On 2007/11/25, at 9:58 AM, Ezra Steinberg wrote:
Well, it's 6 years old and quite reactionary.
I notice that our American hero, Thomas Jefferson, is casually
dismissed for having recommended a system of measurement based on
the decimal system. Ol' Tom was right, of course. :-)
Ezra
Dear Ezra,
I think that the contribution of Thomas Jefferson to the
International System of Units is grossly underrated. I am confident
that Jefferson's use of a decimal measuring as a surveyor in the
second half of the 18th Century contributed greatly to the
development of the metric system in France in the time when Jefferson
was the USA Ambassador to France from 1784 to 1789. As you know these
were the formative years of the legal decimal metric system in that
nation. The idea that had developed in England 120 years previously
was, I believe, actively supported by Thomas Jefferson in France
especially its decimal nature.
Here is a segment from page 19 of my 'Metrication timeline' at http://
www.metricationmatters.com/docs/MetricationTimeline.pdf
1757
Thomas Jefferson inherited his father's (Peter Jefferson) surveying
equipment,
again with a decimal Gunter's Chain. This was important because it
meant that
Thomas Jefferson had practical daily experience in actual use of a
decimal
measuring method that gave him an insight as to how a complete system of
measurement might work for the USA. And like George Washington, it
also gave
him insight into how a decimal currency system (such as dollars and
cents)
might work better than pounds, shillings, and pence or pieces-of-eight.
Here is another extract from the historical Reference at
http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/theodolites/theodolitehead_zm.html
While it may not be common knowledge that Presidents Washington
and Lincoln were practitioners of the science of surveying, it should
come as no surprise that Thomas Jefferson, the same President who
referred to freedom as 'the first born daughter of science', sent the
Lewis and Clark Expedition west and established the Survey of the
Coast, was also fascinated by the mathematics and techniques of
surveying. Although he filled the post of Albemarle County (Virginia)
Surveyor for a short time, Jefferson primarily used his skills on his
own lands. However, in 1815, at the age of 72, Jefferson used the
theodolite to determine the elevation of the Peaks of Otter in the Blue
Ridge Mountains.
This fascinating piece of information provided me with the missing
link as to
how the system of 'universal measure' travelled from England in 1668
to France
in the 1790s. It seemed to me that the idea for a decimally based
'universal
measure' travelled from England to France in large part via the USA
through
two people, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as both of these
men had
had direct experience with the simplicity of decimal numbers in their
surveying
calculations using Gunter's Chain.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin helps people understand how to go about their
metrication upgrade– quickly and easily – by helping them avoid
mistakes that he has made himself, or that he has seen made by others
during his more than 35 years of involvement with metrication
matters. Contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Pat specialises in the modern metric system based on the
International System of Units (SI), but he is mostly concerned with
the processes that people use for themselves, their groups, their
businesses, their industries, and their nations as they go about
their inevitable metrication process. See: http://
www.metricationmatters.com/
Pat Naughtin is a highly knowledgeable metric enthusiast, who is also
a writer, professional speaker, editor, and publisher. He spoke in
many places in the USA in 2005 and his most recent speaking tour, in
2007, included Singapore, Paris, London, Toronto, Washington,
Tennessee, Colorado, Idaho, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Recent
clients have been the United Kingdom Metric Association, The Canadian
Metric Association, the United States Metric Association, NIST in
Washington, Google in San Francisco, and NASA in Los Angeles.
