Skip to content
1887
Volume 44, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 0032-1400

Abstract

On 22nd July 1799 the definitive standards of the metric system, the platinum metre and the platinum kilogramme, were ceremonially deposited in the French National Archives (1), and on 10th December 1799 a law was passed confirming their status as the only legal standards for measuring length and mass in France (2). The accurate determination of these standards had occupied a number of outstanding French scientists for ten years, using elaborate equipment partly made from platinum by Etienne Lenoir, a skilled instrument maker. This work had been undertaken after more than a century of discussion. The events surrounding this momentous occasion which now affects all our everyday lives are described here.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1595/003214000X443125134
2000-01-01
2024-12-22
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/pmr/44/3/pmr0044-0125.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1595/003214000X443125134&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. D. McDonald, L. B. Hunt, A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, Johnson Matthey, London, 1982, pp. 180181 [Google Scholar]
  2. W. Hallock, H. T. Wade, Outlines of the Evolution of Weights and Measures and the Metric System”, Macmillan, New York, 1906, p. 63 [Google Scholar]
  3. W. A. Smeaton, Decimalisation: the origins’, Student Technology, 1972, 5, 2223 [Google Scholar]
  4. C. Webster, Decimalization under Cromwell’, Nature, 1971, 229, 463 [Google Scholar]
  5. W. Hallock, H. T. Wade, op. cit., (Ref. 2), p. 43 [Google Scholar]
  6. R. E. Schofield, The Lunar Society of Birmingham’, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963, pp. 256257 [Google Scholar]
  7. Y. Noël, R. Taton, P. Bret, For a detailed account of the discussions from 1789 to 1791, see La réforme des poids et mesures…1789–1791’ in “Oeuvres de Lavoisier. Correspondance”, ed. Académie des Sciences, Paris, 1997, Vol. 6, pp. 439465 [Google Scholar]
  8. W. Hallock, H. T. Wade, op. cit., (Ref. 2), pp. 110114 [Google Scholar]
  9. R. Hahn, The Anatomy of a Scientific Institution. The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666–1803”, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1971, p. 164 [Google Scholar]
  10. A. E. Ten, S. Debarbat, A. Ten, L’Académie des Sciences et les origines du système métrique décimal’, in “Mètre et Système Métrique”, eds. Observatoire de Paris, Paris, 1993, pp. 1532 [Google Scholar]
  11. A. J. Turner, For Lenoir’s life and rimes, see From Pleasure and Profit to Science and Security. Etienne Lenoir and the Transformation of Precision Instrument-Making in France 1760–1830”, Whipple Museum, Cambridge, 1989 [Google Scholar]
  12. A. Wolf, For a brief account, see A History of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century”, 2nd Edn., Allen and Unwin, London, 1952, pp. 7879. All measurements of length are in French units:. 1 foot = 32.47 cm; 1 inch = 2.71 cm; 1 line = 0.23 cm. See also Ref. 14 [Google Scholar]
  13. W. A. Smeaton, Bertrand Pelletier, Master Pharmacist. His Report on Janet/s Preparation of Malleable Platinum’, Platinum Metals Rev., 1997, 41, (2), 86 [Google Scholar]
  14. J. C. Borda, J. D. Cassini, J. B. J. Delambre, For full details of the pendulum experiments, see Expériences pour connoître la longueur du pendule qui bat les secondes à Paris’, in Base du Système Métrique Décimal”, Baudouin, Paris, 1810, Vol. 3, pp. 336401. This work in 3 volumes (1806, 1807, 1810), describes all relevant experiments, observations and calculations from 1792 to 1798 by Delambre, Méchain (who died in 1804) and others [Google Scholar]
  15. J. C. Borda, J. B. J. Delambre, Expériences sur les règles qui ont servi à la mesure des bases de l’arc terrestre’, in op. cit., (Ref. 14), Vol. 3, pp. 313316 [Google Scholar]
  16. H. W. Chisholm, Borda did not mention Lavoisier’s participation, to which attention was drawn by Lavoisier’s work on the foundation of the metric system’, Nature, 1874, 9, 185 [Google Scholar]
  17. J. B. J. Delambre, op. cit., (Ref. 14), Vol. 3, p. 676 [Google Scholar]
  18. W. Hallock, H. T. Wade, op. cit., (Ref. 2), pp. 5354 [Google Scholar]
  19. Instruction sur les mesures déduites de la grandeur de la Terre, uniforme pour toute la République, et sur les calculs relatifs à leur division décimal”, Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, An II de la République. The date referred to the new Republican calendar, in which Year I began when the Republic was declared on 22 September 1792. ‘An II’ (Year II) ran from 17931794 [Google Scholar]
  20. D. McKie, Antoine Lavoisier: Scientist, Economist, Social Reformer”, Constable, London, 1952, pp. 290291 [Google Scholar]
  21. W. A. Smeaton, French scientists in the shadow of the guillotine: the death roll of 1792–1794’, Endeavour, 1993, 17, 60 [Google Scholar]
  22. M. P. Crosland, The congress on definitive metric standards, 1798–1799: the first international scientific conference?’, Isis, 1969, 60, 226 [Google Scholar]
  23. C. Blagden, J. Banks, Letter from 9798
  24. D. McDonald, L. B. Hunt, op. cit., (Ref. 1), pp. 295299 [Google Scholar]
  25. W. Hallock, H. T. Wade, op. cit., (Ref. 2), pp. 6368 [Google Scholar]
  26. C. Wolf, Recherches historiques sur les étalons de l’Observatoire”, Ann. Chim. Phys., Series 5, 1882, 25, 5112 (especially “Les règles de Borda”, 5461) [Google Scholar]
  27. M. P. Crosland, Jean Baptiste Biot’, in C. C. Gillispie, Dictionary of Scientific Biography”, Scribner, New York, 1970, Vol. 2, pp. 133140 (especially pp. 135136, 140) [Google Scholar]
  28. M. P. Crosland, For the industrial exhibitions, see The Society of Arcueil. A View of French Science at the Time of Napoleon I”, Heinemann, London, 1967, pp. 3637 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1595/003214000X443125134
Loading
/content/journals/10.1595/003214000X443125134
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test