The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-04-10
Order ont of Chaos.

The Metric System was legalized by Con-
gress nearly eight years ago, and yet we have
heard of but few important steps having been
taken towards its actual adoption in the
United States. The saving of time and
thought and confusion, by this system would
be immense We do not say that it is the
best system conceivable; had England or the
United States been the first to propose uni
form system of weights and measures, we
might possibly have started something better.
There ale not wanting strong arguments IN
favor of abandoning the Arabic system OF
decimal notation, and adopting an octaval sys'
TEN instead. But there is no reason to sup
pose that so complete change as that will
ever be made; and indeed there are strong
reasC ms why it should not be. The decimal
system of arithmetic is common to all nations
and will doubtless be in use for centuries to
come. 1t is therefore only dictate OF COM
mon sense to have measures, weights, and
coins conform to it. Our country began we'll
in making the coin decimal mills, cents,
dimes, dollars, eagles. The French republic
went further and. undertook to make all
measures, weights, etc., 60 in decimal ratios,
and 10 connect nearly all of them together in
the simplest possible manner. Moreover
they made the names conform TO ore law SO
that deci, always meals one tenth and deco,
ten times; cent?, always one hundredth, aho
hectic, always one hundred; and SO on. TOT
their metre they took what they thought was
one of the forty millionths Of the earth's cir
cum. ference: it is about three feet, three inch
es and three eiehens of an inch; the nickel
half dime since 1856 has been two centime-
tres ID diameter; the kilometer is about forty
one sixty -sixths of mile, little less than
five eighths of mile.
For land measure, 100 square meters make
an are; so that a hectare is about two and a
half acres.
For cord wood, stone, earth, and so on,
cubic meter is called stere, which is about
of cord
For smaller measures of volume, cubic
decsmeter is called a liter, which is a little
over liquid quart and under dry quart
A hectoliter is about 26a gallons.
For weights, cubic centimeter of water is
gram, about 153 grains; the nickel half
dime weighs five grams; little over half
ounce. The kilogram is a little over two
pounds three ounces; and the hectoEilogrd,n
or t0nneau, little over 22O4 pounds.
All these measures were made legal, by act
of Congress. in 1866. They should be brought
into use. The advantages are manifold;
in -~se sf calculating as is Familiarity shown
by Federal money; in ease Of teaching them
to children, as compared with our cumbrous
and multiple yards, feet, inches, perches,
rods, furlongs, miles; Apothecary weight,
Troy weight, Avoirdupois weight; cords,
perches, squares, gallons, quarts, pints, gills,
bushels, pecks-n diverse, and trou-
blesome; and the advantages for persons
when travelling, and for those in foreign trade,
are evident. Almost every civilized nation,ex-
cept Great Britain and the United States, have
adopted this French system of measures. We
must come to it; and the sooner the better.
The only objections, aside from uis inertie,
wasn't Yankee notion, and the names are
Frenchy. As to the first objection, we did
start decimal money here, and the metric
system is but carrying out that good begin
ming; and as to the second objection, there
is no difficulty 10 Anglicizing the names, if
the measures are adopted. The litre might
be called quart,-and the hectolitre bar
rel, in common usage; the metre, yard
and the klometre, mile; using the French
names only as explanatory of the new sense
put on the old words. Thus we Lave, in our
own day, seenthe word ton change fom 224O
to 1000 pounds and may see it return to 2204t
the French tonneau or hecto-kiogram. We
already have three or four different quarts in
use; to add the litre would make but little in
crease to the temporary confusion, and final
ly bring in order. 81
beginning in this most desirable reform
might perhaps be made by voluntary associa-
tions of tradesmen and artisans, pledging
themselves that, on and after certain date,
they would use the metric system in their
business. There will be good deal of in
convenience experienced in making the
change, and undoubtedly loss in rendering
useless the present steeyards, and other in
struments for weighing with graduated scales,
and the present weight and measures But the
Inconvenience of keeping up the present com
plcated system is also great, and is becoming
greater, as the metric system becomes more
universally used in other nations. When a |
change is inevitable, it is wise to meet it |
cheerfully. .a