Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 19 But they could not give the m6tre or decimetre, although they should know their dimensions as well as those of the yard or foot. "The decimal principle can be applied only with many qualifications to any general system of metrology; that its natural application is only to numbers, and that time, space, gravity, and extension, inflexibly reject its sway. It is doubtful whether the advantage to be obtained by any attempt to apply decimal arithmetic to weights and measures would ever compensate for the increase of diversity, which is the unavoidable consequence of change. Decimal arithmetic is a contrivance of man for computing numbers, and not a property of time, space, or matter. Nature has no partialities for the number ten, and the attempt to shackle her freedom with it will for ever prove abortive." 1 In the year 1824 the Act of Imperial Weights and Measures (5 Geo. IV. c. 74) was passed, founded on the preceding reports for ascertaining and establishing uniformity in weights and measures. The preamble of the Act declares the necessity that weights and measures should be just and uniform for the security of commerce, and for the good of the community; and recognises the provision of the Great Charter, wherein it is provided that there shall be but one measure and one weight throughout the realm. Of nearly sixty Acts of Parliament of former reigns, some have been wholly or partly repealed, and others have been confirmed by this new Act for Imperial Weights and Measures. This Act brought back into use very nearly the ancient corn measure which had been superseded for between three and four centuries; the new measure being somewhat greater than the old measure by nearly one part in one hundred of the new measure. This Act directs that after 1st May, 1825, the standard brass weight of one pound Troy weight, made in the year 1758, then in custody of the Clerk of the House of Commons, shall be the standard measure and unit of weight, and denominated the imperial standard Troy pound, from which all other weights shall be derived; and that one-twelfth part of this pound shall be an ounce, and one-twentieth part of the ounce shall be a pennyweight, and that one twenty-fourth part of a pennyweight shall be a grain, so that 5760 grains make a pound Troy: and that 7000 grains make a pound Avoirdupois, and that one-sixteenth part of this pound shall be an ounce, and that one-sixteenth part of this ounce shall be a dram. And in case of loss or injury to the standard, since it has been ascertained by the late commissioners that a cubic inch of distilled water, weighed in air by brass weights at the temperature of 62~ of Pahrenheit's thermometer, the barometer being at 30 inches, is equal to 252'458 grains, of which the imperial Troy pound contains 5760, 1 In the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on Weights and Measures in 1862, the following question by the Chairman, and answer by James Yates, Esq., F.R. S., are printed, p. 54:"499. Did not the Americans, in the year 1821, establish an inquiry by Comission into the desirability of adopting a decimal system?-Yes; it was brought before them, and they appointed Mr. John Quincy Adams to inquire into the subject and make a report; and this is the report which he delivered to Congress (handing book to the Committee), and the main substance of his report is, that he most decidedly and in the strongest terms recommends the metric system." If Mr. Yates had read Mr. Adams's report, he could only have made out his answer on the principle of the non-natural employment of language, as practised by a certain school of Oxford theologians.

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Title
Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.
Author
Potts, Robert, 1805-1885.
Canvas
Page 16
Publication
London,: Relfe bros.,
1876.
Subject terms
Arithmetic

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"Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts." In the digital collection University of Michigan Historical Math Collection. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/abu7012.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 9, 2025.
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