On 2008/05/08, at 4:46 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
David Shatto thought you'd like to see this on wired.com
Hi Pat. Thought you'd like to see this.
Click here to see the page on wired.com:
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/05/dayintech_0508/
Dear David,
Thanks for the reference. I was aware of Talleyrand's proposal to the
National Assembly but were you aware that only two months later Thomas
Jefferson was promoting a similar plan to the Congress of the USA.
Here are two adjacent entries in my 'Metrication timeline' at http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/MetricationTimeline.pdf
1790 May 8
Talleyrand submitted a proposal to the National Assembly for a decimal
system of stable, unvarying and simple measurement units. These were
to be based on the length of the seconds pendulum at 45° latitude
beating a second. At Talleyrand's suggestion, the French National
Assembly adopted this new measuring system. Louis XVI authorised
scientific investigations aimed at a reform of all French weights and
measures and these investigations led to the development of the
'decimal metric system'.
One of the French politicians, La Rochefoucault, had this to say in
the National Assembly in support of the proposal:
We cannot make enough haste over promulgating this decree, which
should bring about fraternal relations between France and England.
Talleyrand sent Sir John Riggs Miller a copy of the National
Assembly's minute of May 8 referring to the new measurement
arrangements. In this minute the French king, Louis XVI, was asked to
write to the British king, George III, inviting joint action to
determine a natural standard of weight and measure. However,
subsequent historians have not been able to find such a letter in the
Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.
1790 July 13
Thomas Jefferson reported his ' Plan for Establishing Uniformity in
the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United States' to the House
of Representatives. You can find full details of Jefferson's Report to
the House of Representatives at: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/jeffplan.htm
However, no official action was taken and Congress passed no
legislation relating to weights and measures as a result of
Jefferson's report.
Jefferson's report used some of the scientific investigations aimed at
reform of the French weights and measures but it varied in the detail.
Jefferson's proposals had a remarkable similarity to the design for a
'universal measure' outlined by John Wilkins in 1668. It seems likely
that Jefferson had access to: 'An Essay Towards a Real Character and a
Philosophical Language (1668) by John Wilkins'. This conjecture seems
more likely when we set Wilkins' plan for length alongside that of
Jefferson.
Wilkins' plan
Jefferson's plan
Let this Length therefore be called the Standard; let one Tenth of it
be called a Foot; one Tenth of a Foot, an Inch; one Tenth of an Inch,
a Line.
And so upward, Ten Standards should be a Pearch; Ten Pearches, a
Furlong; Ten Furlongs, a Mile; Ten Miles, a League, & c.
Let the foot be divided into 10 inches; the inch into 10 lines; and
the line into 10 points. Let 10 feet make a decad; 10 decads one rood;
10 roods a furlong; and 10 furlongs a mile.
And there are many other parallels. Jefferson suggested a pendulum
that had a rod instead of a string, but his report at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_for_Establishing_Uniformity_in_the_Coinage,_Weights,_and_Measures_of_the_United_States
) might have been taken straight from John Wilkins' essay with only
slight changes to the names of the various components of the plan.
Thomas Jefferson had been ambassador to Paris in the late 1780s so
this earlier reference to Talleyrand and to Jefferson (from the
Metrication timeline) might also be interesting.
1785-1789
In the late 1780s, French weights and measures were a mess. There were
hundreds of units, many of which had hundreds of local values. At the
same time the French economy was industrialising but its measuring
methods could not support these developments.
Long before the revolution, French people from all walks of life were
calling for measurement reforms and there was a feeling that
measurements should, somehow or other, be 'natural', rather than being
based on the hated 'royal foot'.
Thomas Jefferson served as Ambassador to France where he was in
regular contact with English and French intellectual leaders of the
Enlightenment as they formed their ideas about universal measurement.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754/1838), Bishop of Autun
(but usually known simply as Talleyrand), in France; Sir John Riggs-
Miller, in England; and Thomas Jefferson, USA Minister to France;
corresponded on a proposal for universal measures. It is most likely
that Jefferson promoted his strong support for decimal measurement and
for decimal currency at this time.
Essentially, Talleyrand, Riggs-Miller, and Jefferson were proposing
that their three nations should cooperate to equalise their weights
and measures, by the joint introduction of a 'decimal système
metrique' (decimal metric system).
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
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and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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