The Measure of All Things

by Ken Alder

  It was no time: For the tensions in Barcelona, see Roura i Aulinas, Guerra Gran, 75; Herr, Eighteenth-Century Spain, 311–12.

  They sailed on June 4: For Méchain’s departure from Barcelona, see BUP MS168.1, Méchain to Slop, 6 September 1794. For the lightning strike, see AOAB Cart. 88, Méchain to Oriani, 2 April 1795.

  “In the name of the French Republic”: SHAT B4 112, Dugommier to La Unión, 28 prairial II [16 June 1794].

  “must be respected”: SHAT B4 112, Dugommier to La Unión, 15 messidor II [3 July 1794].

  “If Méchain were to declare” and “not only Méchain’s knowledge”: La Unión to Dugommier [June–July 1794], in J. Delbar, “La comte de La Union,” Etudes religieuses 47 (1889): 235–54; 48 (1889): 57–85, 278–98, 428–50; quotations on 48:287.

  “He demands vengeance”: Delbrel, “Notes du Conventionnel Delbrel,” 27 brumaire III [17 November 1794], Revue de la Révolution 5 (1885): 53.

  FIVE: A CALCULATING PEOPLE

  “There are certain ideas”: Charles de Secondat de Montesquieu, Esprit des lois [1750], in Montesquieu, Oeuvres complètes (Paris: Garnier, 1875), 5:412–13.

  “[This] chapter has earned”: Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat de Condorcet, Observations . . . sur le vingt-neuvième livre de l’Esprit des lois [1793], in Condorcet, Oeuvres (Paris: Didot, 1847), 1:376–81.

  Prieur de la Côte-d’Or: For the Committee of Public Safety’s pleas to use the new measures, see RACSP 9 (30 November 1793): 63. For the persistence of the metric diversity into 1794, see AN F12* 208, Min. Aff. Etr. to Comité des Subsistances, 30 nivôse II [19 January 1794].

  “for good measure”: Daryl Hafter, “Measuring Cloth by the Elbow and Thumb: Resistance to Numbers in France of the 1780s,” Cultures of Control, Miriam Levin, ed. (Amsterdam: Harwood, 2000), 69–79.

  Many Ancien Régime measures: For an example of the regional diversity of anthropometric measures at the end of the Ancien Régime, see Jean-Baptiste Galley, Le régime féodal dans le pays de Saint-Etienne (Paris: Imprimerie de la Loire Républicaine, 1927), 315–16, 326. For examples of anthropometric measures hidden behind seemingly abstract units, see Alfred Antoine Gandilhon, ed., Département du Cher: Cahiers de doléances du bailliage de Bourges (Bourges: Tardy-Pigelet, 1910), 768, 770.

  As the economic historian: Witold Kula, Measures and Men, R. Szreter, trans. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986). The word “anthropometric” can also denote the measurement of the human body; here, following Kula, it is used to mean measures derived from human needs. See also the prescient article by Marc Bloch, “Le témoinage des mesures agraires,” Annales d’histoire économique et sociale 6 (1934): 280–82.

  “put all these defective”: Galley, Régime féodal, 282.

  This new breed: For a typical claim of how the creation of uniform and abstract units of land area would improve agricultural productivity, see Bureaux de Pusy, AP 15 (8 May 1790): 440. For the most sophisticated recent treatment of agricultural productivity under the Ancien Régime, see Philip T. Hoffman, Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450–1815 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996). This study, for all its quantitative virtues, tells us little about agricultural productivity outside “modern” farms where records were kept, or about the exchanges that dominated early modern transactions. For a contrasting view, see Jean Peltre, Recherches métrologiques sur les finages lorrains (Lille: Atelier Reproduction des Thèses, 1977).

  “The denomination”: Young, Travels, 2:44–46.

  “it is best to stick”: Galley, Régime féodal, 307.

  The savants said the new measures: For scientific definitions of “natural,” see Maurice Crosland, “ ‘Nature’ and Measurement in Eighteenth-Century France,” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 87 (1972): 277–309.

  The Ancien Régime was governed: Raymond de Roover, “The Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic Policy,” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 18 (1958): 418–34.

  Sometimes this could lead: For Notre-Damme-de-Lisque and such practices throughout Ancien Régime Europe, see Kula, Measures and Men, 194–95.

  “the establishment of a uniform”: Charles Porée, ed., Département de l’Yonne, Cahiers de doléances du Bailliage de Sens (Auxerre: Imprimerie coopérative ouvrière “l’Universelle,” 1906), 177–78. For the acknowledgment by the official of the role played by the diversity of measures, see Robert Vivier, “Contribution à l’étude des anciennes mesures du département d’Indre-et-Loire,” Revue d’histoire économique et sociale 14 (1926): 180–99; 16 (1928): 182–227, especially 14:196.

  Price was not the paramount: On the Ancien Régime economy, see Judith Miller, Mastering the Market: The State and Grain Trade in Northern France, 1700–1860 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 34–36. Also see Steven L. Kaplan, The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 1700–1775 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996). On the distinction between the market principle and the marketplace, see Steven L. Kaplan, Provisioning Paris: Merchants and Millers in the Grain and Flour Trade During the Eighteenth Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984), 47–48, 68–69. See also Kula, Measures and Men, 71–78.

  “Thus will all measures”: Borda, AP 70 (1 August 1793): 117–18. See also my “Note on Measures.”

  “the metric system will have been”: Lavoisier, “Eclaircissements historiques sur les mesures des anciens,” n.d., Oeuvres, 6:703.

  “bring to all objects”: Condorcet, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, J. Barraclough, trans. (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1955), 199; K. M. Baker, “An Unpublished Essay of Condorcet on Technical Methods of Classification,” Annals of Science 18 (1962): 99–123; Gilles-Gaston Granger, “Langage universelle et formalisation des sciences: Un fragment inédit de Condorcet,” Revue d’histoire des sciences 7 (1954): 197–219; Louis Marquet, “Condorcet et la création du système métrique décimal,” in Condorcet, mathématicien, économiste, philosophe, homme politique, Pierre Crépel and Christian Gilian, eds. (Paris: Minerve, 1989), 52–62. On Condorcet as a political economist, see Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001). On the Enlightenment view of rational language, see Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences (New York: Random House, 1970), 78–124.

  “[It] will ensure”: Condorcet, Mémoires sur les monnaies (Paris: Baudoin, 1790), 3.

  “a vast market”: [Prieur], ATPM, Notions élémentaires sur les nouvelles mesures, 1st ed. (Paris: Imprimerie de la République, IV [1795]), 1, 3–4.

  “direct, healthy, and rapid” and “The French Republic”: BEP Prieur 4.2.3.2, Prieur, “Motifs,” n.d. [1794].

  “complicating commerce”: BEP Prieur 4.2.3.3, Prieur, “Chez un peuple,” n.d. Also Prieur, Nouvelle instruction sur les poids et mesures, 2nd ed. (Paris: Du Pont, IV [1795–96), 26–31.

  If we want the people: ATPM, Aux citoyens rédacteurs, 9–10.

  And just as the Revolutionaries: For the elimination of patois, see Patrice Higonnet, “The Politics of Linguistic Terrorism and Grammatical Hegemony during the French Revolution.” Social History 5 (1980): 41–69. The abbé Henri Grégoire, who led the campaign against patois, segued directly from metric uniformity to linguistic uniformity in his famous denunciation of vandalism; see Grégoire, AP 96 (31 August 1794): 154.

  “Thus, the sun”: Romme, “Rapport sur l’ère de la République,” PVCIP 2 (20 September 1793): 442. Romme initially named the months after the republican virtues. The seasonal names were proposed by the poet Fabre d’Eglantine; see Gilbert Romme et al., Calendrier de la République française (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, II [1793]).

  No creation of the Republic: For Lalande’s doubts about the ten-day week, see NYPL *KVR 756, Lalande, preface to Cubières, Le calendrier républicain, poème en deux chants, 3rd ed. (Paris: Mérigot, VII [1798–99]), 5.

  why not divide each day: Th
e first proposal for decimal time was read to the National Assembly by Borda, AP 53 (5 November 1792): 583–85. See AN F17 1135, Anon., Rapport sur les questions relatives au nouveau système horaire (Paris: Baudelot et Eberhart, pluviôse II [January 1794]); J. de Rey Pailhade, “La montre décimale de Laplace,” Revue chronométrique 60 (1914): 34–37, 51–56.

  Why divide circles: For metric angles, see BN Le38 2501, Borda et al., Sur le système général des poids et mesures (Paris: n.p., 1793), sent to CIP on 29 May 1793. Some navigators were enthusiasts for the reform; see Charles-Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, Voyage autour du monde (Paris: Imprimerie de la République, VIII [1798]), 4:iii–viii, 1–130. Other navigators were dubious about the changes and doubted sailors would ever accept them; see Jean-François de Galaup La Pérouse, Voyage de La Pérouse, L. A. Milet-Mureau, ed. (Paris: Imprimerie de la République, 1797), xxx–xxxi.

  The new angular division: For the decimal log tables, see BI MS883 fol. 38, Condorcet, no title, n.d.; Prony, “Eclaircissements sur un point d’histoire des tables trigonométriques,” MI 5 (XII [1803–04]): 67–93; I. Grattan-Guinness, “Work for the Hairdressers: The Production of Prony’s Logarithmic and Trigonometric Tables,” Annals of the History of Computing 12 (1990): 177–85; Lorraine Daston, “Enlightenment Calculators,” Critical Inquiry 21 (1994): 182–202. Proposals were also heard to rationalize the measure of the temperature, which was generally measured on the 80-degree Réaumur scale at this time. Some proposed that it be decimalized according to the plan of Anders Celsius of Sweden; see AN F17 1135, Cotty to CPM, 30 prairial II [18 June 1794].

  He secured an exemption: For military exemptions, see Lavoisier, “Rapport et projet de décret sur la réquisition des ouvriers,” 1793, in Oeuvres, 6:665–69. See also Delambre’s request to exempt Bellet in PVCIP 2 (21 September, 1 October 1793): 452, 520, 527–29.

  Where once Lavoisier: For Lavoisier’s attempt to save the Academy, see Lavoisier to Lakanal, “Observations sur l’Académie des Sciences,” 17 July 1793, in Oeuvres, 6:621–22. For Borda’s attempt to save Lavoisier, see AN F17 4770, Borda and Haüy, “Extrait de registre des délibérations de la CPM,” 28 frimaire II [28 December 1793]; received by the Comité de Sûreté Générale on 2 nivôse II [22 December 1793]; and ignored on 29 frimaire II [18 January 1794]. For the purge, see PVCIP 3:233–42.

  “As a result he nourished”: Delambre, Grandeur, 213.

  “carried to that point of maturation”: BEP Prieur 4.2.1.3, Prieur, “L’uniformité des poids et mesures,” [1794].

  “by appointment to his Majesty”: AN F7 4722, Chalandon and Wibert, “Aujourd’hui . . . d’Assy,” 12 pluviôse II [31 January 1794]. For the sealing of the d’Assy home, see AN F7 4722, Chalandon and Wibert, “d’Assy,” 19 frimaire II [9 December 1793]. For d’Assy’s arrest, see AN F7 4722, Comité de Sûreté Générale, “Geoffroy d’Assy,” 6 pluviôse II [25 January 1794].

  After a week spent comforting: For Delambre’s return to Paris, see Delambre, “Mesure du méridien, dépense faite par Delambre,” 26 floréal III [15 May 1795], in Observatoire de Paris, Longueur et temps. For Delambre’s proof of residence, see AN F12 1289, Borda and Haüy (CPM) to Paré (Min. Int.), 23 frimaire II [13 December 1793]; Min. Int., “Certificat,” 27 frimaire II [17 December 1793]; Min. Int. to Borda, 29 frimaire II [19 December 1793].

  “nothing suspect”: AN F7 4666, Hevaud and Wibert, “Delambre,” 11 ventôse II [1 March 1794], 13 pluviôse II [1 February 1794].

  “this was a supreme indulgence”: Delambre, Base, 1:52.

  “It only took them an instant”: Lagrange’s comment reported in Delambre, “Notice sur la vie et les oeuvres de M. le comte J.-L. Lagrange,” in Lagrange, Oeuvres (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1867), 1:xl.

  “reestablish the monarchy”: AN W410, Fouquier, “Jugement qui condamne,” 4 messidor II [22 June 1794]; “Procès-verbal d’exécution de mort,” 21 messidor II [9 July 1794]; Ciffinat, “Noms,” 21 messidor II [9 July 1794]. For an account of the accusations against the Luxembourg prisoners, see Henri Wallon, Le tribunal révolutionnaire, 2nd ed. (Paris: Plon, 1900), 2:332–64, esp. 347–49.

  He spent the rest: For further visits of Delambre to Paris, see AN F7 4722, d’Assy, 17 prairial II [5 June 1794], 23 prairial II [11 June 1794]; Delambre “Réclamation,” 21 nivôse III [10 January 1795], from catalogue of Terry Bodin, Autographes, September 2000. For the fast pace of the tragedy, see CUS, Delambre to Cit. Charles (Prof. Physique), 27 vendémiaire III [18 October 1794].

  “Cassini the aristocrat”: Devic, Cassini IV, 187. See also Wolf, Observatoire, 338–46.

  “horrific despotism”: AN F17 1065, “Les astronomes de l’Observatoire de la République au CIP,” 26 vendémiaire II [17 October 1793]. For their astronomical collaboration, see Cassini IV, Nouet, Villeneuve, and Ruelle, “Extrait des observations,” MA (1786): 314–17.

  “aristocratic” sympathies: AAS 1J4, Lalande, “Journal,” 64. See also AN F17 1065, Professeurs de l’Observatoire to Convention Nationale, 1 ventôse II [19 February 1794].

  His students were able: On the Observatory during the Revolution, see Wolf, Observatoire, 353–59; see also Devic, Cassini IV, 170–221. For the order evicting Cassini, see Perny, “Billet,” 4 October 1793, in Claude Teillet, “Cassini IV, Témoin de la Révolution,” Actes du colloque de Clermont: La Révolution dans le Clermontois et dans l’Oise, 7, 8 October 1989 ([Clermont]: GEMOB, 1990), 72.

  Suddenly Ruelle found himself: The original accusation against Ruelle has been lost, but is summarized in PVCIP 4 (27 thermidor II [14 August 1794]): 941. For the invitation to Delambre, see PVCIP 4 (9 fructidor III [26 August 1794]): 984.

  In June 1795 they established: For the Bureau, see Henri Grégoire, Rapport sur l’établissement du Bureau des Longitudes, séance du 7 messidor III [25 June 1795] (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, messidor III [June 1795]).

  while Ruelle languished: For Ruelle’s plea for release to visit his wife, a longtime servant to the Cassinis, and his dying six-year-old son, see AN F7 4775(4), Ruelle to Commission des Admin. Civile, 24 vendémiaire III [15 October 1794]. AN F17 1065, Lalande to CIP, 29 vendémiaire IV [21 October 1795].

  “I have named it”: Jean-Dominique Cassini IV, “Mon apologie à un de mes confrères,” [1795–96], in Riens qui vaillent (Paris: n.p., 1842), 70. Cassini IV did show up for one early meeting of the Bureau on 25 July 1795; see Bigourdan, “Bureau des Longitudes,” (1928): A16–18. For Delambre’s efforts on Cassini’s behalf, see Delambre, “Réponse à la note,” [1796], in Bigourdan, “Bureau des Longitudes” (1928): A41.

  “But what of your astronomy”: Cassini IV, “Mon apologie,” [1795–96], 63–76.

  “I am so constituted” and “I am frank”: Lalande, “Testament moral,” in Aimable, Lalande, 50, 53. For the admission of women to the Collège and teaching, see BVCS MS99, Lalande, “Journal,” 1790 and 5 May 1791. For his purple waistcoat, see BYU, Lalande to Piery, 23 July [1788]. For his umbrella, see BYU Delambre folder 8, Delambre to Lalande, 7 May 1792. Lalande stopped writing in his personal diary in 1793–94 in case the Revolutionary police seized his papers; see AAS Dossier Lalande, Synopsis of Lalande, “Journal, 1756–1807.”

  “I don’t feel sorry”: Lalande to Amélie, 9 October 1793, in Raspail, “Lalande,” 243. On the protection afforded by his atheism, see Lalande in Sylvain Maréchal, Dictionnaire des athées (Paris: Grabit, VIII [1799–1800]), 227.

  “But of course you are astronomers”: Delambre, “Lalande,” Biographie universelle, 613; Du Pont, “Discours prononcé . . . aux obsèques de Joseph-Jérôme de Lalande,” Moniteur 103 (6 April 1807): 11–12. See also [Du Pont] to Lalande, 24 August 1793, in AAS Dossier Lalande, Synopsis of Lalande, “Journal, 1756–1807.” For his risky publications, see BNR Fr 12273, Lalande, marginal notes in his own “Eloge de Bailly,” Décade philosophique, 30 pluviôse III [18 February 1795].

  “The time has come”: Raspail, “Lalande,” 243. See also BN Rés 3640, [Lalande], L’ether, ou l’être suprême élémentaire [et pneumat
ique] (Paris: Petits Augustins, 1796).

  “There is no sanction”: CUS, Lalande to Président du Tribunal Criminel, 8 vendémiaire IV [30 September 1795].

  “with a courage” and “this inventory”: CUS, Lalande to [unknown], 25 March 1797. For his progress on his stars, see BYU, Lalande to Piery, 1 messidor II [19 June 1794]; APS, Lalande to Hassler, 12 October 1794. For 41,000 stars, see Lalande, Bibliographie astronomique, 781.

  To be on the safe side: For Delambre’s passport, see Municipalité de Bruyères-Libre, “Certificat . . . Delambre,” 17 prairial III [5 June 1795], in Bigourdan, Système métrique, 134. Delambre apparently had a cousin who emigrated, and this in itself could have been risky for him; see CUS, J.-B.-J. Delambre to [cousin] Delambre (notary), 7 floréal, no year [c. 1800]. For his observations in April–May 1795, see Bigourdan, Astronomie d’observation, 170.

  “Do you want us to”: PVCIP 6 (19 floréal III [8 May 1795]): 187. For Delambre’s participation in the calendar reform, see PVCIP 6 (20, 29 germinal, 19 floréal III [9, 18 April, 8 May 1795]): 180–88. For Delambre’s opinion as to the impossibility of reconciling the two dates, see AOP Z137(2), Delambre (from Bruyères-Libre) to Romme [1795]; Delambre, Astronomie théorique et pratique (Paris: Courcier, 1814): 3:696. For background, see Michel Froeschlé, “Le calendrier républicain correspondait-il à une nécessité scientifique?” Scientifiques et sociétés pendant la Révolution, Actes du 114e Congrès National des Sociétés Savantes (Paris: Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques, 1990), 454–65; Bruno Morando et al., “Le calendrier républicain,” Astronomie (June 1989): 269–74.

  “to raise to the highest”: SHAT 3M4, Calon to Méchain, 13 pluviôse III [1 February 1795]. Numa Broc, “Un musée de géographie en 1795,” Revue d’histoire des sciences 27 (1974): 37–43; Patrice Bret, “Le Dépôt Général de la Guerre et la formation scientifique des ingénieurs-géographes militaires en France (1789–1830),” Annals of Sciences 48 (1991): 113–57; Berthaut, Ingénieurs géographes.