Part of the book series:SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science ((BRIESFHISTCHEM))
313Accesses
Abstract
Adoption of the new metric measures was slow even in France. Compulsory use was resisted and concessions were made that restored some of the names and divisions of older French customary units. The system developed in the 1790s took firm hold in France only after 1840. It was gradually adopted in other nations as well. In 1875 the Metre Convention established institutions that put the metric system under international governance.
This is a preview of subscription content,log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Subscribe and save
- Get 10 units per month
- Download Article/Chapter or eBook
- 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
- Cancel anytime
Buy Now
- Chapter
- JPY 3498
- Price includes VAT (Japan)
- eBook
- JPY 6291
- Price includes VAT (Japan)
- Softcover Book
- JPY 7864
- Price includes VAT (Japan)
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In fact, a system that combines the notational and computational ease of decimals with the richness in divisors of dozens was at least broached to the Académie and in the Committee of Public Instruction in the early 1790s [3]. This would involve base twelve arithmetic, in which the numbers zero through eleven would be represented by single digits, for example 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, χ and ε. Beyond single digits, the leading digit in a two-digit number represents twelves place, just as that digit in our familiar base ten system is tens place; thus twelve is represented by 10. The leading digit in a three-digit number represents twelve squared, in a four digit number, twelve cubed, just as in base ten they represent ten squared (a hundred) and ten cubed (a thousand) respectively. Fractions would be represented by places to the right of a divider—called a dozenal point rather than a decimal point. The first place to the right represents twelfths, the next 1/(twelve squared), etc.
- 2.
In the context of this chapter, voluntary refers to a free choice of a sovereign government in contrast to a colonial or other occupying force. In the context of Chap.6, voluntary refers to the free choice of a business or other user of measures in contrast to legal compulsion imposed by the sovereign government in which the business operates.
- 3.
“You have made everything, O God, from number, measure, and weight.” See Wisdom 11:20—in some editions 11:21—in a Catholic Bible or a Protestant one that includes apocrypha.
References
OED Online (2022) Metrication, n. Oxford University Press,https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/117666. Accessed 7 Nov 2022
Heilbron JL (1989) The politics of the meter stick. Am J Phys 57(11):988–992
Alder K (1995) A revolution to measure: the political economy of the metric system in France. In: Wise MN (ed) The values of precision. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, pp 39–71
Gillispie CC (2004) Thermidorean convention and directory. Science and polity in France: the revolutionary and Napoleonic years. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, pp 445–550
Duvergier JB (ed) (1834) Arrêté relatif au mode d’exécution du système décimal des poids et mesures, 13 brumaire an IX [4 Nov 1800]. In: Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlements avis du conseil-d’état, 2nd edn, vol 12, A. Guyot et scribe, Paris, pp 329–331
Duvergier JB (ed) (1834) Décret concernant les poids et mesures, 12 Feb 1812. In: Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlements avis du conseil-d’état, 2nd edn, vol 18. A. Guyot et scribe, Paris, p 119
Duvergier JB (ed) (1837) Loi relative aux poids et mesures, 4 Jul 1837. Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlements avis du conseil d’état, vol 37, Pommeret et Moreau, Paris, pp 164–173
Bigourdan G (1901) Le système métrique des poids et mesures: son établissement et sa propagation graduelle, avec l’histoire des opérations qui ont servi à déterminer le mètre et le kilogramme. Gauthier-Villars, Paris, pp 179–180
Cox EF (1958) The metric system: a quarter-century of acceptance (1851–1876). Osiris 13:358–379
Vera H (2011) The social life of measures: metrication in the United States and Mexico, 1789–2004. Dissertation, New School
Paixão F, Jorge FR (2006) Success and constraints in the adoption of the metric system in Portugal. In: Kokowski M (ed) The global and the local: the history of science and the cultural integration of Europe. Proceedings of the 2nd ICESHS (Cracow, Poland, 6–9 Sept, 2006), pp 463–470
Tavernor R (2007) Anglo-Saxon resistance. Smoot’s Ear: the measure of humanity. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, pp 118–147
Schaffer S (2008) Metrology, metrication, and Victorian values. In: Lightman B (ed) Victorian science in context. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 438–474
Levi L (1868) Report of the International conference on weights, measures, and coins held in Paris, June 1867. Harrison and Sons, London
Fuchs E (1887) Notice nécrologique sur M. A.-E. Béguyer de Chancourtois, Inspecteur général des mines. Ann Mines 11:505–536
Quinn TJ (2012) From artefacts to atom: the BIPM and the search for ultimate measurement standards. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Dumas JAB et al (1869) Rapport sur les prototypes du système métrique: le mètre et le kilogramme des Archives. C R Séances Acad Sci 69:514–518
BIPM (1991) Metre convention and annexed regulations—authoritative French text, with English translation (1876).https://www.bipm.org/documents/20126/44107685/metre-convention.pdf. Accessed 7 Nov 2022
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Department of Chemistry, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, USA
Carmen J. Giunta
- Carmen J. Giunta
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Corresponding author
Correspondence toCarmen J. Giunta.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Giunta, C.J. (2023). Metrication in France and Beyond: The Meter Goes International. In: A Brief History of the Metric System. SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28436-6_3
Download citation
Published:
Publisher Name:Springer, Cham
Print ISBN:978-3-031-28435-9
Online ISBN:978-3-031-28436-6
eBook Packages:Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)
Share this chapter
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative