by Ken Alder
Delambre helped release: For Delambre’s key role in saving the life of James Smithson, who later endowed the Smithsonian Institution, see CUS, Delambre to Clarke (Min. Guerre), 16 April 1809. Delambre also convinced the Emperor to release the English astronomer Edmond Pigott; see APS MS 76–932, “Letter book, 1802–6.” See also Banks to Delambre, 30 January 1804; Delambre to Banks, 11 October 1806, in Gavin de Beer, The Sciences Were Never at War (London: Nelson, 1960), 138, 177, also 154–55. Delambre sent eight copies of his Base to England; see Delambre to Banks, 27 April 1807, 2 March 1808, 8 March 1812, in de Beer, Sciences, 179, 181, 192. For his general wishes for peace, see Delambre to Banks, 18 [March 1813], in de Beer, Sciences, 193–95.
“the work of Delambre”: ASPV 4 (27 August 1810): 375.
Méchain’s sons wrote: For the complaint filed by Méchain’s “children,” see ASPV 4 (24 June 1811): 490. As Jérôme-Isaac was then in the Dardanelles, this presumably means Augustin (and perhaps his sister). There is no mention of Madame Méchain’s role. For the committee’s response, see Arago et al., “Rapport sur la réclamation de la famille Méchain,” ASPV 4 (8 July 1811): 496–97. The committee was not stacked too heavily in Delambre’s favor. Although Arago, one of Delambre’s protégés, was the author of the committee’s report, the committee also included Guyton-Morveau, one of the two savants who had voted against Delambre’s admission to the Academy in the first place; see Delambre, “Lui-même.” The other members were Charles and Vauquelin. The final report asserted that Delambre had a conflict of interest because he was on the jury; but he was not on the jury, he was the Permanent Secretary. Institut de France, Rapports et discussions de toutes les classes de l’Institut de France sur les ouvrages admis au concours pour les prix décennaux (Paris: Baudoin, 1810), 1:130–37.
The Revolutionary calendar: For Lalande’s repudiation of the calendar he had once taken credit for, see Aulard, Consulat 1 (21 November 1801): 618; 4 (27 September 1803): 400–401; also 6 brumaire XIII [28 October 1804], and 18 messidor XIII [7 July 1805], in Aulard, Empire, 1:349; 2:43. Also see his “I told you so,” in Jean-Etienne Montucla, Histoire des mathématiques, Lalande, ed. (Paris: Agasse, X [1802]), 4:329–33. Delambre also reminded his colleagues of the calendar’s flaws; see ASPV 1 (26 pluviôse V [14 February 1797]): 172; 2 (6 vendémiaire IX [28 September 1800]): 233. For a general discussion of the repudiation of the calendar, see PVCIP 6:207–13; also Léon de Lanzac de Laborie, Paris sous Napoléon (Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1905– ), 3:202–6. [Blagdon], Paris as It Was, 2:79–80.
The imperial government: For exhortations to continue to use the metric measures, see Chaptal (Min. Int.) to Préfets, 2 frimaire XI [23 November 1802], in Moniteur 111, 112, 113 (21, 23, 24 nivôse XI [11, 13, 14 January 1803]): 446, 454–55, 459–60. See “Préfecture de Police,” Moniteur 17 (17 vendémiaire XI [9 October 1802]): 63. For the ongoing use of old measures, see AN F2I/106/31, Duplantier (Préfet de Landes) to Conseiller d’Etat, 26 thermidor XIII [14 August 1805]. For a denial of the rumors of the metric system’s demise, see ADSe VD* 430, Bureau Central de Paris, Avis: poids et mesures, 26 brumaire VIII [17 November 1799] (Paris: Lottin, VIII [1799]).
renamed the “Napoleonic measures”: BLUC Laplace Box 10, Laplace to Napoleon, 7 May 1811. For the lobbying of Laplace and Delambre, see BLUC Laplace Box 10, Laplace to [Min. Int. Chaptal], 13 pluviôse XII [3 February 1804]; also printed in [Arthur-Jules] Morin, “Notice historique sur le système métrique,” Annales du Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers 9 (1871): 607. For the attempt to connect the meter to Napoleon’s conquests, see AN F12 1289, Anon., unaddressed letter, 2 March 1811.
so-called “ordinary measures”: For the legal backtracking, see Napoleon, “Décret concernant l’universalité des poids et mesures,” 12 February 1812, in Moniteur 50 (19 February 1812): 199; Monalivet (Min. Int.) aux Préfets, 28 March 1812, in Moniteur 116 (25 April 1812): 454–55.
“The conquerors of our times”: Benjamin Constant, De l’esprit de conquête (Paris: Librairie de Médicis, 1813), 53–54. See also Benjamin Constant, Cours de politique constitutionnelle (Paris: Guillaumin, 1872), 2:170–75.
“the character of the inhabitants”: AN F12 1290, Préfet (Bouches du Rhin) to Min. Int., 6 July 1813. See also Min. Int. to Préfet, 20 July 1813; Préfet to local mayors and administrators, June 1813; Préfecture du Dépt. des Bouches du Rhin, broadsheets in French and Dutch, 12 February 1813 (Bois-le-Duc: Lion, [1813]).
“It was not enough” and “demanding, with raised rod”: Napoleon, Mémoires, 4:211–15. By “40 million people,” Napoleon was referring to the population of Imperial France. See also his bitter views on the savants and the metric system in Napoleon, Sainte-Hélène, Journal inédit de 1815 à 1818, Gaspard Gourgaud, ed. (Paris: Flammarion, 1899), 1:95; 2:28.
“On the day of the siege”: UBL MS1872, Delambre to Moll, 7 May 1814.
He did not regret: On Delambre’s move, see CUS, Delambre to Mademoiselle Delambre (his sister), 18 November 1815; Delambre, “Lui-même.” As Permanent Secretary, Delambre had a salary of 6,000 francs, but he lost his salary as Treasurer of the University, which was much larger—12,000 francs; see ASPV 6 (27 March 1816): 43. On Delambre’s defense of the savants’ political neutrality, see Delambre to Min. Int., 18 April 1816, in Bigourdan, “Bureau des Longitudes,” (1928): A49.
Since becoming Permanent Secretary: For the Report to the Emperor, see Jean Dhombres, “Introduction” to Rapports à l’Empereur sur le progrès des sciences, des lettres et des arts depuis 1789, vol. 1, Sciences mathématiques, Jean Dhombres, ed. (Paris: Belin, 1989), 13–37.
“from Hipparchus and Ptolemy”: CUS, Delambre to Cagnoli, 6 August 1810.
One by one: For the only comparable history of science prior to Delambre’s work, see the history of (applied) mathematics begun by Montucla, with volumes 3 and 4 completed by Lalande in 1802; see Montucla, Histoire des mathématiques. For the relationship of Delambre’s Histoire to his Traité, see Delambre, Astronomie moderne, 1:lii. For an appreciation of Delambre as a historian, see I. Bernard Cohen, “Introduction,” in Delambre, Histoire de l’astronomie moderne (New York: Johnson Reprint, 1969), ix-xx.
His method was empirical: On his historical method, see Delambre, Histoire de l’astronomie ancienne (Paris: Courcier, 1817), 1:xviii-xx, xxxvi. He especially attacked the speculative Ancien Régime histories of Bailly; see Delambre, Histoire de l’astronomie du moyen-âge (Paris: Courcier, 1819), xxxiv–xxxvii. For Delambre’s interest in the Egyptian expedition, see BI MS1041, Nouet to Delambre, 21 fructidor IX [8 September 1801]; 8 floréal X [28 April 1802]. Delambre and Méchain were the Academy’s examiners for the results brought back from Egypt by Nouet and Jérôme-Isaac Méchain; see ASPV 2 (1 floréal X [21 April 1802]): 493. For his doubts about the pyramid claims, see BI MS 1042 fol. 388, Delambre, “Recherches sur les sciences de l’Egypte par M. Fourier,” n.d.; Delambre, Astronomie ancienne, 1:89–90; Delambre, Astronomie du moyen-âge, vi, lxv.
“The historian owes” and “cast a kind of ridicule”: Delambre, Astronomie moderne, 1:xli, 2:235; emphasis in original.
“Only the femur”: Delambre, Astronomie moderne, 2:199–200.
The gift skull: On Descartes’ skull, see Delambre, “Crâne venu de Suède et que l’on dit être celui de Descartes,” ASPV 7 (14 May, 8 October 1821): 193–97, 232–33.
He destroyed the bulk: On Delambre’s destruction of private letters and papers, see Charles Dupin, “Notice nécrologique sur M. Delambre,” Revue encyclopédique 48 (December 1822): 12–13. For his autobiography and biography, see Delambre, “Lui-même”; Mathieu, “Delambre,” Biographie universelle, 304–8.
Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre: For Delambre’s death certificate, see AN Etude CVIII 987, Jean-Eustache Montand, “Actes de décès: Delambre,” 26 August 1822. For the sale of Delambre’s large collection of fifteen hundred books, see AOP 22569, Catalogue des livres composant la bibliothèque de feu M. le Chevalier Delambre, 10–20 May 1824 (Paris: Gaudfroy et Bachelier, 1824). For his eu
logy, see Joseph Fourier, “Eloge de M. Delambre,” 2 July 1823, MA 4 (1824): cciv–ccxxviii. For Fourier’s appointment, see ASPV 7 (26 August 1822): 362.
“the whole truth” and “discharge my conscience”: UBL MS1872, Delambre to Moll, 21 July 1820.
Among the final astronomers: For Delambre’s last biography of Méchain, see Delambre, “Méchain,” Histoire de l’astronomie au dix-huitième siècle, Claude-Louis Mathieu, ed. (Paris: Bachelier, 1827), 755–67. Lalande himself said in his eulogy for Méchain that he had met the young man through a correspondence; see Lalande, “Nécrologie,” Moniteur 22 (7 nivôse XIII [28 December 1804]). Delambre wrestled several times in his manuscripts with the phrase: “funeste résolution d’en faire mystère”; see BYU folder 32, Delambre, “Méchain”; also BI MS2041 fol. 10, Delambre, “Méchain.” Delambre also wrote a mini-biography of Méchain, published in 1821, that takes much the same tone; see Delambre, “Méchain,” Biographie universelle, Michaud, ed. (Paris, 1821), 28:454–58.
“No one can claim”: Delambre, “Méchain,” Astronomie au dix-huitième, 766–67.
“release ourselves” and “disabuse them”: Delambre, Grandeur, 231, 234.
It was at that time: The sealed manuscripts were presumably opened by Guillaume Bigourdan at the very end of the nineteenth century, although he made no use of them in his Système métrique of 1901.
TWELVE: THE METERED GLOBE
I know no harm: Gilbert Keith Chesterton, “The Rolling English Road,” The Flying Inn (London: Methuen, 1914).
“he put an end”: Josephus, Jewish Antiquities (1:61), in Works, H. St. J. Thackeray, trans. (London: Heinemann, 1930), 4:29. Cain was the first to lay out territorial boundaries and to build a city.
“the metre will surround”: John Quincy Adams (Secretary of State), “Weights and Measures,” U.S. Senate, 22 February 1821; 16th Congress, 2nd Session, no. 503, class 10, 2:656–750; see p. 672. The report was written in response to a request made by the Senate on 3 March 1817 and echoed by President James Madison. See U.S. House of Representatives, 15th Congress, 2nd Session, no. 463, pp. 538–42.
“implant themselves”: Armand Machabey, “Aspects de la métrologie au XVII siècle,” Les Conférences du Palais de la Découverte, Series D, 14 (1955): 5.
“one of the most”: J. Q. Adams, “Weights and Measures,” 699.
“On the subject”: Jefferson to J. Q. Adams, 1 November 1817, in Jefferson, Writings, 7:87.
The expedition had removed: Mathieu pointed out that there was no need to remeasure the meridian should the Archive Meter be damaged, since its length was also known in relation to a pendulum; see AP2 111 (10 May 1837): 29. Laplace’s son claimed the measure was equal to an “aliquot” part of the meridian; see AP2 112 (12 June 1837), 496.
“On the contrary”: Anon., in AP2 111 (20 May 1837): 482. The physicist was Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac. For the history of the legislation, see AP2, Min. de Commerce Martin du Nord, 107 (28 February 1837): 627, 690–92; Rapport de Mathieu, 111 (10 May 1837): 28–36; Débats, 111 (20 May 1837): 478–84; Min. de Commerce Martin du Nord, 112 (27 May 1837): 19–21; Rapport de Laplace, 112 (12 June 1837): 495–500; Débats, 112, (16 June 1837): 637–46, 779–80; Débats, 113 (22 June 1837): 151–61; Débats, 112 (24 June 1837): 305–6, 347–50; Débats, 112 (27 June 1837): 462–67. The vote in the House of Deputies was 224 to 9; in the House of Peers, 65 to 21.
“Challenging routine”: Charles Gilles, “Ma Varlope,” [c. 1848], in Pierre Brochon, ed., Le pamphlet du pauvre, du socialisme utopique à la Révolution de 1848 (Paris: Edition Sociales, 1957), 112. “Bravant la routine et sa haine / Dans sa valeur puisant son droit, / La mesure républicaine / A détrôné le pied de roi.” Quoted and translated in Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976), 30, 509. See also the instructional verses in Anon., Complainte sur les poids et mesures (Paris: Esculier, 1840).
While the legislature: The riot in Clamecy, dépt. de Nièvre, was sparked by “new” measures; which were a decimal version of the 1825 “usual” measures; see Moniteur 109, 116 (19, 26 April 1837): 923, 1002. Also Echo de la Nièvre, 9 April 1837, in Gustave Tallent, Histoire du système métrique (Paris: Soudier, 1910), 88–91.
“What’s it good for?”: Anon., “Les nouveaux poids et mesures,” Tallent, Système métrique, 92. “De quoi qu’nous sert c’te loi nouvelle? / A c’t’heur’ nous ne pourrons pus jamais / Demander un’ liv’ de chandelle, / Pas même un quart’ron de beurre frais. / Faudra qu’ dans l’épic’rie / On mett’ de vrais sorciers, / Ou que l’Académie / Fourniss’ des épiciers. / Chorus: / Ce n’est pas d’ nos faiseurs de lois / L’ système / Décimal que j’aime. / Viv’ les mesur’ d’autrefois! / Au diabl’ les nouveaux poids.”
Fifty years later: For the continued use of the old measures, see Weber, Peasants, 36; Gaudefroy, Mesures anciennes en usage à Amiens, 30; Arthur Edwin Kennelly, Vestiges of Pre-metric Weights and Measures Persisting in Metric-System Europe, 1926–1927 (New York: Macmillan, 1928), 30.
King William I: The Dutch law of 21 August 1816 made the metric system (minus the nomenclature) obligatory throughout the Low Countries on 1 January 1820 (delayed until 1821). The Belgian law of 18 June 1836 reinstated the classical nomenclature. On Belgium, see J. Mertens, “L’introduction du système métrique dans les Pays-Bas Meridionaux,” Janus 60 (1973): 1–12. On Holland, see Van Swinden to Delambre, 28 June 1802, in Bigourdan, Système métrique, 242–44. On Luxembourg (and the rest of the Low Countries), see Henri Thill, “Esquisse de l’histoire du système métrique dans notre pays,” Institut grand-ducal de Luxembourg: Section des sciences naturelles, physiques et mathématiques, Archives, new series, 20 (1951–53): 95–130.
Italy is a good example: On Italy, see Kula, Measures and Men, 268–75.
Statisticians convened: For the international movement for the metric system, see Edward Franklin Cox, “The Metric System: A Quarter-Century of Acceptance, 1851–1876,” Osiris 13 (1959): 358–79. On the statistics conferences, see M. Engel, ed., Compte-rendu général des travaux du Congrès International de Statistique dans ses séances tenues à Bruxelles 1853, Paris 1855, Vienne 1857, et Londres 1860 (Berlin: Imprimerie Royale, 1863), xx, 56, 192–93.
The virtues of international standards: For the impact of the 1851 World’s Fair, see Leone Levi, Theory and Practice of the Metric System of Weights and Measures (London: Griffith, 1871), 2–3. For 1867, see Michel Chevalier, ed., Exposition Universelle de 1867 à Paris: Rapports du Jury International (Paris: Dupont, 1868), 2:485–500.
The pivotal test: For the development of German laws, see “No. 28, Mass- und Gewichtsordnung für den Norddeutschen Bund,” 27 August 1868, in Bundes-Gesetzblatt des Norddeutschen Bundes (1868): 473–80. International Statistical Congress (5th), Programm der fünften Sitzungsperiode (Berlin: Königliche Geheime Ober-Hofbuchdruckerei, 1863), 79–87, 201–6.
Since Delambre had published: For the improved knowledge of geodesy, see L.-B. Francoeur, Géodesie, ou traité de la figure de la terre (Paris: Bachelier, 1835), 189–93; Louis Puissant (vols. 6 and 7) and E. Peytier (vol. 9), Nouvelle description géométrique de la France, part of Mémorial du Dépôt Général de la Guerre 6 (Paris: Piquet, 1832): 42, 126–29; 7 (Paris: Maulde, 1840): 601–44; 9 (Paris: Maulde, 1853).
“By its very nature”: Baeyer to Min. War of Prussia, “Entwurf zu einer mitteleuropäischen Gradmessung,” April 1861, in Levallois, Mesurer la terre, 152.
Their association became: For histories of geodesy in the nineteenth century, see Georges Perrier, Petite histoire de la géodésie (Paris: Alcan, 1939); Marie-Françoise Jozeau, “Mesure de la terre au XIXe siècle,” in La mesure, instruments et philosophies, Jean-Claude Beaune, ed. (Paris: Callon, 1994): 95–106; Levallois, Mesurer la terre, 141–56.
“with caution”: Le Verrier, CR 57 (1863): 36. See the debate between Faye (speaking for the Bureau of Longitudes and pro-cooperation) and Le Verrier (speaking for the Paris Observatory
and anti-cooperation), in CR 56 (1863): 28–37.
When one French scientist: On the proposal for a new expedition, see Pontécoulant, CR 69 (27 September 1869): 728–30. For the response, see Faye, “Observations sur la lettre de M. de Pontécoulant,” CR 69 (4 October 1869): 737–43.
“In truth, the meter”: Jacobi, Struve, and Wild, “Confection des étalons prototypes des poids et mesures métriques: Rapport de la Commission nommée par la Classe Physio-Mathématique de l’Académie des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg,” in CR 69 (16 August 1869): 425–28. These Russians were present at the Berlin meeting and reflect its views.
“as little as possible”: C. Bruhns, W. Foerster, and A. Hirsch, eds., Bericht über die Verhandlungen . . . der Europäischen Gradmessung (Berlin: Reimer, 1868), 126. Countries which sent delegates to this meeting included Holland, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, and all the German states. The damage to the bar was due to the fact that Lenoir had constructed the 1799 bar à bouts (an end standard defined by two projecting flanges at the ends of the bar), not à traits (a line standard defined by two marks precisely placed on the bar). Steinheil, Abhandlungen der Baierischen Academie 4 (1837): 251. Morin et al., “Procès-verbal de comparaison entre étalons prototypes,” 5 March 1864, in Annales du Conservatoire Impérial des Arts et Métiers 5 (1864): 6. On the impurities in platinum, see McDonald and Hunt, Platinum, 147–77.
Some French scientists: For the French debate over the challenge to the meter, see Mathieu, Laugier, and Faye, “Rapport du Commission,” 24 December 1867, in Bigourdan, Système métrique, 253–54. See also Morin et al., “Rapport . . . sur la révision des étalons des bureaux de vérification des poids et mesures de l’Empire français en 1867 et 1868,” Annales du Conservatoire Impérial des Arts et Métiers 9 (1871): 5–63; AN F17 3715, Min. Instruction Publique, “Note sur la construction d’un étalon métrique,” 24 July 1869; Dumas et al., “Rapport sur les prototypes du système métrique,” 23 August 1869, CR 69 (1869): 514–19.