History of The Metric System

History of the metric system

For a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of the metric system.
Concepts similar to those behind the metric system had been
discussed the 16th and 17th centuries. Simon Stevin had
published his ideas for a decimal notation and John Wilkins had
published a proposal for a decimal system of measurement based
on natural units. The first practical realisation of the metric
system came in 1799, during the French Revolution, when the
existing system of measure, which had fallen into disrepute, was
temporarily replaced by a decimal system based on the kilogram
and the metre. The work of reforming the old system of weights
and measures had the support of whoever was in power, including
Louis XVI. The metric system was to be, in the words of
philosopher and mathematician Condorcet, "for all people for all
time". In the era of humanism, the basic units were taken from the
natural world: the unit of length, the metre, was based on the
dimensions of the Earth, and the unit of mass, the kilogram, was
based on the mass of water having a volume of one litre or one
thousandth of a cubic metre. Reference copies for both units were
manufactured and placed in the custody of the French Academy
of Sciences. By 1812, due to the unpopularity of the new metric
system, France had reverted to a measurement system using units
similar to those of their old system.
In 1837 the metric system was re-adopted by France, and also
Woodcut dated 1800 illustrating the six new decimal
during the first half of the 19th century was adopted by the
units that became the legal norm across all France on 4
scientific community. In the middle of the century, James Clerk
November 1800
Maxwell put forward the concept of a coherent system where a
small number of units of measure were defined as base units, and
all other units of measure, called derived units, were defined in terms of the base units. Maxwell proposed three base
units: length, mass and time. This concept worked well with mechanics, but attempts to describe electromagnetic
forces in terms of these units encountered difficulties. By the end of the 19th century, four principal variants of the
metric system were in use for the measurement of electromagnetic phenomena: three based on the
centimetre-gram-second system of units (CGS system), and one on the metre-kilogram-second system of units (MKS
system). This impasse was resolved by Giovanni Giorgi, who in 1901 proved that a coherent system that
incorporated electromagnetic units had to have an electromagnetic unit as a fourth base unit.
Until 1875, the French government owned the prototype metre and kilogram, but in that year the Convention of the
metre was signed, and control of the standards relating to mass and length passed to a trio of inter-governmental
organisations, the senior of which was the General Conference on Weights and Measures (in French the Confrence
gnrale des poids et mesures or CGPM). During the first half of the 20th century, the CGPM cooperated with a
number of other organisations, and by 1960 it had responsibility for defining temporal, electrical, thermal, molecular
and luminar measurements, while other international organisations continued their roles in how these units of
measurement were used.
In 1960, the CGPM launched the International System of Units (in French the Systme international d'units or SI)
which had six "base units": the metre, kilogram, second, ampere, degree Kelvin (subsequently renamed the "kelvin")

and candela; as well as 22 further units derived from the base units. The mole was added as a seventh base unit in
1971. During this period, the metre was redefined in terms of the wavelength of the waves from a particular light
source, and the second was defined in terms of the frequency of radiation from another light source. By the end of
the 20th century, work was well under way to redefine the ampere, kilogram, mole and kelvin in terms of the basic
constants of physics. It is expected that this work will be completed by 2014.
Development of underlying principles

The first practical implementation of the metric system: 1089 was the system implemented by French
Revolutionaries towards the end of the 18th century. Its key features were that:
It was decimal in nature.

It derived its unit sizes from nature.
Units that have different dimensions are related to each other in a rational manner.
Prefixes are used to denote multiples and sub-multiples of its units.
These features had already been explored and expounded by various scholars and academics in the two centuries
prior to the French metric system being implemented.
Simon Stevin is credited with introducing the decimal system into general use in Europe. Twentieth-century writers
such Bigourdan (France, 1901) and McGreevy (United Kingdom, 1995) credit the French cleric Gabriel Mouton
(1670) as the originator of the metric system.:140 In 2007 a proposal for a coherent decimal system of measurement
by the English cleric John Wilkins (1668) received publicity. Since then writers have also focused on Wilkins'
proposals: Tavernor (2007):4651 gave both Wilkins and Mouton equal coverage while Quinn (2012) makes no
mention of Mouton but states that "he [Wilkins] proposed essentially what became... the French decimal metric
system".
Work of Simon Stevin

During the early medieval era, Roman numerals were used in
Europe to represent numbers, but the Arabs represented numbers
using the Hindu numeral system, a positional notation that used
ten symbols. In about 1202, Fibonacci published his book Liber
Abaci (Book of Calculation) which introduced the concept of
positional notation into Europe. These symbols evolved into the
numerals "0", "1", "2" etc.
At that time there was dispute regarding the difference between
rational numbers and irrational numbers and there was no
consistency in the way in which decimal fractions were
represented. In 1586, Simon Stevin published a small pamphlet
called De Thiende ("the tenth") which historians credit as being the
basis of modern notation for decimal fractions. Stevin felt that this
innovation was so significant that he declared the universal
introduction of decimal coinage, measures, and weights to be
merely a question of time.:70:91
Work of John Wilkins

Frontspiece of the publication where John Wilkins
In the mid seventeenth century John Wilkins, the first secretary of
proposed a metric system of units in which length,
England's Royal Society, was asked by the society to devise a
mass, volume and area would be related to each other
"universal standard of measure". In 1668 he attempted to codify all
knowledge in his 621 page book An Essay towards a Real
Character and a Philosophical Language. Four pages of Part II in Chapter VII were devoted to physical
measurement. Here Wilkins also proposed a decimal system of units of measure based on what he called a "universal
measure" that was derived from nature for use between "learned men" of various nations.[1]
Wilkins considered the earth's meridian, atmospheric pressure[2] and, following a suggestion by Christopher Wren
and demonstrations by Christiaan Huygens, the pendulum as the source for his universal measure. He discarded
atmospheric pressure as a candidate it was described by Torricelli in 1643 as being susceptible to variation (the
link between atmospheric pressure and weather was not understood at the time) and he discarded a meridian as being
too difficult to measure; leaving the pendulum as his preferred choice. He proposed that the length of a "seconds
pendulum"[3] (approximately 993mm) which he named the "standard" should be the basis of length. He proposed
further that the "measure of capacity" (base unit of volume) should be defined as a cubic standard and that the
"measure of weight" (base unit of weight [mass]) should be the weight of a cubic standard of rainwater. All multiples
and sub-multiples of each of these measures would be related to the base measure in a decimal manner. In short,
Wilkins "proposed essentially what became... the French decimal metric system".
Work of Gabriel Mouton

In 1670, Gabriel Mouton, a French abbot and astronomer, published the book Observationes diametrorum solis et
lunae apparentium in which he proposed a decimal system of measurement of length for use by scientists in
international communication, to be based on the dimensions of the Earth. The milliare would be defined as a minute
of arc along a meridian and would be divided into 10 centuria, the centuria into 10 decuria and so on, successive
units being the virga, virgula, decima, centesima, and the milles. Mouton used Riccioli's estimate that one degree of
arc was 321,185 Bolognese feet, and his own experiments showed that a pendulum of length one virgula would beat
3959.2 times[4] in half an hour. Current pendulum theory shows that such a pendulum would have had an equivalent

length of 205.6mm using today's knowledge of the size of the earth, the virgula would have been approximately
185.2mm.[5] He believed that with this information scientists in a foreign country would be able to construct a copy
of the virgula for their own use.
17th Century developments

Communication of metrological information was one of the issues
facing mid-seventeenth century savants; many discussed the possibility
of scholarly communication using a so-called "universal measure" that
was not tied to a particular national system of measurement. Mouton's
ideas attracted interest at the time; Picard in his work Mesure de la
Terre (1671) and Huygens in his work Horologium Oscillatorium sive
de motu pendulorum (1673) both proposing that a standard unit of
length be tied to the beat frequency of a pendulum.
The French Academy of Sciences (Acadmie Royale des Sciences)
interest in the pendulum experiments were effectively announced by
Picard in his work Mesure de la Terre. The length of a "second
pendulum" was measured at a number of locations outside France, in
1671 at Uraniborg, an island 26km north of Copenhagen and in 1672
Jean Richer measured one at Cayenne in French Guiana, 5 north of
Comparison of Wilkins' "Bob" pendulum and
the equator. There was no discernible difference between the
Jefferson's "rod" pendulum, both of which beat
Uraniborg pendulum and the Paris one, but there was a 2.81mm
once per second
difference between the lengths of the Cayenne pendulum and that from
Paris. Cooperation with the English Royal Society showed no discernible difference between pendulums measured in
London and Paris, but measurements taken at Gore in Senegal, in West Africa were more in line with those taken at
Cayenne. Meanwhile, in England, Locke, in his work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), made
references to the "philosopher's foot" which he defined as being one third of a "second pendulum" at 45 latitude.
In 1686 Englishman Newton, in his book Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica, gave a theoretical
explanation for the "bulging equator" which also explained the differences found in the lengths of the "second
pendulums", theories that were confirmed by the Acadmie's expedition to Peru in 1735.[6]
18th Century international cooperation

In the late eighteenth century proposals, similar to those of the seventeenth century for a universal measure, were
made for a common international system of measure in the spheres of commerce and technology; when the French
Revolutionaries implemented such a system, they drew on many of the seventeenth-century proposals.
In the early ninth century, when much of what later became France was part of the Holy Roman Empire, units of
measure had been standardised by the Emperor Charlemagne. He had introduced standard units of measure for
length and for mass throughout his empire. As the empire disintegrated into separate nations, including France, these
standards diverged. It has been estimated that on the eve of the Revolution, a quarter of a million different units of
measure were in use in France; in many cases the quantity associated with each unit of measure differed from town
to town, and even from trade to trade.:23 Although certain standards, such as the pied du roi (the King's foot) had a
degree of pre-eminence and were used by scientists, many traders chose to use their own measuring devices, giving
scope for fraud and hindering commerce and industry. These variations were promoted by local vested interests, but
hindered trade and taxation. In contrast, in England the Magna Carta (1215) had stipulated that "there shall be one
unit of measure throughout the realm".
By the mid-eighteenth century, it had become apparent that

standardisation of weights and measures between nations who traded
and exchanged scientific ideas with each other was necessary. Spain,
for example, had aligned her units of measure with the royal units of
France, and Peter the Great aligned the Russian units of measure with
those of England. In 1783 the British inventor James Watt, who was
having difficulties in communicating with German scientists, called for
the creation of a global decimal measurement system, proposing a
system which, like the seventeenth-century proposal of Wilkins, used
the density of water to link length and mass, and in 1788 the French
chemist Antoine Lavoisier commissioned a set of nine brass
cylindersa [French] pound and decimal subdivisions thereof for his
experimental work.:71
In 1789 French finances were in a perilous state, several years of poor
James Watt, British inventor and advocate of an
harvests had resulted in hunger among the peasants and reforms were
international decimalized system of measure
thwarted by vested interests. On 5 May 1789 Louis XVI summoned the
Estates-General which has been in abeyance since 1614, triggering a series of events that were to culminate in the
French Revolution. On 20 June 1789 the newly formed Assemble nationale (National Assembly) took an oath not to
disband until a constitution had been drafted, resulting in the setting up, on 27 June 1789, of the Assemble nationale
constituante (Constituent Assembly). On the same day, the Acadmie des sciences (Academy of Sciences) set up a
committee to investigate the reform of weights and measures which, due to their diverse nature, had become a
vehicle for corruption.:23:46
On 4 August 1789, three weeks after the storming of the Bastille, the
nobility surrendered their privileges, including the right to control local
weights and measures.:88 Talleyrand, Assemble representative of the
clergy, revolutionary leader and former Bishop of Autun, at the
prompting of the mathematician and secretary of the Acadmie
Condorcet, approached the British and the Americans in early 1790
with proposals of a joint effort to define a common standard of length
based on the length of a pendulum. Great Britain, represented by John
Riggs Miller and the United States represented by Thomas Jefferson
agreed in principle to the proposal, but the choice of latitude for the
pendulum proved to be a sticking point: Jefferson opting for 38N,
Talleyrand for 45N and Riggs-Miller for London's latitude.:9395 On 8
May 1790 Talleyrand's proposal in the Assemble that the new measure
be defined at 45N "or whatever latitude might be preferred" won the
support of all parties concerned. On 13 July 1790, Jefferson presented
a document Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights,
The Marquis de Condorcet "The metric system
and Measures of the United States to the U.S. Congress in which, like
is for all people for all time."
Wilkins, he advocated a decimal system in which units that used
traditional names such as inches, feet, roods were related to each by the
powers of ten. Again, like Wilkins, he proposed a system of weights based around the weight of a cubic unit of
water, but unlike Wilkins, he proposed a "rod pendulum" rather than a "bob pendulum". Riggs-Miller promoted
Tallyrand's proposal in the British House of Commons.

In response to Tallyrand's proposal of 1790, the Assemble set up a new committee under the auspices of the
Acadmie to investigate weights and measures. The members were five of the most able scientists of the
dayJean-Charles de Borda, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Gaspard Monge and Condorcet. The
committee, having decided that counting and weights and measures should use the same radix, debated the use of the
duodecimal system as an alternative to the decimal system. Eventually the committee decided that the advantages of
divisibility by three and four was outweighed by the complications of introducing a duodecimal system and on 27
October 1790 recommended to the Assemble that currency, weights and measures should all be based on a decimal
system. They also argued in favour of the decimalization of time and of angular measures.:7172 The committee
examined three possible standards for length the length of pendulum that beat with a frequency of once a second at
45 latitude, a quarter of the length of the equator and a quarter of the length of a meridian. The committee also
proposed that the standard for weight should be the weight of distilled water held in cube with sides a decimal
proportion of the standard for length.:5051 The committee's final report to the Assemble on 17 March 1791
recommended the meridional definition for the unit of length. inventor of the repeating circle was appointed
chairmanWikipedia:Please clarify.:2021 The proposal was accepted by the Assemble on 30 March 1791.
Jefferson's report was considered but not adopted by the U.S. Congress, and Riggs-Miller lost his British
Parliamentary seat in the election of 1790. When the French later overthrew their monarchy, Britain withdrew her
support.:252253 and France decided to "go it alone".:8896
Roles of Wilkins and Mouton

In the past many writers such as Bigourdan (France, 1903) and McGreevy (United Kingdom, 1995) credited Mouton
as the "founding father" of the metric system.:140 In 2007 the late Australian metric campaigner Pat Naughtin
investigated Wilkins' proposal for a universal system of measurement in Wilkins' essay, a work that pre-dated
Mouton's proposal by two years. Wilkins' proposal, unlike Mouton's, discussed an integrated measurement system
that encompassed length, volume and mass rather than just length.
Wilkins' Essay was widely circulated at the time, but the main interest in the Essay was his proposal for a
philosophical language in general rather than just a universal standard for units of measure. Subsequent interest in
Wilkins' Essay was confined mainly to those interested in the field of onomasiology rather than metrology: for
example, Roget in the introduction of his Thesaurus (1852), noted Wilkins' Essay as being one of the leading
seventeenth-century works in onomasiology. British commentators of the Essay devoted little space to Wilkins'
proposals of measurement; Vernon et al. (1802) made a passing comment on the section on measurements in an
eight-page study of the Essay while Wright-Henderson (1910), in a four-page study of the Essay, made no comments
about measurements at all.
Mouton's proposals were taken seriously by, amongst others, the seventeenth-century scientists Jean Picard and
Christiaan Huygens, but a hundred years were to elapse before the French again took interest in the underlying
theory of the development of systems of measure.
Shortly after the introduction of the metric system by the French, a letter by an anonymous but regular contributor to
The Philosophical Magazine (1805) noted the lack of acknowledgement by the French of Wilkins' publication. The
writer accused the editors of the Encyclopdie of giving unwarranted attention to the work of Mouton and Huygens
at the expense of Edward Wright who, in 1599 had proposed using the earth's meridian as a standard, and of Wilkins
who had proposed a measurement system. He took British writers to task for not "defending their countrymen". He
went on to note that there was considerable communication between scientists on either side of the Channel,
particularly with Huygens and Leibniz either visiting or being members of both the Royal Society and the Acadmie
Royale des Sciences.
Implementation in Revolutionary France (17921812)

When the National Assembly accepted the committee's report on 30 March 1791, the Acadmie des sciences was
instructed to implement the proposals. The Acadmie broke the tasks into five operations, allocating each part to a
separate working group::82
1. Measuring the difference in latitude between Dunkirk and Barcelona and triangulating between them (Cassini,
Mchain, and Legendre)
2. Measuring the baselines used for the survey (Monge, Meusnier)
3. Verifying the length of the second pendulum at 45 latitude (de Borda and de Coulomb).
4. Verifying the weight in vacuo of a given volume of distilled water (Antoine Lavoisier and Ren Just Hay).
5. Publishing conversion tables relating the new units of measure to the existing units of measure (Tillet).
On 19 June 1791, the day before Louis XVI's flight to Varennes Cassini, Mchain, Legendre and Borda obtained a
royal audience where the king agreed to fund both the measurement of the meridian and repeating the measurements
made by Cassini's father. The king's authorization arrived on 24 June 1791.:2021
During the political turmoil that followed the king's flight to Varennes, the reform of weights and measures and in
particular the measurement of the meridian continued albeit with interruptions, though the structure of the
commission changed with the changing political climate. In May 1792 Cassini, loyal to Louis XVI but not to the
Revolution was replaced by Delambre and on 11 July 1792 the Commission formally proposed the names "metre",
"litre" and multipliers "centi", "kilo" etc. to the Assembly.:82
Louis XVI was executed on 21 January 1793 and on 8 August of that year, on the eve of the Reign of Terror the new
de facto government executive, the Committee of Public Safety suppressed all academies and with it the
commission, requiring them to justify their existence. Antoine Franois, comte de Fourcroy, a member of the
convention argued that the importance of reforming weights and measures was such that the work of the commission
should be allowed to continue. On 11 September 1793 the commission was reconstituted as the commission
temporaire.
On 7 April 1795 the metric system was formally defined in French law and provisional standards based on Cassini's
survey of 1740 adopted. On 22 October 1795 the work of the commission (since reconstituted as a three-man agence
temporaire under Legendre's directorship) was taken over by the newly formed National Institute of Arts and
Science and under the new government, the Directory, was transferred to the "Office for Weights and Measures"
under the Minister of the Interior.:9697
On 15 November 1798 Delambre and Mchain returned to Paris with their data, having completed the survey of the
Dunkirk-Barcelona meridian. The data was analysed and a prototype metre constructed from platinum with a length
of 443.296 lignes.[7] At the same time a prototype kilogram was constructed the mass of a cube of water at 4C,
each side of the cube being 0.1 metres. The prototype metre was presented to the French legislative assemblies on 22
June 1799.:265266
Decimal time (1793)

Main article: French Republican Calendar
The decree of 5 October 1793 introduced the Republican Calendar into
France and with it decimalised time. The day was divided into 10 "decimal
hours", the "hour" into 100 "decimal minutes" and the "decimal minute" into
100 "decimal seconds". The "decimal hour" corresponded to 2hr24min, the
"decimal minute" to 1.44min and the "decimal second" to 0.864s. The
revolutionary week was 10days, but there were still twelve months in a year,
each month consisting of three "weeks". Each year had five or six intercalary
days to make up the total of 365 or 366 days.
The implementation of decimal time proved an immense task and under the
article 22 of the law of 18 Germinal, Year III (7 April 1795), the use of
decimal time was no longer mandatory, though the Republican Calendar was
retained. On 1 January 1806, France reverted to the traditional timekeeping.
A clock of the republican era showing

both decimal and standard time
Angular measure (c. 1793)

Although there was no specific decree regarding angular measure which was
also decimalised during the 1790s, it is reported to have been used in 1794,:51
but was not mentioned in the metric system decree of 1795. In particular, the
repeating circle, invented in about 1787 by Borda, himself a strong proponent
of decimalization, was adapted to use decimal angles.
Repeating circle the instrument used

for triangulation when measuring the
meridian
A grade (or gon) was defined as being 1100 of a quadrant, making 400 grades
in a full circle. Fractions of the grade used the standard metric prefixes, thus
one centigrade was 110000 of a quadrant, making one centigrade of longitude
approximately one kilometre.
The adoption of the grade by the cartographic community was sufficient to

warrant a mention in the Lexicographia-neologica Gallica in 1801 and its use
continued on military maps through the nineteenth century[8] into the twentieth century.[9] It appears not to have been
widely used outside cartography. The centigrade, as an angular measure, was adopted for general use in a number
countries, so in 1948 the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) recommended that the degree
centigrade, as used for the measurement of temperature, be renamed the degree Celsius. The SI Brochure (2006)
notes that the gon is now a little-used alternative to the degree.
Draft metric system (1795)

In France, the metric system of measure was first given a legal
basis in 1795 by the French Revolutionary government. Article 5
of the law of 18 Germinal, Year III (7 April 1795) defined six new
decimal units. The units and their preliminary values were:
The metre, for length defined as being one ten millionth of
the distance between the North Pole and the Equator through
Paris
The are(100m2) for area [of land]
The stre(1m3) for volume of firewood
The litre(1dm3) for volumes of liquid
The gramme, for mass defined as being the mass of one cubic
centimetre of water
The franc, for currency
Decimal multiples of these units were defined by Greek prefixes:
"myria" (10,000), "kilo" (1000), "hecta" (100) and "deka" (10) and
submultiples were defined by the Latin prefixes "deci" (0.1),
"centi" (0.01) and "milli" (0.001). Using Cassini's survey of 1744,
a provisional value of 443.44 lignes was assigned to the metre
which, in turn, defined the other units of measure.:106
The Paris meridian which passes through the Paris

Observatory (Observatoire de Paris). The metre was
defined along this meridian using a survey that
stretched from Dunkirk to Barcelona.
The final value of the metre was defined in 1799 when Delambre
and Mchain presented the results of their survey between Dunkirk and Barcelona which fixed the length of the
metre at 443.296 lignes. The law 19 Frimaire An VIII (10 December 1799) defined the metre in terms of this value
and the kilogramme as being 18827.15 grains. These definitions enabled reference copies of the kilograms and
metres to be constructed and these were used as the standards for the next 90 years.
10
Meridianal definition
The question of measurement reform in France was placed in the
hands of the French Academy of Sciences who appointed a
commission chaired by Jean-Charles de Borda. Borda could be
said to have been a fanatic for decimalization: he had designed the
repeating circle, a surveying instrument which allowed a
much-improved precision in the measurement of angles between
landmarks, but insisted that it be calibrated in "grades" (1100 of a
quarter-circle) rather than degrees, with 100minutes to a grade
and 100seconds to a minute. The instrument was manufactured by
tienne Lenoir. For Borda, the seconds pendulum was a poor
choice for a standard because the second (as a unit of time) was
insufficiently decimal: he preferred the new system of 10hours to
the day, 100minutes to the hour and 100seconds to the minute.
Instead, the commission whose members included Lagrange,
Laplace, Monge and Condorcet decided that the new measure
should be equal to one ten-millionth of the distance from the North
Pole to the Equator (the quadrant of the Earth's circumference),
Belfry, Dunkirk the northern end of the meridian arc
measured along the meridian passing through Paris. Apart from
the obvious nationalistic considerations, the Paris meridian was
also a sound choice for practical scientific reasons: a portion of the quadrant from Dunkerque to Barcelona (about
1000km, or one-tenth of the total) could be surveyed with start- and end-points at sea level, and that portion was
roughly in the middle of the quadrant, where the effects of the Earth's oblateness were expected to be the largest.
The task of surveying the meridian arc, which was authorized by
Louis XVI:2133 and which was estimated to take two years, fell to
Pierre Mchain and Jean-Baptiste Delambre. The task eventually
took more than six years (179298) with delays caused not only
by unforeseen technical difficulties but also by the convulsed
period of the aftermath of the Revolution. In the meantime, the
commission calculated a provisional value from older surveys of
443.44lignes.[10]
The project was split into two parts the northern section of
742.7km from the Belfry, Dunkirk to Rodez Cathederal which
was surveyed by Delambre and the southern section of 333.0km
from Rodez to the Montjuc Fortress, Barcelona which was
surveyed by Mchain.: 227230[11]
The north and south sections of the meridianal survey

met at Rodez cathederal, seen here dominating the
Rodez skyline
Delambre used a baseline of about 10km in length along a straight road, located close to Melun. In an operation
taking six weeks, the baseline was accurately measured using four platinum rods, each of length two toise (about
3.9m).: 227230 Thereafter he used, where possible, the triangulation points used by Cassini in his 1744 survey of
France. Mchain's baseline, of a similar length, and also on a straight section of road was in the Perpignan area.:
240241
Although Mchain's sector was half the length of Delambre, it included the Pyrenees and hitherto unsurveyed
parts of Spain. After the two surveyors met, each computed the other's baseline in order to cross-check their results
and they then recomputed the kilometre. Their result came out at 0.144lignes shorter than the provisional value, a
difference of about 0.03%.
11
Mtre des Archives

While Mchain and Delambre were completing their survey, the
commission had ordered a series of platinum bars to be made
based on the provisional metre. When the final result was known,
the bar whose length was closest to the meridianal definition of the
metre was selected and placed in the French National Archives on
22June 1799 (4messidor AnVII in the Republican calendar) as a
permanent record of the result: this standard metre bar became
known as the mtre des Archives.
Fortress of Montjuc the southern end of the meridian
arc
The metric system, that is the system of units based on the metre,
was officially adopted in France on 10December 1799
(19frimaire AnVIII) and became the sole legal system of weights
and measures there from 1801.

It soon became apparent that Mchain and Delambre's result (443.296lignes) was slightly too short for the
meridianal definition of the metre. Arago and Biot extended the survey to the island of Formentera in the western
Mediterranean Sea in 18069, and found that one ten-millionth of the Earth's quadrant should be 443.31lignes: later
work increased the value to 443.39lignes. The modern value, for the WGS84 reference spheroid, is 1.000 196 57m
or 443.383 08lignes.[12]
Nevertheless, the mtre des Archives remained the legal and practical standard for the metre in France, even once it
was known that it did not exactly correspond to the meridianal definition. When, in 1867, it was proposed that a new
international standard metre be created, the length was taken to be that of the mtre des Archives "in the state in
which it shall be found".
Kilogramme des Archives

On 7 April 1795, the gramme, upon which the kilogram is based, was decreed to be equal to "the absolute weight of
a volume of pure water equal to a cube of one hundredth of a metre, and at the temperature of the melting ice".
Although this was the definition of the gram, the regulation of trade and commerce required a "practical realisation":
a single-piece, metallic reference standard that was one thousand times more massive that would be known as grave
(symbol "G"). This mass unit, whose name is derived from the word "gravity", defined by Lavoisier and Ren Just
Hay had been in use since 1793. Notwithstanding that the definition of the base unit of mass was the gramme
(alternatively "gravet"), this new, practical realisation would ultimately become the base unit of mass. A provisional
kilogram standard was made and work was commissioned to determine the precise mass of a cubic decimetre (later
to be defined as equal to one litre) of water.
Although the decreed definition of the kilogramme specified water at 0C a highly stable temperature point
the scientists tasked with producing the new practical realisation chose to redefine the standard and perform their
measurements at the most stable density point: the temperature at which water reaches maximum density, which was
measured at the time as 4C.[13] They concluded that one cubic decimetre of water at its maximum density was
equal to 99.92072% of the mass of the provisional kilogram made earlier that year.[14] Four years later in 1799, an
all-platinum standard, the "Kilogramme des Archives", was fabricated with the objective that it would equal, as close
as was scientifically feasible for the day, to the mass of cubic decimetre of water at 4C. The kilogramme was
defined to be equal to the mass of the Kilogramme des Archives and this standard stood for the next ninety years.
Note that the new metric system did not come into effect in France until after the French Revolution, when the new
revolutionary government captured the idea of the metric system. The decision of the Republican government to
name this new unit the "kilogramme" had been mainly politically motivated, because the name "grave" was at that

time considered politically incorrect as it resembled the aristocratic German title of the Graf, an alternative name for
the title of Count that, like other nobility titles, was inconsistent with the new French Republic notion of equality
(galit).[15] Accordingly, the name of the original, defined unit of mass, "gramme", which was too small to serve as
a practical realisation, was adopted and the new prefix "kilo" was appended to it to form the name "kilogramme".
Consequently, the kilogram is the only SI base unit that has an SI prefix as part of its unit name.
Adoption of the metric weights and measures

During the nineteenth century the metric system of weights and measures proved a convenient political compromise
during the unification processes in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Spain found it expedient in 1858 to follow
the French example and within a decade Latin America had also adopted the metric system. There was considerable
resistance to metrication in the United Kingdom and in the United States, though once the United Kingdom
announced its metrication program in 1965, the Commonwealth followed suit.
France
Main articles: Mesures usuelles and Units of measurement in France
The introduction of the metric system into France in 1795 was done on a
district by district basis with Paris being the first district, but it was, in terms
of modern standards, poorly managed. Although thousands of pamphlets were
distributed, the Agency of Weights and Measures who oversaw the
introduction underestimated the work involved. Paris alone needed 500,000
metre sticks, yet one month after the metre became the sole legal unit of
measure, they only had 25,000 in store.: 269 This, combined with other
excesses of the Revolution and the high level of illiteracy made the metric
system unpopular.
Napoleon himself ridiculed the metric system, but as an able administrator,
recognised the value of a sound basis for a system of measurement and under
the dcret imprial du 12 fvrier 1812 (imperial decree of 12 February 1812),
a new system of measure the mesures usuelles or "customary measures"
was introduced for use in small retail businesses all government, legal and
Napoleon Bonaparte introduced the
similar works still had to use the metric system and the metric system
Mesures usuelles.
continued to be taught at all levels of education. The names of many units
used during the ancien regime were reintroduced, but were redefined in terms
of metric units. Thus the toise was defined as being two metres with six pied making up one toise, twelve pouce
making up one pied and twelve lignes making up one pouce. Likewise the livre was defined as being 500g, each
livre comprising sixteen once and each once eight gros and the aune as 120 centimetres.
Louis Philippe I by means of the La loi du 4 juillet 1837 (the law of 4 July 1837) effectively revoked the use of
mesures uselles by reaffirming the laws of measurement of 1795 and 1799 to be used from 1 May 1840. However,
many units of measure, such as the livre (for half a kilogram), remained in colloquial use for many years.[16]
The Dutch metric system

The Netherlands first used the metric system and then, in 1812, the mesures usuelles when it was part of the First
French Empire. Under the Royal decree of 27 March 1817 (Koningklijk besluit van den 27 Maart 1817), the newly
formed Kingdom of the Netherlands abandoned the mesures usuelles in favour of the "Dutch" metric system
(Nederlands metrisch stelsel) in which metric units were given the names of units of measure that were then in use.
Examples include the ons (ounce) which was defined as being 100g.
12
13
The German Zollverein

At the outbreak of the French Revolution, much of modern-day
Germany and Austria were part of the Holy Roman Empire which has
become a loose federation of kingdoms, principalities, free cities,
bishoprics and other fiefdoms, each with its own system of
measurement, though in most cases such system were loosely derived
from the Carolingian system instituted by Charlemagne a thousand
years earlier.
Stone marking the Austro-Hungarian/Italian

border at Pontebba displaying myriametres
(10km), a unit used in Central Europe in the 19th
century.
During the Napoleonic era, there was a move among some of the
German states to reform their systems of measurement using the
prototype metre and kilogram as the basis of the new units. Baden, in
1810, for example, redefined the Ruthe (rods) as being 3.0m exactly
and defined the subunits of the Ruthe as 1 Ruthe = 10Fu (feet) =
100Zoll (inches) = 1,000Linie (lines) = 10,000Punkt (points) while
the Pfund was defined as being 500g, divided into 30Loth, each of
16.67g. Bavaria, in its reform of 1811, trimmed the Bavarian Pfund
from 561.288g to 560g exactly, consisting of 32 Loth, each of 17.5g
while the Prussian Pfund remained at 467.711g.
After the Congress of Vienna there was a degree of commercial

cooperation between the various German states resulting in the setting
of the German Customs Union (Zollverein). There were however still
many barriers to trade until Bavaria took the lead in establishing the General German Commercial Code in 1856. As
part of the code the Zollverein introduce the Zollpfund (Customs Pound) which was defined to be exactly 500g and
which could be split into 30'lot'. This unit was used for inter-state movement of goods, but was not applied in all
states for internal use.
Although the Zollverein collapsed after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the metric system became the official
system of measurement in the newly formed German Empire in 1872:350 and of Austria in 1875. The Zollpfund
ceased to be legal in Germany after 1877.
Italy
The Cisalpine Republic, a North Italian republic set up by Napoleon in
1797 with its capital at Milan first adopted a modified form of the
metric system based in the braccio cisalpino (Cisalpine cubit) which
was defined to be half a metre. In 1802 the Cisalpine Republic was
renamed the Italian Republic, with Napoleon as its head of state. The
following year the Cisalpine system of measure was replaced by the
metric system.
In 1806, the Italian Republic was replaced by the Kingdom of Italy
with Napoleon as its emperor. By 1812, all of Italy from Rome
northwards was under the control of Napoleon, either as French
Departments or as part of the Kingdom of Italy ensuring the metric
system was in use throughout this region.
After the Congress of Vienna, the various Italian states reverted to their
original system of measurements, but in 1845 the Kingdom of
Piedmont and Sardinia passed legislation to introduce the metric
Tablet showing conversions of legacy units of
weights and measures to metric units,
system within five years. By 1860, most of Italy had been unified
Vicopisano, Tuscany
under the King of Sardinia Victor Emmanuel II and under Law 132 of
28 July 28, 1861 the metric system became the official system of
measurement throughout the kingdom. Numerous Tavole di ragguaglio (Conversion Tables) were displayed in shops
until 31 December 1870.
Spain
Until the ascent of the Bourbon monarchy in Spain in 1700, each of the regions of Spain retained its own system of
measurement. The new Bourbon monarchy tried to centralise control and with it the system of measurement. There
were debates regarding the desirability of retaining the Castilian units of measure or, in the interests of
harmonisation, adopting the French system. Although Spain assisted Mchain in his meridian survey, the
Government feared the French revolutionary movement and reinforced the Castilian units of measure to counter such
movements. By 1849 however, it proved difficult to maintain the old system and in that year the metric system
became the legal system of measure in Spain.
United Kingdom and the Commonwealth

Main articles: Metrication in the United Kingdom and Metrication of British transport
In 1824 the Weights and Measures Act imposed one standard 'imperial' system of weights and measures on the
British Empire. The effect of this act was to standardise existing British units of measure rather than to align them
with the metric system.
During the next eighty years a number of Parliamentary select committees recommended the adoption of the metric
system each with a greater degree of urgency, but Parliament prevaricated. A Select Committee report of 1862
recommended compulsory metrication, but with an "Intermediate permissive phase", Parliament responded in 1864
by legalising metric units only for 'contracts and dealings'. Initially the United Kingdom declined to sign the Treaty
of the Metre, but did so in 1883. Meanwhile British scientists and technologists were at the forefront of the
metrication movement it was the British Association for the Advancement of Science that promoted the cgs system
of units as a coherent system: 109 and it was the British firm Johnson Matthey that was accepted by the CGPM in
1889 to cast the international prototype metre and kilogram.
14

In 1895 another Parliamentary select committee recommended the compulsory adoption of the metric system after a
two-year permissive period, the 1897 Weights and Measures Act legalised the metric units for trade, but did not
make them mandatory. A bill to make the metric system compulsory in order to enable British industrial base to fight
off the challenge of the nascent German base passed through the House of Lords in 1904, but did not pass in the
House of Commons before the next general election was called. Following opposition by the Lancashire cotton
industry, a similar bill was defeated in 1907 in the House of Commons by 150 votes to 118.
In 1965 Britain commenced an official program of metrication that, as of 2012, had not been completed. The British
metrication program signalled the start of metrication programs elsewhere in the Commonwealth, though India had
started its program before in 1959, six years before the United Kingdom. South Africa (then not a member of the
Commonwealth) set up a Metrication Advisory Board in 1967, New Zealand set up its Metric Advisory Board in
1969, Australia passed the Metric Conversion Act in 1970 and Canada appointed a Metrication Commission in 1971.
Metrication in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa was essentially complete within a decade while metrication
in India and Canada is not complete. In addition the lakh and crore are still in widespread use in India. Most other
Commonwealth countries adopted the metric system during the 1970s.
United States
Main article: Metrication in the United States
The United States government acquired copies of the French metre and kilogram for reference purposes in 1805 and
1820 respectively. In 1866 the United States Congress passed a bill making it lawful to use the metric system in the
United States. The bill, which was permissive rather than mandatory in nature, defined the metric system in terms of
customary units rather than with reference to the international prototype metre and kilogram.:1013 By 1893, the
reference standards for customary units had become unreliable. Moreover, the United States, being a signatory of the
Metre Convention was in possession of national prototype metres and kilograms that were calibrated against those in
use elsewhere in the world. This led to the Mendenhall Order which redefined the customary units by referring to the
national metric prototypes, but used the conversion factors of the 1866 act.:1620 In 1896 a bill that would make the
metric system mandatory in the United States was presented to Congress. Of the 29 people who gave evidence
before the congressional committee who were considering the bill, 23 were in favour of the bill, but six were against.
Four of the six dissenters represented manufacturing interests and the other two the United States Revenue service.
The grounds cited were the cost and inconvenience of the change-over. The bill was not enacted. Subsequent bills
suffered a similar fate.
Development of a coherent metric system

From its inception, the metric system was designed in such a manner that the various units of measure were linked to
each other. At the start of the nineteenth century, length, mass, time and temperature were the only base unit units
that were defined in terms of formal standards. The beginnings of a coherent system were in place with the units of
area and volume linked to the unit of length, though at the time science did not understand the concepts of base units
and derived units, nor how many physical quantities were inter-related. This concept, which enabled thermal,
mechanical, electrical and relativistic systems to be interlinked was first formally proposed in 1861 using length,
mass and time as base units. The absence of an electrical base unit resulted in a number of different electrical
systems being developed in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The need for such a unit to resolve these
problems was identified by Giorgi in 1901. The SI standard which was published in 1960 defined a single coherent
system based on six units.:109
15
16
Time, work and energy

In 1832 Carl-Friedrich Gauss made the first absolute measurements of the Earth's magnetic field using a decimal
system based on the use of the millimetre, milligram, and second as the base unit of time.:109 In his paper, he also
presented his results using the metre and gram instead of the millimetre and milligram, also using the Parisian line
and the Berlin pound[17] instead of the millimetre and milligram.
In a paper published in 1843, James Prescott Joule first demonstrated a
means of measuring the energy transferred between different systems
when work is done thereby relating Nicolas Clment's calorie, defined
in 1824, to mechanical work. Energy became the unifying concept of
nineteenth century science, initially by bringing thermodynamics and
mechanics together and later adding electrical technology and
relativistic physics leading to Einstein's equation
. The
CGS unit of energy was the "erg", while the SI unit of energy was
named the "joule" in honour of Joule.
Joule's apparatus for measuring the mechanical
In 1861 a committee of the British Association for Advancement of
equivalent of heat. As the weight dropped,
Science (BAAS) including William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin),
potential energy was transferred to the water,
James Clerk Maxwell and Joule among its members was tasked with
heating it up.
investigating the "Standards of Electrical Resistance". In their first
report (1862) they laid the ground rules for their work the metric
system was to be used, measures of electrical energy must have the same units as measures of mechanical energy
and two sets of electromagnetic units would have to be derived an electromagnetic system and an electrostatic
system. In the second report (1863) they introduced the concept of a coherent system of units whereby units of
length, mass and time were identified as "fundamental units" (now known as base units). All other units of measure
could be derived (hence derived units) from these base units. The metre, gram and second were chosen as base units.
In 1873, another committee of the BAAS that also counted Maxwell and Thomson among its members and tasked
with "the Selection and Nomenclature of Dynamical and Electrical Units" recommended using the CGS
(centimetre-gram-second) system of units. The committee also recommended the names of "dyne" and "erg" for the
CGS units of force and energy. The CGS system became the basis for scientific work for the next seventy years.
Electrical units
In the 1820s Georg Ohm formulated Ohms Law which can be extended to relate power to current, potential
difference (voltage) and resistance. During the following decades the realisation of a coherent system of units that
incorporated the measurement of electromagnetic phenomena and Ohm's law was beset with problems at least four
different systems of units were devised. In the three CGS systems, the constants
and
and consequently
and
were dimensionless.
Symbols used in this section
17
Symbol
Meaning
Electromagnetic
and
Electrostatic
forces
Electrical current
in conductors
Electrical charges
Conductor length
distance between
charges/conductors
permittivity of
free space
permeability of
free space
System of unit
dependant constants
Speed of light
Electromagnetic system of units (EMU)

The Electromagnetic system of units (EMU) was developed from Andr-Marie Ampre's discovery in 1820s
of a relationship between the force between two current-carrying conductors. This relationship is now known
as Ampere's law which can be written
where
(SI units)
In 1833 Gauss pointed out the possibility of equating this force with its mechanical equivalent. This proposal
received further support from Wilhelm Weber in 1851. The electromagnetic (or absolute) system of units was
one of the two systems of units identified in the BAAS report of 1862 and defined in the report of 1873. In this
system, current is defined by setting the magnetic force constant
to unity and potential difference is
defined in such a way as to ensure the unit of power calculated by the relation
is identical to the
unit of power required to move a mass of one gram a distance of one centimetre in one second when opposed
by a force of one dyne. The electromagnetic units of measure were known as the abampere, the abvolt, the
abcoulomb and so on.
Electrostatic system of units (ESU)
The Electrostatic system of units (ESU) was based on Coulomb's discovery in 1783 of the relationship
between the force exerted between two charged bodies. This relationship, now known as Coulomb's law can
be written
where
(SI units)
The electrostatic system was the second of the two systems of units identified in the 1862 BAAS report and
defined in the report of 1873. In this system unit for charge is defined by setting the Coulomb force constant (
) to unity and the unit for potential difference were defined to ensure the unit of energy calculated by the
relation
is one erg. The electrostatic units of measure are now known as the statampere, the
statvolt, the statcoulomb and so on.

Gaussian system of units

The Gaussian system of units was based on Heinrich Hertz realization, made in 1888 while verifying
Maxwell's Equations, that the CGS system of electromagnetic units to were related to the CGS system of
electrostatic units by the relationship:
Using this relationship, he proposed merging the EMU and the ESU systems into one system using the EMU
units for magnetic quantities (subsequently named the gauss and maxwell) and ESU units elsewhere. He
named this combined set of units "Gaussian units". This set of units has been recognised as being particularly
useful in theoretical physics.:128
Practical system of units
The CGS units of measure used in scientific work were not practical when used in engineering leading to the
development of the practical system of electric units. At the time that this system of units was proposed, the
dimension of electrical resistance was modelled in the EMU system as the ratio L/T and in the ESU system as
its inverse T/L.
The unit of length adopted for the practical system was the 108 m (approximately the length of the Earth's
quadrant), the unit of time was the second and the unit of mass an unnamed unit equal to 1011 g and the
definitions of electrical units were based on those of the EMU system. The names, but not the values, amp,
volt, farad and ohm were carried over from the EMU system. The system was adopted at the First International
Electrical Congress (IEC) in 1881. The second IEC congress (1889) defined the joule and the watt at the
practical units of energy and power respectively. The units were formalised as the International System of
Electrical and Magnetic Units at the 1893 congress of the IEC in Chicago where the volt, amp and ohm were
formally defined. The SI units with these names are very close, but not identical to the "practical units".
A coherent system
The electrical units of measure did not easily fit into the coherent system using length, mass and time as its base
units as proposed in the 1861 BAAS paper. Using dimensional analysis the dimensions of charge as defined by the
ESU system of units was identical to the dimensions of current as defined by the EMU system of units
while resistance had the same dimensions as velocity in the EMU system of units, but had the dimensions of the
inverse of velocity in the ESU system of units.
From mid-1890s onwards Giovanni Giorgi and Oliver Heaviside corresponded with each other regarding these
anomalous results. This led to Giorgi presenting a paper to the congress of the Associazione Elettrotecnica Italiana
(A.E.I.)[18] in October 1901 in which he showed that a coherent electro-mechanical system of units could be
obtained by adding a fourth base unit of an electrical nature (ampere, volt or ohm) to the three base units proposed in
the 1861 BAAS report. This gave the constants ke and km physical dimensions and hence the electro-mechanical
quantities 0 and 0 were also given physical dimensions. His work also recognized the unifying concept that energy
played in the establishment of a coherent, rational system of units with the joule as the unit of energy and the
electrical units in the practical system of units remaining unchanged.:156
The 1893 definitions of the ampere and the ohm by the IEC led to the joule as being defined in accordance with the
IEC resolutions being 0.02% larger than the joule as defined in accordance with the artefacts helds by the BIPM. In
1908, the IEC prefixed the units of measure that they had defined with the word "international", hence the
"international ampere", "international volt" etc.:155156 It took more than thirty years before Giorgi's work was
accepted in practice by the IEC. In 1946 the CIPM formally adopted a definition of the ampere based on the original
EMU definition and redefined the ohm in terms of other base units. In 1960, Giorgi's proposals were adopted as the
basis of the Systme International d'Units (International System of Units), the SI.:109
18
19
Naming the units of measure

In 1861, Charles Bright and Latimer Clark proposed the names of ohm, volt, and farad in honour of Georg Ohm,
Alessandro Volta and Michael Faraday respectively for the practical units based on the centimetre-gramme-second
absolute system. This was supported by Thomson (Lord Kelvin) These names were later scaled for use in the
Practical System. The concept of naming units of measure after noteworthy scientists was subsequently used for
other units.
Convention of the metre

Main article: Metre Convention
With increasing international adoption of the metre, the short-comings of the
mtre des Archives as a standard became ever more apparent. Countries
which adopted the metre as a legal measure purchased standard metre bars
that were intended to be equal in length to the mtre des Archives, but there
was no systematic way of ensuring that the countries were actually working to
the same standard. The meridianal definition, which had been intended to
ensure international reproducibility, quickly proved so impractical that is was
all but abandoned in favour of the artefact standards, but the mtre des
Archives (and most of its copies) were "end standards": such standards (bars
which are exactly one metre in length) are prone to wear with use, and
different standard bars could be expected to wear at different rates.
Seal of the International Bureau of

Weights and Measures (BIPM)
The International Conference on Geodesy in 1867 called for the creation of a

new, international prototype metre[19] and to arrange a system where national standards could be compared with it.
The international prototype would also be a "line standard", that is the metre was defined as the distance between
two lines marked on the bar, so avoiding the wear problems of end standards. The French government gave practical
support to the creation of an International Metre Commission, which met in Paris in 1870 and again in 1872 with the
participation of about thirty countries.
On 20 May 1875 an international treaty known as the Convention du Mtre (Metre Convention) was signed by 17
states.[20] This treaty established the following organisations to conduct international activities relating to a uniform
system for measurements:
Confrence gnrale des poids et mesures (CGPM or General Conference on Weights and Measures), an
intergovernmental conference of official delegates of member nations and the supreme authority for all
actions;
Comit international des poids et mesures (CIPM or International Committee for Weights and Measures),
consisting of selected scientists and metrologists, which prepares and executes the decisions of the CGPM and
is responsible for the supervision of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures;
Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM or International Bureau of Weights and Measures), a
permanent laboratory and world centre of scientific metrology, the activities of which include the
establishment of the basic standards and scales of the principal physical quantities, maintenance of the
international prototype standards and oversight of regular comparisons between the international prototype and
the various national standards.
The international prototype metre and kilogram were both made from a 90%platinum, 10%iridium alloy which is
exceptionally hard and which has good electrical and thermal conductivity properties. The prototype had a special
X-shaped (Tresca) cross section to minimise the effects of torsional strain during length comparisons. and the
prototype kilograms were cylindrical in shape. The London firm Johnson Matthey delivered 30 prototype metres and
40 prototype kilograms. At the first meeting of the CGPM in 1889 bar No.6 and cylinder No.X were accepted as the
20
international prototypes. The remainder were either kept as BIPM working copies or distributed to member states as
national prototypes.
Twentieth century
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the BIPM had custody of
two artefacts one to define length and the other to define mass. Other
units of measure which did not rely on specific artefacts were
controlled by other bodies. In the scientific world, quantum theory was
in its infancy and Einstein had yet to publish his theories of relativity.
By the end of the century, a coherent system of units was in place
under the control of the bodies set up by the Treaty of the Metre, the
definition of the second relied on quantum theory, the definition of the
metre relied on the theory of relativity and plans were being made to
relegate the international prototype kilogram to the archives.
U.S. national standard of the metre, showing the
bar number (#27), the Tresca cross-section and
one of the lines
Metre
The first (and only) follow-up comparison of the national standards

with the international prototype metre was carried out between 1921 and 1936, and indicated that the definition of
the metre was preserved to within 0.2m. During this follow-up comparison, the way in which the prototype metre
should be measured was more clearly definedthe 1889 definition had defined the metre as being the length of the
prototype at the definition of melting ice, but in 1927 the 7thCGPM extended this definition was to specify that the
prototype metre shall be "supported on two cylinders of at least one centimetre diameter, symmetrically placed in the
same horizontal plane at a distance of 571mm from each other".:14243, 148 The choice of 571mm represents the
Airy points of the prototypethe points at which the bending or droop of the bar is minimized.
In 1887 Michelson proposed the use of optical interferometers for the measurement of length, work which
contributed to him being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907. In 1952 the CIPM proposed the use of wavelength of a
specific light source as the standard for defining length and in 1960 the CGPM accepted this proposal using radiation
corresponding to a transition between specified energy levels of the krypton 86 atom as the new standard for the
metre. By 1975, when the second had been defined in terms of a physical phenomenon rather than the earth's rotation
and Einstein's assertion that the speed of light was constant, the CGPM authorised the CIPM to investigate the use of
the speed of light as the basis for the definition of the metre. This proposal was accepted in 1983.
Kilogram
Although the definition of the kilogram
remained unchanged throughout the
twentieth century, the 3rd CGPM in
1901 clarified that the kilogram was a
unit of mass, not of weight. The
original batch of 40 prototypes
(adopted in 1889) were supplemented
from time to time with further
prototypes for use by new signatories
to the Metre Convention.
During the course of the century, the
various national prototypes of the
kilogram were recalibrated against the
Mass drift over time of national prototypes K21K40, plus two of the IPK's sister copies:
[21]
International Prototype Kilogram
K32 and K8(41).
The above are all relative measurements; no historical
mass-measurement data is available to determine which of the prototypes has been most
(IPK) and therefore against each other.
stable relative to an invariant of nature. There is the distinct possibility that all the
The initial 1889 starting-value offsets
prototypes gained mass over 100 years and that K21, K35, K40, and the IPK simply
of the national prototypes relative to
gained less than the others.
the IPK were nulled. and any
subsequent mass changes being
relative to the IPK. A technique for steam cleaning the prototypes to remove any contaminants was developed in
1946 as part of the second recalibration.
The third periodic recalibration in 1988-9 revealed that the average difference between the IPK and adjusted baseline
for the national prototypes was 50g in 1889 the baseline of the national prototypes had been adjusted so that the
difference was zero. As the IPK is the definitive kilogram, there is no way of telling whether the IPK had been losing
mass or the national prototypes had been gaining mass.
Time
Until the advent of the atomic clock, the most reliable timekeeper available to mankind was the earth's rotation. It
was natural therefore that the astronomers under the auspice of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) took the
lead in maintaining the standards relating to time. In 1988, responsibility for timekeeping passed to the BIPM who
took on the role of coordinating a number of atomic clocks scattered around the globe. During the twentieth century
it became apparent that the earth's rotation was slowing down resulting in days becoming 1.4 milliseconds longer
each century this was verified by comparing the calculated timings of eclipses of the sun with those observed in
antiquity going back to Chinese records of 763BC.
In 1956 the 10th CGPM instructed the CIPM to prepare a definition of the second; in 1958 the definition was
published stating that the second would be calculated by extrapolation using earth's rotational speed in 1900.
Astronomers from the US Naval Observatory (USNO) and the National Physical Laboratory determined a
relationship between the frequency of radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of
the ground state of the caesium 133 atom and the estimated rate of rotation of the earth in 1900. Their value was
adopted in 1968 by the 13th CGPM.
21
Electrical units
In 1921 the Treaty of the Metre was extended to cover electrical
units with the CGPM merging its work with that of the IEC. At the
8th CGPM in 1933 the need to replace the "International"
electrical units with "absolute" units was raised. The IEC proposal
that Giorgi's proposal be adopted was accepted, but no decision
was made as to which electrical unit should be the fourth base unit.
In 1935 Sears proposed that this should be the ampere, but World
War II prevented this being formalised until 1946. The definitions
for absolute electrical system based on the ampere was formalized
in 1948.
Temperature
At the start of the twentieth century, the fundamental macroscopic
laws of thermodynamics had been formulated and although
techniques existed to measure temperature using empirical
techniques, the scientific understanding of the nature of
Four domestic quality contemporary measuring devices
temperature was minimal. Maxwell and Boltzmann had produced
that have metric calibrations a tape measure
theories describing the inter-relational of temperature, pressure
calibrated in centimetres, a thermometer calibrated in
and volume of a gas on a microscopic scale but otherwise, in 1900,
degrees Celsius, a kilogram weight (mass) and an
electrical multimeter which measures volts, amps and
there was no understanding of the microscopic or quantum nature
ohms
of temperature. Within the metric system, temperature was
expressed in degrees Centigrade with the definition that ice melted
at 0C and at standard atmospheric pressure, water boiled at 100C. A series of lookup tables defined temperature
in terms of inter-related empirical measurements made using various devices.
When, in 1948 the CGPM was charged with producing a coherent system of units of measure, definitions relating to
temperature had to be clarified. At the 9th CGPM, the centigrade temperature scale was renamed the Celsius
temperature scale and the scale itself was fixed by defining the triple point of water as 0.01C, though the CGPM
left the formal definition of absolute zero until the 10th GCPM when the name "Kelvin" was assigned to the absolute
temperature scale and triple point of water was defined as being 273.16K. In 1967, at the 13th GCPM the degree
Kelvin (K) was renamed the "kelvin" (K).
Over the ensuing years, the BIPM developed and maintained cross-correlations relating various measuring devices
such as thermocouples, light spectra and the like to the equivalent temperatures. Increasingly the use of the
Boltzmann Relationship was used as the reference point and it appears likely that in 2015 the CGPM will redefine
temperature in terms of the Boltzmann constant rather than the triple point of water.
Luminosity
Prior to 1937, the International Commission on Illumination (CIE from its French title, the Commission
Internationale de l'Eclairage) in conjunction with the CIPM produced a standard for luminous intensity to replace the
various national standards. This standard, the candela (cd) which was defined as "the brightness of the full radiator at
the temperature of solidification of platinum is 60 new candles per square centimetre".[22] was ratified by the GCPM
in 1948 and in 1960 was adopted as an SI base unit. The definition proved difficult to implement so in 1967, the
definition was revised and the reference to the radiation source was replaced by defining the candles in terms of the
power of a specified wavelength of visible light.: 115
22

In 2007 the CIPM and the CIE agreed a program of cooperation with the CIPM taking the lead in defining the use of
units of measure and the CIE taking the lead in defining the behaviour of the human eye.
Mole
The mole was originally known as a gram-atom or a gram-molecule the amount of a substance measured in grams
divided by its atomic weight. Originally chemists and physicists had differing views regarding the definition of the
atomic weight both assigned a value of 16atomic mass units (amu) to oxygen, but physicists defined oxygen in
terms of the 16O isotope whereas chemists assigned 16amu to 16O, 17O and 18O isotopes mixed in the proportion
that they occur in nature. Finally an agreement between the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics
(IUPAP) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) brought this duality to an end in
1959/60, both parties agreeing to define the atomic weight of 12C as being exactly 12 amu. This agreement was
confirmed by ISO and in 1969 the CIPM recommended its inclusion in SI as a base unit. This was done in 1971 at
the 14th CGPM.:114115
International System of Units (SI)

Main article: International System of Units
The 9th CGPM met in 1948, fifteen years after the 8th CGPM. In response to formal requests made by the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics and by the French government to establish a practical system of
units of measure, the CGPM requested the CIPM to prepare recommendations for a single practical system of units
of measurement, suitable for adoption by all countries adhering to the Metre Convention. At the same time the
CGPM formally adopted a recommendation for the writing and printing of unit symbols and of numbers. The
recommendation also catalogued the recommended symbols for the most important MKS and CGS units of measure
and for the first time the CGPM made recommendations concerning derived units.
The CIPM's draft proposal, which was an extensive revision and simplification of the metric unit definitions,
symbols and terminology based on the MKS system of units, was put to the 10th CGPM in 1954. In accordance with
Giorgi's proposals of 1901, the CIPM also recommended that the ampere be the base unit from which
electromechanical would be derived. The definitions for the ohm and volt that had previously been in use were
discarded and these units became derived units based on the metre, ampere, second and kilogram. After negotiations
with the CIS and IUPAP, two further base units, the degree kelvin and the candela were also proposed as base units.
The full system and name "Systme International d'Units" were adopted at the 11th CGPM.
During the years that followed the definitions of the base units and particularly the mise en pratique to realise these
definitions have been refined.
23
24
Proposed revision of unit definitions

Main article: New SI definitions
After the metre was redefined in 1960, the kilogram
remained the only SI base defined by a physical
example or artefact. Moreover, after the 19961998
recalibration a clear divergence between the various
prototype kilograms was observed.
At its 23rd meeting (2007), the CGPM mandated the
CIPM to investigate the use of natural constants as the
basis for all units of measure rather than the artefacts
that were then in use. At a meeting of the CCU held in
Reading, United Kingdom in September 2010, a
resolution and draft changes to the SI brochure that
were to be presented to the next meeting of the CIPM
in October 2010 were agreed to in principle. The
proposals that the CCU put forward were that:
in addition to the speed of light, four constants of
naturePlanck's constant, an elementary charge,
Boltzmann constant and Avogadro's numberbe
defined to have exact values;
Relations between proposed SI units definitions (in colour) and with

seven fundamental constants of nature (in grey) with fixed numerical
values in the proposed system
the international prototype kilogram be retired;

the current definitions of the kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole be revised;
the wording of the definitions of all the base units be tightened up.
The CIPM meeting of October 2010 found that "the conditions set by the General Conference at its 23rd meeting
have not yet been fully met. For this reason the CIPM does not propose a revision of the SI at the present time";
however the CIPM presented a resolution for consideration at the 24th CGPM (1721 October 2011) to agree the
new definitions in principle, but not to implement them until the details have been finalised. This resolution was
accepted by the conference and in addition the CGPM moved the date of the 25th meeting forward from 2015 to
2014.
Notes
[1] Transcription of relevant pages (126 kB) the associated PDF file is over 25 MB in length (http:/ / www. metricationmatters. com/ docs/
WilkinsTranslationShort. pdf)
[2] Described by Wilkins as the "quicksilver experiment" an experiment in which Torricelli demonstrated the existence of atmospheric pressure
using what would today be called a mercury barometer
[3] A "seconds pendulum" is a pendulum with a half-period of one second)
[4] There were two beats in an oscillation.
[5] Derived from the knowledge that the earth's circumference is approximately 40,000km.
[6] The acceleration due to gravity at the poles is 9.832m/s2 and at the equator 9.780m/s2, a difference of about 0.5%. (http:/ / www. ucl. ac.
uk/ EarthSci/ people/ lidunka/ GEOL2014/ Geophysics2 - Gravity/ gravity. htm)
[7] The French pied (foot) has 12 pouce (inches) and each pouce has 12 lignes (lines). The French units are 6.57% larger than their English
counterparts.
[8] For example this 1852military map of Paris
[9] For example this 1902 military map of Paris.
[10] All values in lignes are referred to the toise de Prou, not to the later value in mesures usuelles. 1toise= 6pieds; 1pied= 12pouces;
1pouce= 12lignes; so 864lignes= 1toise.
[11] Distances measured using Google Earth. The coordinates are:
Belfry, Dunkirk Rodez Cathederal

Montjuc, Barcelona
[12] The WGS84 reference spheroid has a semi-major axis of and a flattening of .
[13] L'Histoire Du Mtre, La Dtermination De L'Unit De Poids, link to Web site here. (http:/ / histoire. du. metre. free. fr/ fr/ index. htm)
[14] History of the kilogram (http:/ / www. sizes. com/ units/ kilogram. htm)
[15] BIPM the name "kilogram" (http:/ / www. bipm. org/ en/ si/ history-si/ name_kg. html)
[16] Crease (2011) refers to:
[17] The Parisian line = of a Parisian pied or foot or 1.066 English lines. The Berlin (or Prussian) pfund or pound was 468g or about 1.032
imperial pounds.
[18] it:Associazione Elettrotecnica Italiana (in Italian)
[19] The term "prototype" does not imply that it was the first in a series and that other standard metres would come after it: the "prototype" metre
was the one that came first in the logical chain of comparisons, that is the metre to which all other standards were compared.
[20] Text of the treaty:
[21] Prototype No. 8(41) was accidentally stamped with the number 41, but its accessories carry the proper number 8. Since there is no prototype
marked 8, this prototype is referred to as 8(41).
[22] (NIST Special Publication 330, 1991 ed.)
References
25
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