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Standard Measures of United States, Great Britain and France: History and actual comparisons. With appendix on introduction of the mètre — John Shaqi

Standard Measures of United States, Great Britain and France: History and actual comparisons. With appendix on introduction of the mètreWurtele, Arthur S. C.

History

Standard Measures of United States, Great Britain and France: History and actual comparisons. With appendix on introduction of the mètre

Name: Standard Measures of United States, Great Britain and France: History and actual comparisons. With appendix on introduction of the mètre
Author: Wurtele, Arthur S. C.

Wurtele, Arthur S. C.

Metric system; Weights and measures -- History

_Measurer._           _Mid. Lat._       _Arc._        _Length._
  B.--Svanberg, Sweden       +66° 20´ 10·0´´  1° 37´ 19·6´´    593,277 feet
  A.--Maupertuis, Sweden     +66° 19´ 37·0´´  0° 57´ 30·4´´    351,832  “
  A.--Struve, Russia         +58° 17´ 37·0´´  3° 35´  5·2´´  1,309,742  “
  B.--Struve and Tenner,
      Russia                 +56°  3´ 55·5´´  8°  2´ 28·9´´  2,937,439  “
  B.--Bessel and Bayer,
      Prussia                +54° 58´ 26·0´´  1° 30´ 29·0´´    551,073  “
  B.--Schumacher, Denmark    +54°  8´ 13·7´´  1° 31´ 53·3´´    559,121  “
  A, B.--Ganss, Hanover      +52° 32´ 16·6´´  2°  0´ 57·4´´    736,425  “
  A.--Roy and Kater, England +52° 35´ 45·0´´  3° 57´ 13·1´´  1,442,953  “
  B.--    “    “       “     +52°  2´ 19·0´´  2° 50´ 23·5´´  1,036,409  “
  A.--Lacaille and Cassini,
      France                 +46° 52´  2·0´´  8° 20´  0·3´´  3,040,605  “
  A, B.--Delambre and Mechin,
      France                 +44° 51´  2·5´´ 12° 22´ 12·7´´  4,509,832  “
  A.--Boscovich, Rome        +42° 59´   ·0´´  2°  9´ 47·0´´    787,919  “
  A.--Mason and Dixon,
      America                +39° 12´   ·0´´  1° 28´ 45·0´´    538,100  “
  A, B.--Lambton, India      +16°  8´ 21·5´´ 15° 57´ 40·7´´  5,794,598  “
  A, B.--Lambton and Everest,
      India                  +12° 32´ 20·8´´  1° 34´ 56·4´´    574,318  “
  A, B.--Lacondamine, Peru   - 1° 31´  0·4´´  3°  7´  3·5´´  1,131,050  “
  A.--Lacaille, Cape Good
       Hope                  -33° 18´ 30·0´´  1° 13´ 17·5´´    445,506  “
  B.--Maclear,   “    “      -35° 43´ 20·0´´  3° 34´ 34·7´´  1,301,993  “
  A.--Plana and Cartessi,
      Piedmont                --------------  1°  7´ 31·1´´  ------------

The following different lengths of the mètre have been obtained:

    As adopted by France, 1801     443·296   lignes.
    According to Delambre          443·264     “
          “      Bessel            443·33394   “
          “      Airy              443·32387   “
          “      Clarke            443·36146   “
    From Peru Meridian             443·440     “

The length of a pendulum vibrating 100,000 times in a mean solar day was
determined in numerous careful experiments by Biot, Arago, and Mathieu,
in mètres of 443·296 lignes, as follows:

    Dunkirk        56·67 lat. Cent.   0 above sea   0·7419076 mètres.
    Paris          54·26      “      65     “       0·7418870   “
      “  by Borda  54·26      “       0     “       0·7416274   “
    Bordeau        49·82      “       0     “       0·7412615   “
    Formentera     42·96      “     196     “       0·7412061   “

Borda also determined the length of the seconds pendulum at Paris, in
vacuo:

    First result      440·5595 lignes = 0·9938267 mètre.
    Second result        “        “   = 0·9938460   “
    As given by Ganot    “        “   = 0·9935      “

In 1812 the système usuelle was established, of which the unit was one
third of the mètre, with the old name of pied, and duodecimally divided
into pouces and lignes.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Standard Measures of United States, Great Britain and France: History and actual comparisons. With appendix on introduction of the mètre

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