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II. Equivalents of Units of Length.

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Country. Non-Metric Units in Metric Units. Metric Units in Non-Metric Units.

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1 Fuss
1 Fass

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1 Fuss

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1 Fod

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Great Britain. 1 Foot

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1 Fuss

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1 Sagene

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1 Elle

1 Fot

Switzerland.. 1 Pied
United States 1 Foot
Wurtemberg. 1 Fuss

2·13353"

0.5665

= 0.29608"

= 3.4263 F.
=3.1862 F.

3.2809 F.

= 3.1862 F..
= 0.4687 S.

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= 3.3333 P.

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Country. Non-Metric Units in Metric Units. Metric Units in Non-Metric Units.

1 Meile

1 Meile

8.8889

5.9259

1 Meile

7.4259

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4.9506

1 Miil

7.5316 = 5.0211

Great Britain. 1 Mile

1 Meile

1.6093
1.0729
7.5325
5.0217

7.58647 Kilometres .. 1 Kilometre 5.05765 Miles-Metric. 1 Mile-Metric Kilometres .. 1 Kilometre Miles-Metric. 1 Mile-Metric Kilometres .. 1 Kilometre Miles Metric. 1 Mile-Metric Kilometres .. 1 Kilometre Miles-Metric. 1 Mile Metric Kilometres .. 1 Kilometre Miles-Metric. 1 Mile-Metric Kilometres.. 1 Kilometre Miles-Metric. 1 Mile-Metric Russia...... 1 Viersta = 1·06678 Kilometres .. 1 Kilometre 0.71119 Miles-Metric. 1 Mile-Metric

1 Melle

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1 Mil

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Switzerland .1 Lieue

United States 1 Mile

=

6.7915 4.5297 = 10.6593 7.1062 = 4.8000

3.2000

1.6093

1.0729

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Kilometres.. 1 Kilometre
Miles-Metric. 1 Mile-Metric
Kilometres .. 1 Kilometre
Miles-Metric. 1 Mile-Metric
Kilometres.. 1 Kilometre
Miles-Metric. 1 Mile Metric
Kilometres .. 1 Kilometre
Miles-Metric. 1 Mile-Metric
Kilometres .. 1 Kilometre
Miles-Metric. 1 Mile-Metric

III. Equivalents of Units of Liquid Capacity.

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Country. Non-Metric Units in Metric Units. Metric Units in Non-Metric Units.

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IV. Equivalents of Units of Dry Capacity.

Country.

Non-Metric Units in Metric Units. Metric Units in Non-Metric Units.

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derived from the measAgrarian measures con

Measures of surface and solidity are in general ures of length, and need not be presented here. cern local populations chiefly, and have not an important international interest. Wherever the metric system is introduced, the units of agrarian measure now in use will, in the course of time, be superseded; but it is not indispensable that they should be interfered with by legislation immediately.

The metric system to be employed in negotiations and intercourse between governments.

510. In all negotiations, treaties and diplomatic communications of every description, between the governments of different nations, in which it shall be necessary to express quantities by weight, or by measures of length, surface, capacity or solidity, the terms of the metric system shall be employed for the purposes of such expression.

Customs duties to be levied by metric weight and measure, and postal tariffs to be regulated by metric weight.

511. If, among the nations parties to this Code, there be any which shall continue to maintain their national and non-metric systems of weight and measure for purposes of domestic trade and business, such nations shall nevertheless allow and require customs duties to be levied in their ports of entry by metric weight and measure, and shall conform the tariffs of weights of

mailable matter in their post-offices to the denominations of metric weight.

Standard units of length and of weight.

512. The unit of length of the international metric system is declared to be the length, at the temperature of melting ice, of the platinum metre-bar deposited at the palace of the Archives in Paris on the 4th Messidor of the year VII. of the French Republic, by the international committee appointed to fix the length of the definitive metre, and still there preserved. The unit of weight of the same system is declared to be the weight of the platinum kilogramme deposited at the Archives on the same occasion, by the same committee.

Copies of the standards to be made and carefully preserved, as standards of verification.

513. The governments of the nations parties to this Code shall cause copies of the standard units of length and of weight to be constructed and accurately compared with the prototypes in the Archives at Paris, which copies shall be carefully kept in such secure place and in charge of such officers as the several governments may appoint, to be used at distant intervals of time for the verifications hereinafter described, and for no other purpose.

Working standards, or standards for daily use, to be constructed and periodically verified.

514. Copies of the prototype standard units shall be also constructed and accurately compared with the standards of verification provided for in the preceding article, which copies shall be used in the preparation of subordinate standards to be deposited in the principal towns, provinces or districts of each country, for the comparison and regulation of the weights and measures in immediate use among the people. These copies shall be preserved and used with extreme care; and at intervals of time, to be fixed by law, they shall

be compared with the standards of verification, in order that any alteration which may have been occasioned by use may be detected and allowed for.

Standard measures of capacity.

515. The metric measures of capacity, being immediate derivatives of the linear measures, may be verified by the bulk in cubic centimetres, or the weight in milligrammes, of distilled water which they will hold at a certain temperature. The government of each nation shall establish a system of verification of such measures, with the advice of scientific and practical experts in metrology.

Certain denominations not decimally related to the units of length, capacity, surface and weight, to be allowed.

516. It shall be lawful to use, in ordinary transactions and descriptions, the following non-metrical denominations, with the values severally attached to them:

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TITLE XXII.

LONGITUDE AND TIME.

The use of geographical co-ordinates, for the purpose of fixing the positions of places upon the earth's surface, was first suggested by Hipparchus.* The method seems to have been first practically applied by Marinus, of Tyre, a geographer known to us only by the citations of his work in Ptolemy. Claudius Ptolemy, of Alexandria, who flourished toward the middle of the second century of our era, presented, in his treatise on geography, a pretty full synopsis of the knowledge of his time in regard to this subject, many of his pages consisting simply of dry details of the latitudes and longitudes of particular places. For latitudes, the equator furnishes a natural circle of reference. For longitudes, any meridian may serve as a zero; but in the early history of geographical science, it was thought advisable, and it then seemed possible, to choose such a prime meridian as should allow all longitudes to be measured in a common direction. In the time of Ptolemy, the limit of the habitable world toward the west was supposed to lie in the group of islands called the Fortunate Islands, now known as the Canaries. Through this group he accordingly supposed his first meridian to pass : but its position was apparently defined only by its presumed distance from Alexandria, so that the meridian of Alexandria must be regarded as his actual meridian of reference.

As, in the progress of centuries, geographical knowledge extended and new geographers arose, new meridians were adopted. In the construction of maps and charts, it was natural that authors should pass their meridians of reference through well-known places; as, for instance, the capitals, or chief towns of their own countries. The progress of astronomy contributed moreover to the multiplication of meridians of reference, since convenience would suggest that the tables founded on actual observation should be conformed to the local time at the observatory. During what are commonly called the dark ages in Europe, astronomy was cultivated chiefly by the Arabians, whose tables, some of them, are said to have possessed much merit. The first European astronomical tables of importance were those which were prepared in the latter part of the thirteenth century, (published, however, only in 1483,) under the auspices of Alphonse X., King of Castile, and which are known by his name. These were adapted to the meridian of Toledo. The tables of

* Montucla, Histoire des Mathematiques, T. I., P. I., L. 4; Delambre Hist. Astr. Ancienne, T. II., ch. 15.

† Ency. Brit., Art. Astron.

+ Montucla, T. I., P. II., L. I.; Id., T. IV., P. V., L. 7,

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