Product Description

This volume tells the story of how science, revolutionary politics, and the dream of a new economy converged to produce both the metric system and the first struggle over globalization. Amidst the scientific fervour of the Revolution, two French scientists, Delambre and Mechain, were sent out on an expedition to measure the shape of the world and thereby establish the metre (which was to be one ten-millionth the distance from pole to equator). Their hope was that people would use the globe as the basis of measure rather than an arbitrary system meted out by the monarchs. As one scientist went north along the French meridian and the other south, their experiences diverged just as radically. After seven years, they received a hero's welcome upon their return to Paris. Mechain, however, was obsessed over a minute error in his calculations that he'd discovered and concealed, and which eventually drove him to his grave. His death forced his colleague Delambre to choose between loyalty to his friend and his science.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #843374 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Review
The revolutionary adventures of two French scientists whose expedition to measure the shape of the world inaugurated the metric system.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 7/9/02
'riveting account of the origins of the metric system... an eye-opener'

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 8/9/02
'fluent in style, rich in both ideas and characters and full of dramatic urgency'

Customer Reviews

Measures up well!
Of all dreary ideas for a book, the history of the meter might seem to be a sure no-go for any publisher. Instead, this book gives an in-depth portrait of the men measuring France and parts of Spain, in order to find a value for the meter that would stand the test of time. (It didn't, of course, but that's another story.)

Among other things we get to understand the arguments for a common measure of all things, why the meter was so important - and why it was rejected, again and again, even in France.

We also slowly get to understand the nature of error in scientific work, for a non-scientist like me this was very interesting.

Some parts of the book could, in my opinion, have been shortened down a little bit, hence the missing 5th star.
All in all, enjoyable and recommendable!

Marvelous non-fiction book
This is my personal n° 1 book of the year 2003 and a real masterpiece. Not only does the author give us insight into the various historical and political backgrounds against which the various and innumerable local weights and measures of the Ancien Régime were replaced by "one measure and one weight" (and how long it took before most countries of the world, except the U.S.A. of course, adopted this new set of weights and measures). We also learn that the attempt of the French scientists Delambre and Méchain to determine the exact lenght of the metre gave the world one of the best examples of why "science is error" and the book therefor is also an introduction to modern scientific concepts such as "uncertainty" and "indeterminism".

Lovely book
The book is a lovely account of how two French savants from the late eighteenth century measured the meridian in order to establish the meter as the standard measure, for all people, for all time, and why it was so necessary from the economical, social and political points of view to fulfill this mission. It is wonderfully written, and has certainly made me a staunch supporter of the metric revolution, which has been and will continue to be unstopable, whatever the Americans say.