The battle of the standards: the ancient, of four thousand years, against the modern, of the last fifty years - the less perfect of the twoLongman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864 - 93 pages |
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The Battle of the Standards: The Ancient, of Four Thousand Years, Against ... John Taylor No preview available - 2023 |
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according admitted adopted ancient angle appears arithmetical astronomical authority axis base British built calculation called capacity casing-stones century circle circumference common constructed contained cubit decimal determined diameter difference dimensions divided division Earth Egypt Egyptian employed England English feet English inches equal error established estimate evidence exist expressed face figures foot four France French gives grammes Greaves Greek half hundred important inconvenience intended Italy John kilogrammes knowledge latitude length less means meridian metre metric system miles millions modular multiples nature nearly original Paris pass pendulum perfect persons pound practical present Professor proportion Pyramid question reason Record reference relation remarkable Revelation Roman Royal scale scientific seconds side sous speak square square feet standard stones supposed Tables Taylor thou thousand uniformity unit universal weights and measures writing
Popular passages
Page 17 - And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there : and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written ; that thou mayest teach them.
Page 10 - By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
Page 17 - AT that time the LORD said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark.
Page 7 - At the bottom of every one of these passages, therefore, the then pole star must have been visible at its lower culmination, a circumstance which can hardly be supposed to have been unintentional, and was doubtless connected (perhaps superstitiously) with the astronomical observation of that star, of whose proximity to the pole at the epoch of the erection of these wonderful structures, we are thus furnished with a monumental record of the most imperishable nature.
Page 59 - French scale would be attended with great convenience, both in science and commerce. I can speak from personal experience of the superiority of decimal measurement in all cases where accuracy is required in mechanical construction. In the Elswick Works, as well as in some other large establishments of the same description, the inch is adopted as the unit, and all fractional parts are expressed in decimals.
Page 59 - Whatever difference of opinion there may be as to the comparative merits of decimal and duodecimal division, there can, at all events, be none as to the importance of assimilating the systems of measurement in different countries. Science suffers by the want of uniformity, because valuable observations made in one country are in a great measure lost to another, from the labour required to convert a series of quantities into new denominations.
Page 59 - ... new denominations. International commerce is also impeded by the same cause, which is productive of constant inconvenience and frequent mistake. It is much to be regretted that two standards of measure so nearly alike as the English yard and the French metre should not be made absolutely identical. The metric system has already been adopted by other nations besides France, and is the only one which has any chance of becoming universal. We in England, therefore, have no alternative but to conform...
Page 59 - As to our thermometric scale, it was originally founded in error ; it is also most inconvenient in division, and ought at once to be abandoned in favour of the Centigrade scale. The recognition of the metric system and of the Centigrade scale by the numerous men of science composing the British Association, would be a most important step towards effecting that universal adoption of the French standards in this country which sooner or later will inevitably take place ; and the Association in its collective...
Page 15 - So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The battle of the standards: the ancient, of four thousand years, against the modern, of the last fifty years - the less perfect of the two |
| Author | John Taylor |
| Publisher | Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864 |
| Original from | Oxford University |
| Digitized | 8 Sep 2006 |
| Length | 93 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |