Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/781

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This system is understood to be the invention of of Washington, Georgia.

It is believed that no other bills were introduced in relation to the metric system. It is perhaps worth while to quote a bill "proposing a reward for a new foot-measure," as a sample of what may be laid before Congress:

"Be it enacted, etc., etc., That the Congress of the United States of America will vote an appropriation, the same as a reward, to be paid the American citizen who shall produce a new foot-measure which shall divulge, in it, the truth of the meeting of parallel lines in exceeding great length."

A resolution of the House of Representatives (November 6, 1877) provided "that the heads of the executive departments be, and they are hereby, requested to report to this House, at as early a date as practicable, what objections, if any, there are to making obligatory in all governmental transactions the metrical system of weights and measures whose use has been authorized in the United States by act of Congress; and also how long a preliminary notice should be given before such obligatory use can be introduced without detriment to the public service; and that they are also requested to state what objections there are, if any, to making the metrical system obligatory in all transactions between individuals, and what is the earliest date that can be set for the obligatory use of the metrical system throughout the United States."

This resolution addressed directly the officers best qualified to judge of the questions involved, and their answers are given below, abridged when possible.

The Secretary of State reports: 1. That the obligatory use of the metrical system, so far as the operations of the Department of State are concerned, and especially its consular and commercial relations with foreign governments, while of convenience and utility with respect to those countries which have already adopted the metrical system to the exclusion of all others, would be of no benefit with regard to those