Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1898-12-20

peen Guleuy Vet surely winning ITS
way through long years. With hardly a
doubt the metric system, debated I'M
these halls for quarter Of a century
and taken up Low by nearly every 9TH
er country, will be formally adopted by
the United States. In the touch and 20
of more spectacular matters little has
been heard of this proposition. The
fight for it, however, has been none TIE
less active. How far the battle has
progressed may be judged from the fact
that i'll the last session a bill for It's
establishing was defeated by but three,
votes.
Not the last ve,uges of opposition,
perhaps, but enough to make the pass
ing OF such a measure possible have
been overcome by now. Unless the un-
foreseen happens the metric system
Will be the established system for
weights and measures in America with
in few months. Thus will be ended
a campaign that started just after the
close of the civil war. When he hour
OF adoption arrives Great Britain and
Russia will be the only great nations
il. the world that still hold on to their
historic measuring and weighing. And
Great Britain only stands nloof in part,
for the metric system has been adopt
ed i'll British India, and it is legalized
in England itself, the curious incon-
sistency being that British tradesncn
are not permitted to keep metric
weights and measures in their shops,
nor merchants to use them in actual
commerce.
In the United States, since in 1866,
practically the same state Of affairs
prevails. The metric system was IN
that year legalizcd and could even now
lawfully be used. Save in certain OF
the sciences, however, it is an unknown
system. What the new bill proposes is
the adjustment, at a gIesweep, suf-
ficient time being allowed for adjust
ment. of course, of all the historic cid
measures and weights, many of which
are curious sul.vivals, many Of which
differ in different sections and states,
just as they do i'll the counties of Eng
land. In fact net few, the bulk, were
imported directly from England, ard
continue in force there.
1t is for the sake of uniformity and
the simplifying of transactions between
American and abroad and between The
various sections Of the country as well
that the adoption Of this decimal sys-
ten has been urged. Weight is lent
to the. argument when it is stated that
the metric system has already been
adopted by more than half the civilized
and Christian world. Very nearly $780,
100000 people are using it, even semi
barbaric Turkey having fallen into lire.
On the continent of Europe the thou
sand and one quaint and complicated
systems, distinct for very nearly every
section and city, handed down frcn,
feudal times, have all been superseded
to the great bettcrmcnt Of commerce.
Not to bark bacl1~too greatly into an
clent history, the metric system was
devised, strangely enough, in the first
white heat of the turmoil of the French
revolution. How amid these scenes
scientists found time and opportunity
to work out such a plan is not record
ed, but at all events, on August /, 1893,
the metric system was esta Dlished IN
France and the French possessions.
Nor did the bloodshed Of the years that
followed, the changing of the map of
Europe by Napoleon L., the making and
the unmaking Of g great empire shake
it. BY 1880 the system was n use in
Holland and Belgium as we'll; in 1888
the early confederation Of German
states adopted it and in 1886 Greece
When the question Of new and uni
form, 81 re IL
was being talked of in France, Prince
Talleyrand suggested the length of the
pendulum beating seconds in latitude
IS degrees as the unit Of length. 1t was
seen that there must be some scientific
measure that could not be lost. The
old measures of length, raised and curl
Gus, had been taken from the length
of the forearm, the breadth of the
thumb, an average step or pace, three
barley corns round and dry, laid end
to end. These, absurd as they appear
as accurate measures, are yet in use
as the basis of the foot and inch and
mile as used in England and America
to-day, and formerly in vogue all over
the continent. N
Prince Tallyrand's proposition was
never adopted. The scientists of that
era found what they thought better
plan. They chose Us the lenear unit one
ten-n1illionth of the quadrant of ter
restrial meridian. Seven years were
employed in getting the precise length
of this, the meter, and this was found
to be the present 3o.37O12 inches
Text books and works, Of reference
abound that give the metric system in
full detail, and it need not; therefore,
be further touched upon here. Far
more interesting is some account of
what is not the metric system, the
weights and measures still in use in
England and America, especially in