Nat Hager III quoted Ken Alder's book, "The Measure of All Things": ....
Yes, the actual length of the meter -- compared with what was intended -- is a mistake. But it's a mistake that has "transformed the world," as the book's subtitle has it.
"That is why," Alder says, "Delambre and Mechain's meter -- created 'for all people, for all time' -- was in fact an error for all people, for all time."
Denis Guedj in his "Le M�tre du Monde", �ditions du
Seuil, ISBN 2-02-040718-3, wrote: (I translate)
"Delambre wrote: 'We see here the Barcelona observations and
the three seconds by which they differed from those at Montjouy...to
conceal the facts...Three seconds of angle!
"What was the impact of those three seconds of angle on the
resulting measurement? What effect did it have on the length of
the metre proclaimed with pomp in 1779? In 1993 M�chain sent
to Paris his first results at Montjouy. Not the second. It
was with the first that all the calculations were done and the metre
determined; it was the second results that were wrong.
Conclusion: the error of M�chain had no influence whatsoever on the
metre!
"The proof of these assertions are at the Ovbservatory,
where all his manuscripts are preserved."
It now appears from satellite observations that the provisional
metre of 1793, based on measurements made in Peru, France and Lapland
half a century earlier, would have given a more accurate length for
the metre. The survey of Delambre and M�chain was really to
demonstrate the superior accuracy of the new repeating circle
theodolite of Borda.
Joseph B. Reid
17 Glebe Road West
17 Glebe Road West
Toronto M5P 1C8
Telephone 416-486-6071
