The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-05-14

There is bill now before the House
Committee on Weights ana Coinage TO
establish the use of the metric system
of weights and measures. The bill pro-
poses not to make the use of these obli-
gatory at once, but to gradually intro
duce their use, making it compulsory
after time. The committee is evil
IDENTIFY considering the bill seriously as
is indicated in the following dispatch
showing the character of the men call
ed before the committee to express
their views.
Lord Kelvin, the English scientist
who is visiting Washington, was heard
by the House Committee on Coinage
Weights and Measures on the bill of Re
preventative ShafIoth of Colorado for
the adoption of the metric system. Lord
Kelvin's remarks were followed with
much interest by members of the COM
mittee He strongly approved the pro-
posed change, and said that while he
would like from patriotic motives, to
see his own government take the lead
in an international adoption of the
system, yet he would be glad to see the
United states take the lead in the
movement SO long as the desired end
was accomplished. He approved the
idea embodied in the House bill of Civ
ing time for the system to become un-
derstoOd before requiring it's general
adoption. George Westinghouse head
of the extensive concern bearing his
name, also spoke in favor of the sys-
TEN, althoughI,he pointed out that it
would take ten years before it would
become popular, owing to natural pre-
JUDGES against abandoning old stan
dards."
The great argument for the adoption
of the system is the fact that by using
it all computations both of weights
and measures can be made in decimal
notation, and that all the tables of
weights, and measures, linear, square
and cubic, are derived directly from
the standard Of linear measure through
specific and fixed computations in vari-
Gus substances. Thus the metre being
the standard of linear measure, the
unit of surface or area is the Are, a
square whose sides are each ten me-
tres; the unit of capacity is the litre,
a volume equal to a cube whose edge
is one-tenth of a metre; the unit of
weight is the gramme, the weight of a
cube of pure water each edge of which
is the one-hundredth part of a metre.
The difference that would result from
the uniform adoption of the system can
perhaps be no better Illustrated to AM
erican minds than by saying it would
be the same kind of difference that
there is between our own decimal sys-
tenn of currency, and that of the Brit
ish pounds shillings and pence The
difference would be greater in degree.
however, as in weights and measures,
81 many different systems are in use,
each applicable to different kinds of
commodities, and yet not always a
clear line of distinction between the
kinds of commodities falling to each
particular kind of weight or measure.
Thus we have the long and the short
ton. There is avoirdpOis, apOthecaries,
and Troy weights and in measures no
eEd of denominations, though all prac-
tically based on or reducible to inches.
The great dificulty.i in the adoption Of
the metric system is custom. 1t is hard
to change custom when once thorough
ly established, And when. ones whole
life experience concerning any thing is
bound up in a certain usage and no.
menclature, it is .doubly hard to change
it. Men who have had to do with
measures Of length, think of length in
feet, inches, yards, rods and miles.
Men who have had to deal with COM
modities think of them in pounds. To
change the system of weights and
measures, for the whole adult popula-
ton of the country means an entire
change in habits and thoughts
When Canada, some years ago,
changed her system of currency from
the British Sterling system to the deci-
nal, a change which to US, accustomed
all our lives to the simplicity of the
decimal system, would at first thought
be gladly welcomed, was only accom-
plished after the greatest difficulty,
and perhaps might not have been ac-
complished at all or not nearly as soon
as it was, had it not been for the fact
that a considerable body of the Cana
dams were already familiar with and
accustomed to the decimal system
through proximity and business rela-
tons with the people of the United
States. Yet it is said that in Canada
no man over fifty ever became recon-
ciled to the change, or ever acquired
the habits of thought necessary to
compute money in the new system
without first mentally reducing it to
the terms of the old
If these difficulties existed when the
change was confined to the currency,
what must be the difficulty when the
change involves all the computations
of life?
And yet the change will undoubtedly
come, it is coming. The tendency of