WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON WEIGHTS AND MEAS URES. [As submitted to the Conference, January 15, 1890.] To the honorable the International Conference: The committee appointed by the honorable President to inquire into the advisability of the adoption, by all the nations here represented, of a uniform system of weights and measures, have the honor to submit the following report: The need of establishing a unit of comparison for everything susceptible of being weighed or measured was doubtless recognized from the remotest antiquity; or, rather, from the time when, the right of ownership being acknowledged, the bartering or exchange of commodities became a definitely established practice. History shows that this unit of comparison was generally some portion of the human body. The Hebrews, as well as the Carthaginians, Phoenicians, and Egyptians, had as their principal measure of length the foot. Later the Greeks and Romans added to the number of their measures the finger, the thumb or inch, the palm, the fathom, the pace, the double-pace, etc., the names of which indicate the source whence they are derived. These are the measures which, even after the lapse of centuries, have been in use in the greater number of civilized nations. But as the human body varies so much in size, the measures adopted from it are necessarily arbitrary. At the present day even the learned are not agreed about the exact length of the Greek and Roman foot, being divided in their opinions among various estimates. It is evident then that such a standard of measurement has not, and can not have, a constant and uniform basis even at a given period, and still less at different times, or with reference to different races at the same time. Such considerations induced the Constituent Assembly of France, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, to adopt as the basis of a system a simple and invariable dimension susceptible of ascertainment at all times. So by decree of May 8, 1790, upon the motion of Mr. Talleyrand, it was ordered that a commission, composed of French savants to be appointed by the Academy, should be charged with ascertaining the length of a simple pendulum which would mark a second at the level of the sea in latitude 45°. The same decree provided that the Government should request the King of England to appoint a committee from the Royal Society of London to co-operate with the French commission, with a view to establishing a common system of weights and measures, and recommending its use to the other nations. The French delegates, nominated by the Academy, were Lagrange, Laplace, Monge, and Condorcet. The English Government declined to co-operate, assigning as a reason the political contentions then agitating France. The French commission, departing from the original programme, which contemplated chiefly the determination of a pendulum vibrating seconds, considered the question whether it would not be better to take as a unit of length a fraction of the earth's meridian. This idea having been adopted, for fear that there would else be difficulty in securing for the new system the approval of those nations whose territory was not intersected by the 45°, the commission on the 17th of March, 1791, presented to the National Assembly a report in which it proposed to adopt as a fundamental unit the r0.000.000 of a quarter of the earth's meridian, and to give to this unit the name of meter. In accordance with these recommendations, Mechain and Delambre were charged with the delicate problem of measuring the arc of the meridian included between Dunkirk and Barcelona. Mechain and Delambre found the quarter of the meridian equal to 5,130,740 toises, which result was adopted by the legislative body on the 4th Messidor of the year VII (June 22, 1799). The same measure of length served also as a basis for establishing the unit of weight called a gram, adopted by the law of the 18th Germinal, Year III. This is the weight, in a vacuum, of a cubic centimeter of distilled water taken at its maximum density, which corresponds to the temperature of 4° centigrade above zero. The expressive nomenclature with its concise prefixes, the ascending and descending series of multiples and submultiples, and the facility with which it lends itself to decimal calculation, make this simple and admirable system the only one worthy of universal adoption by civilized nations. In fact, in 1873 an international commission, known as "The [International] Metric Commission," met in Paris, with a view to agreeing upon the adoption of a universal system of measures. England, Russia, Austria, Germany, Bavaria, Würtemberg, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, the United States, and several of the Spanish American Republics were represented by distinguished scientific men. After careful deliberation they abandoned the idea which had been entertained, of a new measurement of the earth's meridian, recognizing the fact that such an undertaking would be attended with great difficulties, and could yield. only uncertain results; and they agreed to adopt the French meter, the standard of which is preserved in the French archives.* The same decision was taken with regard to the kilogramme as the unit of weights. The commission also recommended certain necessary precautions for securing the accuracy of the standard meter according to the dimensions fixed upon. Finally a convention for securing the international unification and perfection of the metric system was signed in Paris on the 20th of May, 1875, which convention was ratified by the Governments of the following nations: *In the International Metric Bureau, which seventeen nations contribute to support and direct. Switzerland, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Argentine Republic, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Belgium, Brazil, United States, France, Russia, Sweden and Norway, Turkey, and Venezuela. The following gave their adhesion afterwards: Servia in 1879, Roumania in 1882, Great Britain in 1884, and Japan in 1885. The Republics of Chili, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Salvador, and Uruguay have also adopted that system. In a recent lecture delivered before the Academy of Sciences at Paris, M. de Malarce said: That in 1877 the use of the metric system was obligatory in various parts of the globe, that system being the one employed by 302,000,000 persons; that in the course of ten years it had been adopted by 53,000,000 more; that in the same year, 1877, various countries containing a population of 97,000,000 voluntarily adopted the use of this system; that it was also legally admitted in Russia, Turkey, and British India, which had the same year, 1877, a population of 395,000,000, thus receiving in ten years an addition of 540,000,000. In China, Japan, and Mexico the decimal system prevails, but not the metric. This last has been adopted and legally recognized by 794,000,000 souls, and the decimal system is in use among 470,000,000 of inhabitants in the three countries last named. So that only 42,000,000 persons exist who reckon according to the ancient systems of weights and measures and who do not recognize the metrico-decimal. Recently the United States Government received official fac-similes of the meter and kilogram agreed upon in the International Metrical Conference held in Paris in September of last year; and the boxes containing them were officially opened on the 2d instant at the Executive Mansion, in the presence of the President of the Republic and other functionaries and certain distinguished personages specially invited for the ceremony. The advantages which the metrico-decimal system offers being so evident, and that system having been already adopted by so considerable a number of nations, your committee recommend That the International American Conference proposes to all the governments here represented that its use be made obligatory, both in their commercial relations and in all that relates to the sciences and the industrial arts. JACINTO CASTELLANOS, DISCUSSION. SESSION OF JANUARY 24, 1890. FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT (in the chair). The discussion of the report from the Committee on Weights and Measures is now in order. If there be no honorable Delegate who asks that the same be read, inasmuch as the report has already been printed, and probably read by every member, the Chair will dispense with the reading. Mr. STUDEBAKER. I move the adoption of the report. FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT. If there be no objection on the part of Delegates, the Secretary will read simply the conclusions of the report, and then the vote will be taken by States. The conclusions of the report referred to were read as follows: The advantages which the Metrico-Decimal System offers being so evident, and that system having already been adopted by so considerable a number of nations, your committee recommend that the International American Conference propose to all the Governments here represented that its use be made obligatory, both in their commercial relations and in all that relates to the sciences and industrial arts. Mr. ROMERO. I take the liberty of suggesting to the gentlemen who sign the report, the advisability of making some alterations in the phraseology of the concluding clause. I agree with the substance of it, but it appears to me that the terms in which it is expressed could be altered to a more suitable form. It reads thus: That the International American Conference propose to |