The Metric System Of Measurement

The development and establishment of the metric system

One of the most significant results of the French Revolution was the establishment of the metric system of weights and measures.

European scientists had for many years discussed the desirability of a new, rational, and uniform system to replace the national and regional variants that made scientific and commercial communication difficult. The first proposal closely to approximate what eventually became the metric system was made as early as 1670. Gabriel Mouton, the vicar of St. Paul’s Church in Lyon, France, and a noted mathematician and astronomer, suggested a linear measure based on the arc of one minute of longitude, to be subdivided decimally. Mouton’s proposal contained three of the major characteristics of the metric system: decimalization, rational prefixes, and the Earth’s measurement as basis for a definition. Mouton’s proposal was discussed, amended, criticized, and advocated for 120 years before the fall of the Bastille and the creation of the National Assembly made it a political possibility. In April of 1790 one of the foremost members of the assembly, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, introduced the subject and launched a debate that resulted in a directive to the French Academy of Sciences to prepare a report. After several months’ study, the academy recommended that the length of the meridian passing through Paris be determined from the North Pole to the Equator, that 1/10,000,000 of this distance be termed the metre and form the basis of a new decimal linear system, and, further, that a new unit of weight should be derived from the weight of a cubic metre of water. A list of prefixes for decimal multiples and submultiples was proposed. The National Assembly endorsed the report and directed that the necessary meridional measurements be taken.

On June 19, 1791, a committee of 12 mathematicians, geodesists, and physicists met with King Louis XVI, who gave his formal approval. The next day, the king attempted to escape from France, was arrested, returned to Paris, and was imprisoned; a year later, from his cell, he issued the proclamation that directed several scientists including Jean Delambre and Pierre Mechain to perform the operations necessary to determine the length of the metre. The intervening time had been spent by the scientists and engineers in preliminary research; Delambre and Mechain now set to work to measure the distance on the meridian from Barcelona, Spain, to Dunkirk in northern France. The survey proved arduous; civil and foreign war so hampered the operation that it was not completed for six years. While Delambre and Mechain were struggling in the field, administrative details were being worked out in Paris. In 1793 a provisional metre was constructed from geodetic data already available. In 1795 the firm decision was taken to enact adoption of the metric system for France. The new law defined the length, mass, and capacity standards and listed the prefixes for multiples and submultiples. With the formal presentation to the assembly of the standard metre, as determined by Delambre and Mechain, the metric system became a fact in June 1799. The motto adopted for the new system was “For all people, for all time.”

The standard metre was the Delambre-Mechain survey-derived “one ten-millionth part of a meridional quadrant of the earth.” The gram, the basic unit of mass, was made equal to the mass of a cubic centimetre of pure water at the temperature of its maximum density (4 °C or 39.2 °F). A platinum cylinder known as the Kilogram of the Archives was declared the standard for 1,000 grams.

The litre was defined as the volume equivalent to the volume of a cube, each side of which had a length of 1 decimetre, or 10 centimetres.

The are was defined as the measure of area equal to a square 10 metres on a side. In practice the multiple hectare, 100 ares, became the principal unit of land measure.

The stere was defined as the unit of volume, equal to one cubic metre.

Names for multiples and submultiples of all units were made uniform, based on Greek and Latin prefixes.

The metric system’s conquest of Europe was facilitated by the military successes of the French Revolution and Napoleon, but it required a long period of time to overcome the inertia of customary systems. Even in France Napoleon found it expedient to issue a decree permitting use of the old medieval system. Nonetheless, in the competition between the two systems existing side by side, the advantages of metrics proved decisive; in 1840 it was established as the legal monopoly in France, and from that point forward its progress throughout the world has been steady, though it is worth observing that in many cases the metric system was adopted during the course of a political upheaval, just as in its original French beginning. Notable examples are Latin America, the Soviet Union, and China. In Japan the adoption of the metric system came about following the peaceful but far-reaching political changes associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

In Britain, the Commonwealth nations, and the United States, the progress of the metric system has been discernible. The United States became a signatory to the Metric Convention of 1875 and received copies of the International Prototype Metre and the International Prototype Kilogram in 1890. Three years later the Office of Weights and Measures announced that the prototype metre and kilogram would be regarded as fundamental standards from which the customary units, the yard and the pound, would be derived.

Throughout the 20th century, use of the metric system in various segments of commerce and industry increased spontaneously in Britain and the United States; it became almost universally employed in the scientific and medical professions. The automobile, electronics, chemical, and electric power industries have all adopted metrics at least in part, as have such fields as optometry and photography. Legislative proposals to adopt metrics generally have been made in the U.S. Congress and British Parliament. In 1968 the former passed legislation calling for a program of investigation, research, and survey to determine the impact on the United States of increasing worldwide use of the metric system. The program concluded with a report to Congress in July 1971 that stated, “On the basis of the evidence marshalled in the U.S. Metric Study, this report recommends that the United States change to the International Metric System” (D.V. De Simone, A Metric America: A Decision Whose Time Has Come). Parliament went further, establishing a long-range program of changeover.