165 years ago, in his opening address at the London meeting of the International Statistical Congress, held on 16 July 1860, Prince Albert drew attention to the measurement muddle prevalent at the time, and was in no doubt that the muddle would have to go.
Words from his speech were included in the 1862 Report From The Select Committee On Weights And Measures, dated 15 July 1862.
“The different weights, measures, and currencies in which different statistics are expressed, cause further difficulties and impediments: suggestions with regard to the removal of these have been made at former meetings, and will, no doubt, be renewed.”
Prince Albert, 16 July 1860
In his speech, Prince Albert also advocated for decimalisation of British currency:
“We fancy here that our Pound, as the largest available unit, with its Florin, offers great advantages, particularly if further subdivided decimally.”
Prince Albert’s remarks followed the recent Great Exhibition of 1851, which he co-organised. The 1862 Report says of the Great Exhibition, “The jurors of that Exhibition experienced the greatest embarrassment from the various, Weights and Measures used by the exhibitors of different countries.”
The need for a decimal system of measurement
The 1862 Select Committee Report noted that the need to simplify calculations involving measurement units had already led to the creation of improvised decimal units in various sectors – such as Gunter’s chain of 100 links, which itself was one tenth of a furlong. It was noted too that the Equitable Insurance Company had kept their ledger on the pound (£) and mil (£0.001) system for a hundred years already.
Not mentioned in the Report, was a more recent development in which Joseph Whitworth had introduced decimal measures for engineering. His newly improvised unit, the thou, which was equal to one thousandth of an inch, was proposed in his Standard Decimal Measures of Length, published in 1857.
The Report listed three alternative ways forward:
- Retain the current system of weights and measures.
- Create a new decimal system of weights and measures of our own.
- Adopt, in common with other countries, the metric decimal system of weights and measures.
The second of these was dismissed, as “it would involve almost as much difficulty to create a special decimal system of our own as simply to adopt the Metric decimal system, in common with other nations; and if we did so create a special national system, we should, in all likelihood, have to change it again in a few years, as the commerce and intercourse between, nations increased, into an international one.”
Much evidence was included in the Report in favour of adopting the metric system:
“The Metric system is soon learnt; “any person” says Mr. Fellows, “in a quarter or in half an hour would be able to master the whole Metric system.””
“… there is nothing so difficult to a man of imperfect education as to take an invoice of 10 tons 3 qrs. or 7 cwts. and 18 lbs., at 25s. and 11d. the cwt.;” though he “can readily understand it when it is put into kilogrammes and francs.”
Perhaps the most convincing argument concerned the amount of time wasted by school pupils learning the current system:
“The time which the use of a decimal system would save in education has been generally stated (on the authority of schoolmasters) to be at least a year.”
References
On Opening The International Statistical Congress, London, 16 July 1860.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61205/61205-h/61205-h.htm#Page_250
Report From The Select Committee On Weights And Measures, 15 July 1862.
https://ukma.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/met1862.pdf
Report From The Select Committee On Weights And Measures (with appendix), 15 July 1862.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015086763235&seq=10
Metric Views 
I did a little research into Prince Albert’s life.
He was born in 1819, the same year as Queen Victoria. His uncle was King Albert I, King of the Belgians who ascended the throne in 1831 when Belgium gained independence from the Netherlands. Since Albert’s parents were divorced, he spent time with his uncle where he had a private tutor before entering the University of Bonn in 1837. I was unable to find out exactly how much time he spent in Brussels, but her certainly spent a substantial part of his teenage years there the.
It is interesting to note that Napoleon introduced the metric system to the Netherlands and when the Greater Netherlands (modern Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) was formed as part of the post-Napoleonic settlement of Europe, they chose to retain the metric system as their system of units. On attaining independence, Belgium retained the metric system. Prince Albert was therefore well acquainted with the metric system.
When Belgium attained independence, they replaced the Dutch florin or guilder with the Belgian Franc (which was on a par with the French Franc). Both the guilder and the franc were subdivided into 100 cents. Albert was therefore also well acquainted with using decimal currency. It is little wonder therefore that he was an ardent fan of the metric system and of a decimal currency.
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The 1860 International Statistical Congress in London was the 4th such Congress. The 5th Congress was held in Berlin in 1863. There is a comprehensive report of it at this link:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GMoxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA33
It’s interesting to read of the controversy created by the following (on page 10):
“the Confederate States of America have expressed a desire to introduce the metric system”.
Resolutions adopted at the Congress included:
“1. The adoption of the same measure in international commerce is of the highest importance. The Metrical System appears to the Congress to be the most convenient of all the measures that could be recommended for international measures.”
“3. That it is desirable that the introduction of the Metrical System into any country which accepts it, should be made compulsory in the shortest practicable period.”
“4. That each Government should institute a Department of Weights and Measures, to superintend the introduction of the Metrical system, and carry out its details, or devolve the duty on some one of the existing Departments.”
There is also an interesting Wikipedia article about these Congress meetings, which details Prince Albert’s role:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_International_Statistical_Congress
However, the article is very dismissive of their achievements, stating that “no major progress was achieved in standardising measurement across Europe”. It makes no mention, for example, of the subsequent rapid adoption of the metric system by Germany and Austria. It would seem obvious too that these international meetings would have played a part in creating the international cooperation required for the Metre Convention in 1875. Perhaps someone will improve the article.
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Before one tries to “correct” Wikipedia, it should be remembered that Wikipedia strives to present “Verifiability, not truth”. Unless one can find a reliable source, which links the Convention of the Metre with the International Statistical Congresses, it is best to keep away from that assertion. To put things into perspective, one of the “failures” of the congresses was to establish a standardised way of recording “cause of death”.
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This is probably something that should be on the Wikipedia article’s “Talk” page, rather than here, but I don’t see anything in the Wikipedia article to verify its sweeping statements that “no major progress was achieved in standardising measurement across Europe“, or that “all states involved were ultimately unable to accomplish anything of note“.
On the contrary, I see a world (not just Europe) that, for the most part, now uses the metric system as its sole measurement system for all official purposes.
Even if the statements are limited to the time period of these Congresses (the word “ultimately” implies they aren’t), then the metrication of Italy, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, Romania, Germany, Austria, Serbia, Hungary, Turkey, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland can’t really be considered as “minor progress“, or “nothing of note“.
See table “Overview of global metrication” at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication
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