Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-01-04
THE YARDsTICK.


OF all civilized nations, the Frenct
alone have adopted seI slble ano
logical system of weights and measures
something for which they can give
reason and tell the why and the where
fore. The base of the system is metre,
which i, one ten mill1onth-of the dis
tance from the equator to the pole,
and from this the other principal units
of measure and weight are at once
derived.
That part of arithmetic relating to
weights and measures has no terrors
for French school children. They do
not have to puzzle their poor little
brains to remember such senseiess
rules as that "perch" of stone il 16&
feet long, foot high and II feet thick.
and contains 24i cubic feet; or that the
standard bushel contains twenty-one
hundred and fifty cubic inch es and
forty-two hundredths of a cubic inch,
or anything equally bewildering about
wine gallons and ale gallons.
Having learned what a metre is, the
rest Is as easy as the alphabet. The
names of the denominations lower than
the unit are indicated by prefixing the
Latin words, deci, one-tenth; cent?,
one-hundreth, and mill, one e-thou-
sandth to the unit. The names of the
denominations higher than the unit are
formed 10y prefxing the Greek words,
decd, ten; hectic, one hundred; kito,
one thousand, and niyria, ten thousand
to the unit. The entire system Is
decimal, from first to last, and Is
simplicity itself.
Now, it is true that many other
governments, our own included, have
adopted the metric system; but the
people, outside of France, will have
nothing TO do with it, and seem to
think that it is much better TO cling to
their old and clumsy systems.
Taking our cue from England, VS.
PIN our faith to the yard as the unit of
our system. One-third of yard is a
foot, one twelfth of foot is an inch,
two yards make fatbom, seventeen
hundred and sixty yards are a mile,
and so on, without rhyme or reason.
What possible sense is there in such
tumble of thirds, twelfths, sixths and
so forth, unless it was devised for the
purpose of making learning more diff
cult?
And what do You suppose was the
origin OF the unit-a yard? 1t seems
too ridiculous to be fact, but it is true
that the yard is supposed to represent
the length of the arm of King Henry
/, of Englard, taken by his express
order in 1120l Could anything be
more absurd than that?
The original measure was kept at
the Exchequer in London for many
centuries. 1t was examined by a royal
commissioner in 17I2, who, in his re-
port of 1t said:
make as good standard. 1t hss been brol on,
and then repaired 80 clumsily that the joint Is
nearly as loose as pair of tongs."
For the uses of the British govern.
ment an accurate copy of this arbi-
trary, clumsy, broken standard was
prepared in 1760, aud this copy, by
act of Parliament In 1924, was male
the legal measure. At tho same til6e
it was ordered that if destroyed it
should be restored by q comparison
with the length of the pendulum VI
brating seconds at the latitude of
| London.
In 1895 the copy was destroyed by
the great fire at the ParliameAt House.
Attempts were then made to find the
| length by means of the pendulum as
already arranged, but the methods
were found utterly impracticable, and
the English government was COM
PEELED to make use of such copies of
the destroyed yardstick as they sup
posed reliable
The United States government was
not only unwise enough to adopt the
inconvenient and inconsistent English
measure, but sent a special messenger
abroad to secure a copy of the yard
stick for the use of the Coast Survey
The copy secured was made by a
London instrument maker, who certi-
fed to its correctness. Strange to say,
however, the American standard IL
one thousandth of an inch longer than
the British standard yardstick.
Now the mischief is done, and it will
take many years to undo it. Americans
] inherit the conservatism of the
English, and dislike to change, even
when a change would be beneficial, SO
we must go on bothering our heads
over duo-decimals, when We can use
decimsls with one-tenth of the time
and trouble.