Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-07-17

| ing 1t. VINO hears Of the troy pound
| nowadays in coinage? Pharmacists
| who of all men should cling tenacious
ly to the troy system, have long been
| accustomed to the employment OF
| metrical units. The United States
| Pharmacopoeia, the book most often
referred to by the apothecary, is based
upon the metric system; so is the
Dispensatory, used by physicians. Fine
chemicals are now sold chiefly by
metric weight; SO are glassware and
rubber shoppers. Even catalogs in
which the prices of goods are given in
metric terms are not infrequently met
with.
The United States coast and geo.
detic survey is another department of
the government which has long since
adopted the metric system. Superin-
tendent of Standard Weights and
Measures T. c. Mendenhall. who is
one of our foremost authorities on the
subject of weighing and measuring.
has. with the approval of the secretary
OF the treasury, established the metric
system in the Office of weights and
measures.
In the field of manufactures. the
prospect of an early adoption of the
metric system is encouraging. In the
April, 1900, report of the American
railway associations committee, manu-
facturers were enumerated by whom
the metric system is used. The list of
products made by metric measurement
included watches, injectors. refriger-
atlng apparatus, screw-cutting lathes.
scales, drills, gauges, measuring i'm
plements of all kinds and draftsmen's
tools.
From the standpoint of dollars and
cents-the standpoint of the Amer
lean exporter, who is just now very
much the object of public attention.
the metric system should certainly
commend itself. With the exception
OF England every country with which
he deals uses the system. No foreign
merchant who is accustomed to pur-
chase by Kilograms and meters is like
ly to trouble himself with our COM
pick English units. How we'll this
fact has been recognized is shown bv
consideration of some of the prod
uctS which we export. Ordnance. in
Guiding both heavy and light, which
we have sent to foreign countries. is
callbered in millimeters. The Bald
wins build locomotives which are made
to travel on one meter gauges. In
deed, there is not a first-class shop in
the country that is not ready to fill
orders for machinery made according
to metric measurements. With the
increase of our exports, still wider
application of the system may be ex-
pected.
When it is considered that the
metric system is an international sys-
tenn, that it is simpler than any other
for it is much easier to convert cent?
meters into meters than it is to con-
vert inches into feet or yards), and
that the young men who have gradu-
ated from our technical colleges are
familiar with it's units, there seems to
be no very good reason why the change
advocated by the mea1Ire now before
congress should not become a law.
Nothing in this measure prevents any
one from using the old system if he so
desires. Land can still be sold by the
acre in the country and by the square
foot in New York city. But one thing
at least is certain-it the United
States government adopts the system
officially, and uses it in it's commercial
relations with private persons and for
eign nationG it will sooner or later
be adopted throughout the country.