The Washington herald., 1907-02-26
THE METRIC SYSTEM.

Editor The Washington Herald:
] have read with interest the article
by Mr.. Henning in The Sunday Herald
on the metric system. and I beg you
viii allow me to add few words to
the statements made by him. from an
experience Of over thirty years in the
everyday use of the metric system.
Vulgar fractions are only convenient 10
certain point The moment eighths
are exceeded they become clumsy. and
beyond sixty-fourths. impracticable.
while decimals are good for all quaint
ties. and arc in constant use by ma
chinists, because fine quantities cannot
be conveniently expressed in vulgar
/ fractions.
If it is desirable to use vulgar frac-
tions to the extent that they are con
venient. they may be used in cOnnec-
tion with the metric system. because
the metric factors afford more even di-
visions than the customary factors The
. denominations In actual use by those
who gre accustomed to the metric sys-
TEN change by 1000 units. as in the
laboratory we use miIlegrams. grams,
lIilos. and tons, 1000 of each lower unit
making one of the next higher. Now
1000 IS divisible easily into halves,
quarters, ifths, eighths. tenths. TWEEN
tieths, twenty-fourths, fortieths, &c,
and just as easily by three as the
customary ssstors and tho vulgar frac-
tons in ordinary use; halves and quar-
tiers are just as much and as readily
used in connection with the metric sys-
TEN as with the ordinary system
French or German tailor would
read the example OF cut of cloth cited
by AFR Henning with considerab bic
amusement. The actual use of the
metric system excludes the yard. and
said tailor would simply order the
nearest even measure in meters. as two
and half or two and a quarter meters
Most Of the statements made in rela-
tion TO the alleged greater convenience
Of one system over the other are mis-
leading because the parties making them
do not realize that where the metric
system is in actual use the dimensions
employed are adjusted to that system.
and all the fractional quantities pa
raded with sOmuch emphasis by the op-
pOnents of the metric system are found
nonexistent
In view of the fact that almost every
savage nation. as well as civilized.
counts by tens, and in view OF the fact
that there are as many or more objects
in nature which have their parts di-
vided by tens, or subdivisions or null
t;ples thereof, il seems rather difficult
to see what basis there is for the state
ment that the natural division OF sub
stances is by halves, quarters, and so
forth"
Thus the human race has its extremi-
ties divided into five parts; there are
more flowers that have their parts di-
vided into ives than any other num-
Der. with the possible exception of
threes; the monkeys keep company
with the human race in the same deci-
NAL division of their extremities, SC,
SC. II is to he desired that che present
extensive use of the metric system
among Us viii soon become universal.
so that we shall have the same advan-
tages from a universal system of
weights and measures among civilized
nations that we have from a universal
system of the measurement of time, of
writing music. of chemical notation,
and many other things.
WM. II. SEAMAN
1924 Eleventh street, Washington,
y. G.