The Metric System of Weights and Measures

Abstract

A DEPUTATION representing forty-six Chambers of Commerce, announced in these columns a fortnight ago, waited upon Mr. Balfour, First Lord of the Treasury, on November 20, to urge upon the Government the desirability of adopting the metric system,of weights and measures, as recommended by the late Select Committee on the subject. It will be gratifying to men of science to know that the commercial world has been brought to support a reform advocated by them for many years. When the question was merely one of simplicity, little importance was attached to it, but now that commercial men have learned that our chaotic system of weights and measures is a serious obstacle to international trade, the matter is taken into the region of practical politics. On the whole, Mr. Balfour's reply to the deputation is satisfactory. The best way to the adoption of the metricsystem in this country is by educating the mass of the opeople in its use; in other words, the transition will have to be gradual rather than an abrupt change brought about by legal process. By all means let the metric system be legalised, but it cannot be seriously believed that in two years people would submit to having the system thrust upon them by Act of Parliament. The Select Committee of the House of Commons recommended “That the metrical system of weights and measures be taught in all public elementary schools as a necessary and integral part of arithmetic, and that decimals be introduced at an earlier period of the school curriculum than it is at present.” This recommendation ought certainly to be carried out, for when the use of decimals has become common, and the convenience of the metric units has become widely known, there will be little need for legislation to make the use of the system compulsory. But the question is not only one of ways and means; for if England adopts the metric system, then France will, in all probability, adopt Greenwich time, and there will then be one time system throughout the world.