Page:Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects.djvu/65

 STANDARD DECIMAL MEASURES OF LENGTH. the address which I had the honour of delivering before the Members of this Institution at the Glasgow Meeting last year, I briefly alluded to the beneficial results which would follow the application of the decimal system to our weights and measures, referring more particularly to the latter. In compliance with the wish expressed by several members of the Council, I propose in the present paper to bring this important subject more prominently under the notice of the members, confining myself, however, to its practical bearing on mechanical operations, without discussing different systems of notation, which I leave to other and abler hands.

I have long been convinced that great and rapid progress would be made in many branches of the mechanical arts if the decimal system of