In Article 6 of the law of 18 Germinal, referenced below, it states:
Enfin, kilomètre et myriamètre seront des longueurs de mille et dix mille
mètres, et désigneront principalement les mesures itinéraires.
(Lastly, kilometre and myriametre will be lengths of (one) thousand and ten
thousand metres, and will principally designate route measurements.)
This may be the first time the term was used, and certainly predates any
British use. This law also named the décimètre, centimètre, décamètre and
hectomètre, as well as the units are, stère, litre, gramme, and franc, and
some of their multiples and submultiples. It's interesting that they
defined half and double multiples, as well as decimal ones.
You can find the entire law and much other information about the history of
the metre at http://histoire.du.metre.free.fr and in English at
http://histoire.du.metre.free.fr/en/
John Hynes
At 09:14:07 (-0800) on Sat, 12 Nov 2005, Martin Vlietstra wrote:
While I accept that the prefix kilo and the units of measure gramme and
metre both had their origins in France during the Revolutionary period and
that the French certainly used the "kilogramme", the question that I am
asking is when was the prefix kilo first used in conjunction with the
metre? The 1842 reference that I cited in my original post made no
references to any country using the kilometre (apart from the Dutch who
called it a mijl).
----- Original Message -----
From: Han Maenen
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2005 2:34 PM
Subject: [USMA:35197] Re: Is the kilometre British?
When the metric system was devised between 1793 and 1798, the prefix kilo
was one of the original decimal prefixes, proposed by Jean de Borda. I can
not find any proof of British influences in this matter. The prefix kilo was
already mentioned in the French metric laws of 18 germinal an 3
(1795-04-07). If the Britsh had influenced the coming of the kilometre, then
the same would have been the case with the kilogram.
However:
1. James Watt, the inventor of the steam machine, had contacts with those
who became the inventors of the metric system, just before it started. Watt
was a supporter of a decimal system of units. I do not doubt that
measurement was one of the subjects they discussed.
2. There are indications that the conference in 1798/1799, that established
the metric system om an international basis for the first time, was also
attended privately by US and UK observers.
3. From 1860, British scientists played a crucial role in improving and
expanding the metric system for use in technology, they did this under the
umbrella of the British Assocation for the Advancement of Science. The name
of William Thomson or Lord Kelvin comes to mind among others. They helped to
establish the ground work for what was to become SI. The cgs-system was
British developed, and it was coherent as well. SI was developed on this
idea of coherence.
Conclusion:as far as I know, there is no British influence regarding the
kilometre, but in the further development of the metric system they played a
crucial role. This is something the BWMA and ARM would dearly wish to
airbrush out of history, because it shows the nonsense of their claim: the
metric system is foreign/European trash.
From 1988 the directors of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures
http://www.bipm.fr/ have been UK-citizens:
J. Quinn FRS, Emeritus Director: 1988-2003
2003 - A.J. Wallard
Han
----- Original Message -----
From: MARTIN VLIETSTRA
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Tuesday, 2005, November 08 20:59
Subject: [USMA:35186] Is the kilometre British?
Is the kilometre a British development?
To many, this question is almost as absurd as asking if the Pope is a
Catholic, but if the questiopn is probed, it appears that the use of the
word kilometre might actually have been a British-inspired development!
On examining the state of European units of measure in 1842 (see
http://home.fonline.de/fo0126/geschichte/groessen/mas1.htm) (note, this is
in German), it appeared that only two countries used round metric quantities
for distances that were greater than a few hundred metres the Netherlands
used the term mijl for 1000m, while France used the term miriameter for
10000m.
The official SI handbook (http://www.bipm.org/en/publications/brochure/)
has a short history of the principal events in the development of SI. One
of the principal events that they record was the adoption in 1874 of a
**consistent** set of prefixes which was proposed by the British Association
for the Advancement of Science. This suggests to me that even though the
French might have been using metres and kilogrammes before the British, it
was due to British influence that the kilometre was adopted as a unit of
length.
Any comments anybody?
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