Dear All, John Wilkins described almost all of the essential elements of the metric system and the International System of Units (SI) in 1668. This was about 120 years before the French government adopted metric measures in the 1790s.
As John Wilkins wrote in the English of the 17th century and this can be a little unclear on first reading, I have made a translation of his text and placed it in the 'Articles' section of the http:www.metricationmatters.com.html web page. Or you can download it directly from http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/Wilkins_translation_2007-07-14.pdf This seems to place the origin of the metric system firmly in England although the French people later added the words 'metre' and 'litre' and Claude Antoine, comte Prieur-Duvernois (1763/1832) suggested the use of prefixes. I hope that you enjoy reading this and that you will share your comments. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305, Belmont, 3216 Geelong, Australia Phone 61 3 5241 2008 Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'. Subscribe at http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter Pat is recognised as a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. He is also editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' section of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual for writers, editors and printers'. He is a Member of the National Speakers Association of Australia and the International Federation for Professional Speakers. See: 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.
