Decimal and Non-Decimal Money, Weights, and Measures.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1377, 22 February 1861, Page 5

Decimal and Non-Decimal Money, Weights, and Measures.

The British system of reckoning in money, weights, and measures, is unnecessarily complex, and introduces into the operations of arithmetic difficulties which are altogether unnecessary. To reduce farthings to ponce, we divide by 4 ; pence to shillings by 12 ; and shillings to pounds by 20 : Drams to ounces, we divide by 16 ; ounces to pounds by 16 ; pounds to quarters by 28 ; quarters to hundiedweights by 4 ; and hundredweights to tons by 20 : > Inches to feet, we divide by 12; feet to yards by 3 ; yaids to poles by 54 ; poles to fur longs by 40 ; furlongs to miles by 8 ; and' miles to leagues by 3. But one absiudity of a sort is not enough,, for we have no less than three different kinds of weights, and half-a-dozen kinds of measures, all equally awkward and irregular in their proportions. The inconveniences and perplexities which this anomalous system occasions would be effectuolly removed by tho adoption of a decimal system. The necessity of learning and applying formal tables of money, weights, and measures, would thus be superseded ; one half the time that is usually spent by children on arithmetic at school would be saved, and the time and labour spent in practical or commercial computations would be abridged to an extent almost incredible. The best system of money, weights, and measure*, is ■the French " Metrical System," so called from the foot of its being based upon the unity of length, which is designated " the metre." The merit of having originated the metrical system is due to the government of Louis XV., who named a commission to pursue the investigations necessary to decide the principles upon which it was to be carried out. After a very serious consideration of tho case, and a numerous series of observations carried on during the reign of Louis XVI., and under the Convention, the Academy of Sciences decided that all the different weights, measures, And coinages should be established according to certain definite relations to the dimensions of the globe itself. These are, to all human perception invariable. If therefore the standard were lost, it is always possible to refind it, by & repetition of the same sort of observations which gave rise to the fixing it in the firtt instance. The beat of a pendulum, chosen by our own Astronomical Board, is a very uncertain base for such calculations ; for the conditions of the vacuum, the temperature of the atmosphere, the specific giavity of the pendulum, nay, perhaps even the magnetic currents, may affect tho length of the space it goes through, in a manner able to affect calculations which require such mathematical exactitude as those connected with ascertaining the standard of a perfect system of measures. The length of the earth's meridian Was ascertained by Messrs. Delambre and Mechain, in the portion between Dunkerque and Barcelona; and by Mesirs. Arago and Biot, in the portion between Barcelona and Formentera. The length of the meridian from the pole to the equator, passing through Paris, was then divided into ten million parts; and one of the«e parts, called the metre, became the basis of the new system of weights and measures. Maupertuis had previously, in the year 1786, measured a portion of the arc of a meridian passing through the North Cape, and his observations were combined with those of the second commission. In spite of all this care, however, an error was made in fixing the length of the metre ; for the distance from the equator to the pole is really 10,000,738 metres, instead of 10,000,000. For any practical purpose, however, this error is inapplicable ; but it is very unfortunate. As the number 12, is divisible by 2, 3j 4, and 6 5 while 10 is divisible by 2 and 5 only ; before the decimal system was finally adopted by the French it was taken into consideration not only whether the weights and measures should be on the duodecimal scale, but also whether the whole scale Of notation should not be changed from the decimal to the duodecimal. The length of the metre once ascertained, the other measuies were derived from it. All the multiples and sub-mul-tiples were formed on the decimal system, and respectively designated by Greek and Latin prefixes to the name of the unities The Greek words are, dcla, for ten, htcto, a hundred, kilo a thousand, and myria, ten I thousand. The Latin words are, decem for ten, centum a hundred, and mille, a thousand. Thus the multiple's of the metre are the deca-metre, ten metres ; the lvectomrtre, a hundred metres ; the Mo-metre, a thousand metres; and the myri&tnetre, ten thousand metres. The sub-multiples of the metre are : the decirnietre, the tenth part of a metre ; the centimetre, the hundredth part of a metre ; and the miUi-metre, the thousandth part of a metre. ' The unity of length being the metie, tho unity of surface is the arc, which is a square of ten metres on a side, or one hundred superficial : the »arne prefixes are, of course, applicable to this as well as the other unities. The -unity of weight is the fframmt, which is the equivalent of a cube of distilled water (at a temperatuie of 4° above the "ice-melting point" of the centigiade scale) measuring a centimetre every way. A thousand kilo-grammes, then, would form a cube equal to one measuring a metre on every side; and it is made the legal ton for heavy weights. The unity of capacity is the litre, which is the equivalent of a cube measuring one-tenth part of a metre, or a decimetie every way! A thousand lities of water are thus equal to a metre cube every way, and are one ton in weight. Another advantage in this system ib, that the tables of specific gravity serve at once to ascertain the weights of the different substances, 'ihus, inasmuch as the specific gravity of cast iion is 7202, the weight of a metre cube is at once 7202 kilogrammes, or 7 tons 202 kilogrammes. The franc, the unity of the French coinage, is 6 grammes in weight of an alloy cpntaining nine parts of pure silver to one of alloy. The currency being thug assimilated to the weights and measures, it may truly be said that the world cannot produce a simpler plan of calculation than that which is adopted in France, Lombardy, Sardinia, Belgium, and Switzerland. It appears to be a universal law of all decimal coinages to reduce themselves to two coins of account only the one being 100 times the value of the other : thuß, in Russia, roubles and copecks ; in America, dollars and cents ; in France, Lombardy, Sardinia, Belgium, and Switzerland, francs and centimes ; in the Netherlands, guilders and cents ; and in Greece, drachmas and leptse, all stand to each other in the same centesimal relation. The "Pound and Mil" scheme, which has been so much recommended in England has 1000 steps from the higheit to the lowest; but the concurrent practice of all other nations_ is against 1000 steps, for the only form of decimal coinage which readily adapts itself to actual transactions is one limited to two coins of account, standing to each other in the ratio of 100 to 1. With a view of doing as little violence m possible to the established system, any new system should take as its unit that coin which is the most popular and best known in the existing system; now the best known coin to *11 classess it the sWing. According to the •hilling and cent method accounts would be kept as under : — r Old System. New System. £145 17 9± 5.291776 78 13 114 4458-49 39 11 6J 79 6 . 84 18 19 10 37 9 . 6 5 £283 3 1| 5.5552^77 According to the old system we have to use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; for, after adding up the farthings, we have to divide by 4, and set down the remainder, and so on with the pence and shillings, while in the treatment of pounds we employ the ordinary decimal scale, and uniformly carry by tens. According to the new system,, simple addition only is required. Some might object to an upper unit of such low value as the shilling, — but it is higher than the French franc, and wehavo certainly as dear a conception of4hirty-five millions of shillings, as of one million seven hundred and fifty thousands of pounds. At the National Debt Office, and at several of the Assurance Offices, accounts are kept in debimals, but everything must be begun and ended in pounds, ■shillings, and pence. With a decimalized coinage the labour of book-keeping would be materially diminished, and, consequent upon the greater simplicity of thelrequired operations, a greatly lessened liability to error, — [COMMUNICATED.]