METRIC SYSTEM. HAÜY, René-Just (1743--1822)

Instruction sur les mesures déduites de la grandeur de la terre, uniformes pour toute la république, et sur les calculs relatifs a leur division décimale; par la commission temporaire des poids et mesures républicaines, en execution des décrets de la convention nationale. Edition originale

Paris: de l'imprimerie nationale exécutive du Louvre, An IIe. de la République une & indivisible, 1793/4.
8vo: a--b8 A--P8 Q6 (cancels D7 and I2.7), 142 leaves, pp. xxxii 224 [27] (tables on last 27 pages). Plates: 1 folding engraved plate signed 'Sellier sc.' containing 6 figures. Leaf size and condition: 215 x 140mm, untrimmed. Light waterstains in the margins of a few gatherings, plate lightly stained and spotted. Binding: Original paste-paper wrappers. Spine torn. Provenance and annotation: References: Cf. Dibner, Heralds of Science 113 (Macon edition).
First edition. Published anonymously but usually ascribed to Haüy who was a member of the Commission on Weights and Measures. Provincial editions were published in the same year, only the Paris edition having the words 'Edition originale' on the titlepage.
§ This is the first official handbook of the metric system, which came into compulsory use in France in the following year. It is the first description of the metric system as we know it today, the first standardised international system of weights and measures. The standard metre was based on the length of the meridian arc from Dunkerque to Barcelona measured by Delambre and Méchain. This operation was described by Delambre in Methodes analytiques pour la détermination d'un arc du méridien (1799) and the calculations for the metric system in his Base du système métrique décimale (1806--10), the book chosen by Printing and the Mind of Man (no. 260) and En français dans le texte (no. 212) to mark this major step towards globalisation. The metric system was gradually accepted by most nations, with the notable exceptions of Great Britain and the USA, though optional use in Britain was legalised in 1864 (when the 2s piece was introduced, intended as a first step towards a decimal coinage) and 1866 respectively. Despite membership of the European Union, metrication is still incomplete in Britain; our roads, for example are still measured in miles.

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