on 2005-02-03 20.08, ewc at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > <<Hats off to the Americans for inventing decimal currency.>> > > I guess you must have been dipping into the Homer Simpson 'big book of > facts' for this one?
Dear All, As I understand it, the first 'modern' suggestion that we should use decimal currency came from Simon Stevin in his book, De Thiende' (Of Tenths) that was published in 1585. I understand that Bishop Berkeley (1684/1753) took a copy of De Thiende with him when he went to (what is now) the USA in 1729. When he returned to Ireland he divided his library in two and donated half each to Harvard and Yale Universities. I believe that the copy of De Thiende went to Harvard. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia 61 3 5241 2008 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.metricationmatters.com This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.
