in different counties, and sometimes in
different towns of the same county. Latterly in the United States the
standard has been regulated by law, but the confusion from the measures
still continues. The question naturally arises, why such confusion has
been allowed so long without correction. The answer is easy. Except
in rare instances, the triumphs of science are slow and gradual.
Traditional prejudice must be overcome. Each nation is attached to its
own imperfect system, as to its own language. Even though inferior
to another, it has the great advantage of being known to the people
that use it. To this constant impediment it is proper to add the
intrinsic difficulty of establishing a uniform system of weights and
measures which shall satisfy the demands of civilization in scientific
precision, in immediate practical applicability, and in nomenclature.
Take, for instance, the application of the decimal system, which
seems at first sight simple and complete. It is unquestionably
an immense improvement on the old confusion; but even here we
encounter a difficulty in the circumstance, long since recognized
by mathematicians, that our scale of decimal arithmetic is more the
child of chance than of philosophy. I know not if any better reason
can be given for its adoption than because man has everywhere reckoned
by his ten fingers. On this account it is often called “natural.”
But, considering whether the number _ten_ possesses any intrinsic
excellence, convenience, or fitness, as a ratio of progression, good
authorities have answered in the negative. It is the duplication of
an odd number, which can furnish neither a square nor a cube, and
which cannot be halved without departure from the decimal scale. In
this scale we seem to see always those early days when “wild in woods
the noble savage ran,” and for arithmetic used fingers or toes. An
_octaval_ system, founded on the number eight, would have been better
adapted to the divisions of material things. Among us the decimal
system is adopted for money; but you all know that we are not able
to carry it into rigid practice. Thus convenience, if not necessity,
requires the half-dollar, the quarter-dollar, the half-dime, and the
three-cent piece. In fact, eight divisions to the dollar, as prevailed
in Spain, are more available in the business of life than the decimal
division. The number _eight_ is capable of indefinite bisection. The
progression beginning with two would proceed to four, eight, sixteen,
thirty-two, sixty-four, and so on.
The decimal scale is made easy of use by the happy system of notation
borrowed from the Hindoos, which might be applied equally well to an
octaval scale; but at this time it would be vain to propose a change in
the radix of the numerical scale. The number _ten_ is the recognized
starting-point, and gives its name to the scale. It only remains for us
at present to follow other nations in applying it to an improved system
of weights and measures.
* * * * *
A system of weights and measures born of philosophy, rather than of
chance, is what we now seek. To this end old systems must be abandoned.
A chance system cannot be universal: science is universal; therefore
what is produced by science may find a home everywhere. If we consider
the proper elements or characteristics of such a system, we find at
least three essential conditions. First, the new system must have in
itself the assurance of unvarying stability, and, to this end, it
should be derived from some standard in Nature by which to correct
errors creeping into the weights and measures from time or imperfect
manufacture. Secondly, the parts should be divided decimally, as nearly
as practice will warrant, in conformity with our arithmetic. Thirdly,
it should be such as to disturb national prejudices as little as
possible.
To a common observer the difficulties of finding an unvarying standard
are not readily apparent. But philosophy shows that all things in
Nature are undergoing change; so that there would seem to be no
invariable magnitude, the same in all countries and in all times, as
Cicero pictured the great principles of Natural Law,[56] by which
a lost standard on an inaccessible island might be reproduced with
mathematical certainty. There is but one magnitude in Nature which, so
far as we know, approximates to these requisites. I refer to the length
of the pendulum vibrating seconds, which in our latitude is about 39.1
inches. This length, however, varies in travelling from the equator to
the pole, and it also varies slightly under different meridians and
the same latitude; but the law of variation has been determined with
considerable accuracy. One element in this variation is the difference
of temperature. In his report on weights and measures, Mr. Jefferson
proposed that we should find our standard in the pendulum. At the same
time, the French Government, just struggling to throw off ancestral
institutions, conceived the idea of a new system, which, founded in
science, should be common to the civilized world.
The French began not only by discarding old systems, but also by
discarding a measure derived from the pendulum. They conceived the
idea of measuring an arc of the earth’s meridian, and finding a new
unit in a subdivision of this immense span. The work was undertaken.
An arc of the meridian, embracing upward of nine degrees of latitude,
and extending from Dunkirk, in France, to the Mediterranean, near
Barcelona, in Spain, was measured with scientific care. Illustrious
names in French science, Méchain and Delambre, were engaged in the
work, which proceeded, notwithstanding domestic convulsion and foreign
war. The Reign of Terror at home and invasion from abroad did not
arrest it. Seven years elapsed before the measurements were completed,
when other nations were invited to coöperate in the establishment of
the new system.
The unit of measure was one ten-millionth part of the distance between
the equator and the north pole thus measured. It received the name
of _metre_, from the Greek, signifying _measure_. A bar of platinum,
representing this length, was prepared with all possible accuracy. This
bar was deposited in the archives of France as the perpetual standard.
Other bars have been copied from it and distributed throughout France
and in foreign countries.
There is something transcendental in the idea of this measurement of
the earth in order to find a measure for daily life. It was an immense
undertaking. But the conception seems to have been vast rather than
practical. There is reason to believe, from later labors, that there
was a serious error in the work. Thus, the distance of 10,000,000
metres from the equator to the north pole, established by the French
observers, is too small by 935 yards, according to Bessel,--by 1,410
yards, according to Puissant,--and by 1,967 yards, according to
Chazallon. Sir John Herschell also testifies with the authority of his
great name against the accuracy of this result. If there be an error
such as is supposed, then the metre ceases to be what it was called
originally, one ten-millionth part of the distance from the equator to
the north pole.
Even assuming that there is no error, and that the metre is precisely
what it purports to be, yet it is not easy to see how the artificial
standard can be corrected by recurrence to the standard in Nature.
The massive work originally undertaken will not be repeated. The
astronomers of France will not verify the accuracy of the bar of
platinum, which is the artificial standard, by another scientific
enterprise, requiring years for completion. Therefore, for all
practical purposes, the metre is really nothing else than a bar of
platinum with a certain length preserved in the archives of France. It
is not less arbitrary as a standard than the yard or foot, and it can
be perpetuated in practice only by distribution of exact copies from
the original bar, which is the assumed metre.
I have thus explained the origin and character of the metre, because I
desire that the admirable system founded on it should be seen actually
as it is. To my mind, it gains nothing from the theory which presided
at its origin. Its unit is not to be regarded as a certain portion
of the distance between the equator and the north pole, but as an
artificial measure determined with peculiar care. Had the same or any
other unit been selected without measurement of the earth, the metric
system would not have been less beautiful or perfect.
* * * * *
Look now at the system. The metre, which is assumed to be one
ten-millionth part of the distance from the equator to the pole, is,
in fact, 39⅓ inches, or 39.37 inches, in length. It is especially
the unit of _length_; but it is also the unit from which are derived
all measures of weight and capacity, square or cubic. It is at once
foundation-stone and cap-stone. It is foundation-stone to all in the
ascending series, and cap-stone to all in the descending series.
The unit of _surface measure_, or land measure, is the _are_, from the
Latin _area_, and is the square of ten metres, or, in other words, a
square of which each side is ten metres in length.
The unit of _solid measure_ is the _stere_, from the Greek, and is the
cube of a metre, or, in other words, a solid mass one metre long, one
metre broad, and one metre high.
The unit of _liquid measure_ is the _litre_, from the Greek, and is the
cube of the tenth part of the metre, which is the _decimetre_; or, in
other words, it is a vessel where by interior measurement each side and
the bottom are square _decimetres_.
The unit of _weight_ is the _gram_, also derived from the Greek,
and is the one-thousandth part of the weight of a cubic litre of
distilled water at its greatest density,--this being just above the
freezing-point.
Such are main elements of the metric system. But each of these has
multiples and subdivisions. It is multiplied decimally upward, and
divided decimally downward. The multiples are from the Greek. Thus,
_deca_, ten, _hecto_, hundred, _kilo_, thousand, and _myria_, ten
thousand, prefixed to _metre_, signify ten metres, one hundred metres,
one thousand metres, and ten thousand metres. The subdivisions are from
the Latin. Thus, _deci_, _centi_, _milli_, prefixed to _metre_, signify
one tenth, one hundredth, and one thousandth of a metre. All this
appears in the following table.
Metric Denominations and Equivalents in Denominations
Values. in use.
Myriametre, 10,000 metres, 6.2137 miles.
Kilometre, 1,000 metres, .62137 mile, or 3,280 feet and 10 inches.
Hectometre, 100 metres, 328 feet and 1 inch.
Decametre, 10 metres, 393.7 inches.
METRE, 1 metre, 39.37 inches.
Decimetre, ⅒ of a metre, 3.937 inches.
Centimetre, ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a metre, .3937 inch.
Millimetre, ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of a metre, .0394 inch.
These same prefixes may be applied in ascending and descending scales
to the are, the litre, and the gram. Thus, for example, we have
in the ascending scale, _deca_gram, _hecto_gram, _kilo_gram, and
_myria_gram,--and in the descending scale, _deci_gram, _centi_gram,
_milli_gram.
In this brief space you behold the whole metric system of weights
and measures. What a contrast to the anterior confusion! A boy at
school can master the metric system in an afternoon. Months, if not
years, are required to store away the perplexities, incongruities, and
inconsistencies of the existing weights and measures, and then memory
must often fail in reproducing them. The mystery of compound arithmetic
is essential in the calculations they require. All this is done away by
the decimal progression, so that the first four rules of arithmetic are
ample for the pupil.
Looking closely at the metric system, we must confess its simplicity
and symmetry. Like every creation of science, it is according to rule.
Master the rule and you master the system. On this account it may
be acquired by the young with comparative facility, and, when once
acquired, it may be used with despatch. Thus it becomes labor-saving
and time-saving. Among its merits I cannot hesitate to mention the
nomenclature. A superficial criticism has objected to the Greek and
Latin prefixes; but this forgets that a system intended for universal
adoption must discard all local or national terms. The prefixes
employed are equally intelligible in all countries. They are no more
French than English or German. They are common, or cosmopolitan,
and in all countries they are equally suggestive in disclosing the
denomination of the measure. They combine the peculiar advantages of
a universal name and a definition. The name instantly suggests the
measure with exquisite precision. If these words seem scholastic or
pedantic, you must bear this for the sake of their universality and
defining power.
Unquestionably it is difficult for one generation to substitute a
new system for that learned in childhood. Even in France the metric
system was tardily adopted. Napoleon himself, on one occasion, said
impatiently to an engineer who answered his inquiry in metres, “What
are metres? Tell me in _toises_.” It was only in 1840 that the system
was definitely required in the transaction of business. Since then it
has been the legal system of France. Cloth is sold by the metre; roads
are measured by the kilometre; meat is sold by the kilogram, or, as it
is familiarly abridged, by so many _kilos_.
It is generally admitted that the names are too long, although nobody
has been able to suggest substitutes, unless we regard the various
abridgments in that light. But no abridgment should be allowed to
sacrifice the cosmopolitan character which belongs to the system. Thus,
in England a nomenclature is proposed which would secure short names;
but these would be different in each language, and entirely different
from the French names. This is a mistake. The names in all languages
should be identical, or so nearly alike as to be recognized at once.
This may be accomplished by an abbreviated nomenclature.
For instance, we may say _met_, _ar_, _lit_, and _gram_; and, in
describing the denomination, we may say, in the ascending scale,
_dec_, _hec_, _kil_, and in the descending scale, _dec_, _cen_, and
_mil_,--indicating respectively 10, 100, 1000, and ⅒, ¹⁄₁₀₀ and ¹⁄₁₀₀₀.
Compounding these, we should have, for example, _kilmet_, _killit_,
_kilgram_, and _cenmet_, _cenlit_, _cengram_. These abbreviations
might be substantially the same in all languages. They would preserve
the characteristics of the unabridged terms, so that the simple
mention of the measure, even in this abridged form, would disclose the
proportion it bears to its fellow-measures. Previous measures have been
represented by monosyllables, as grain, dram, gross, ounce, pound,
stone, ton. Where a word is often repeated, in the hurry of business,
it is instinctively abridged. We shall not err, if we profit by this
experience, and seek to reduce the new nomenclature to its smallest
proportions.
Twelve words only are required by this system. Learning these, you
learn all. There are five designating the different units of length,
surface, solid capacity, liquid capacity, and weight. Then there are
the seven prefixes, being four in the ascending scale, expressing
_multiples_, or augmentations, of the metre or other units, derived
from the Greek, and three in the descending scale, expressing
subdivisions, or diminutions, of the metre and other units, derived
from the Latin. These twelve words contain the whole system.
In closing this chapter on the unquestionable advantages of the metric
system, I must not forget that it is already the received system in the
majority of countries. At the Statistical Congress assembled at Berlin
in 1863, it appeared that it was adopted partly or entirely in Austria,
Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, France, Hamburg, Hanover, Hesse, Mecklenburg,
the Netherlands, Parma, Portugal, Sardinia, Saxony, Spain, Switzerland,
Tuscany, the Two Sicilies, and Würtemberg. Since then, Great Britain,
by an Act of Parliament, has added her name to this list. The first
step is taken there by making the metric system _permissive_, as is
proposed in the bills before Congress. The example of Great Britain is
of especial importance to us, since the commercial relations between
the two countries render it essential that these should have a common
system of weights and measures. On this point we cannot afford to
differ from each other.
The adoption of the metric system by the United States will go far to
complete the circle by which this great improvement will be assured to
mankind. Here is a new agent of civilization, to be felt in all the
concerns of life, at home and abroad. It will be hardly less important
than the Arabic numerals, by which the operations of arithmetic
are rendered common to all nations. It will help undo the primeval
confusion of which the Tower of Babel was the representative.
As the first practical step to this great end, I ask the Senate
to sanction the bills which have already passed the other House,
and which I have reported from the special committee on the metric
system. By these enactments the metric system will be presented to the
American people, and will become an approved instrument of commerce.
It will not be forced into use, but will be left for the present to
its own intrinsic merits. Meanwhile it must be taught in schools. Our
arithmetics must explain it. They who have already passed a certain
period of life may not adopt it; but the rising generation will embrace
it, and ever afterwards number it among the choicest possessions of an
advanced civilization.