THE METRIC SYSTEM EXPLAINED AND ADAPTED TO THE SYSTEMS OF INSTRUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. BY CHARLES DAVIES, LL.D., AUTHOR OF A FULL COURSE OF MATHEMATICS. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY A. S. BARNES & CO., 1867. THE attention of Teachers is respectfully invited to the REVISED EDITIONS Of Davies' Arithmetical Series FOR SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. 1. DAVIES' PRIMARY ARITHMETIC. 4. DAVIES' UNIVERSITY ARITHMETIC. The above Works, by CHARLES DAVIES, LL.D., Author of a Complete Course of Mathematics, are designed as a full Course of Arithmetical Instruction necessary for the practical duties of business life; and also to prepare the Student for the more advanced Series of Mathematics by the same Author. The following New Editions of Algebra, by Professor DAVIES, are commended to the attention of Teachers: 1. DAVIES' NEW ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA AND KEY. 2. DAVIES' UNIVERSITY ALGEBRA AND KEY. 3. DAVIES' BOURDON'S ALGEBRA AND KEY. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, BY CHARLES DAVIES, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern PREFACE. Ir is, perhaps, not generally known that the Metric System of weights and measures has been adopted, permissively, by the Congress of the United States, and that any Merchant, Mechanic or Tradesman may, if he pleases, in strict conformity to law, render all his bills and keep his accounts according to that system. The public has, perhaps, not sufficiently considered the fact that the mind of the civilized world, now brought into sympathy and close connection by the Wires of the Telegraph, is earnestly directed to the question of uniformity in the language of business relations; and that the Metric System, if universally adopted, will afford such uniformity. To show how deep and universal this wish is, we extract from the report of the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, made to the House of Representatives in May, 1866. "In France, Spain, Belgium, and Portugal, the Metric System has been established to the exclusion of other weights and measures. In Holland, other weights are allowed in com pounding medicines only. Sardinia and Lombardy have long possessed the system, and it has now been extended to the whole of Italy. Greece has introduced it with some modifications. In Austria, and most of the other German States, the half kilogram has been for some time a common unit of weigh✦ in the custom-houses, and on railways. During the past year your committee are informed that delegates of all the German States, at a meeting at Frankfort-on-the-Main, signed a convention agreeing to introduce into the several States systems of which the meter should be the basis. Prussia, which had previously withheld assent, thus appears to join in the com. mon movement. Switzerland will necessarily follow Germany, and already has units that are aliquot parts of the meter and the kilogram. The King of Sweden and Norway has appointed a commission to consider and report on the best mode of introducing the Metric System among his subjects. Denmark may be expected to follow the recommendation of the Scandinavian convention that advised it. We have the assurance of M. Kupfer, the distinguished superintendent of weights and measures of the Russian empire, that if England should adopt the metric system, Russia will also adopt it. "The system has also made great progress among the States upon this continent. "Six years since it was adopted by the Mexican republic, and its use decreed at once in the public offices, and after a certain period in private contracts. This period expired about the time of the imperial invasion under which that republic is now suffering. It was introduced into Chili in 1848, and is compulsory from the 1st of June, 1865. In the United States of Colombia, and in Venezuela, it has been in use along with other weights and measures since 1853. In Brazil the meter is used for cloth measure, and the liter for wine measure. In Equador the system was decreed to come into full operation on the 15th of October next. In Guatemala, San Salvador, and the Argentine Republic, it is in partial use among the people. "The action of England is, however, of greater importance to us, owing to our close relations with her, and with her colonies, by a common language, by our large commerce, and what is, perhaps, more pertinent to this question, by common weights and common measures. "On the 8th of April, 1862, the House of Commons appointed a select committee of fifteen members to 'consider the practicability of adopting a simple and uniform system of weights and measures, with a view not only to the benefit of internal trade, but to facilitate trade and intercourse with foreign countries. The committee examined thirty-nine witnesses, among whom were nine from foreign countries in which the Metric System was in force. They were generally men of distinguished intelligence, who were attending the Industrial Exhibition as commissioners from their respective countries. .The list of witnesses included seven merchants, six civil engineers and architects, ten professors and teachers, two manufacturers, four actuaries and accountants, the astronomer royal, the master of the mint, and the secretary of the post-office. That committee appear to have been unanimous in recommending the introduction of the Metrical System into Great Britain. "On the 13th of May, 1863, a bill was prepared and brought in by members of that committee, by the terms of which the Metric System of weights and measures was introduced into Great Britain, and its use by the people made compulsory after three years. This bill was passed by the House of Commons by a large majority, but does not appear to have been acted on by the House of Lords. At the next session (February, 1864) a bill was introduced by the same gentlemen which changed its purport from a compulsory to a permissive measure. |