Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

208 THE WAR YEARS (1917-19)
some years earlier.'20 A circular prepared in 1914, "Units of weights and
measures: definitions and tables of equivalents," went to press again, as
well as a 30 cm (12-inch) comparison scale, printed on paper, that permitted
direct visual translation from centimeters and millimeters to inches and
fractions of the inch. Large numbers of each of these were soon on the way
to the technical services of the military here and abroad for instruction
purposes.12'
The most widely distributed metric aid was a soldier's manual,
especially prepared at War Department request shortly after the general
order appeared. A 16-page booklet, precisely 10 by 15 cm in size, small
enough to fit the pocket, and issued as NBS Miscellaneous Publication No.
21 was pointedly entitled: "Metric manual for soldiers—The soldier's primer
of the metric system—An international decimal system of weights and meas-
ures adopted as the legal standard by France and thirty-three other nations,
and in world-wide use."
The manual described the rapid wartime progress of the metric sys-
tem, particularly in industry, and its "necessity for efficiency in warfare."
It offered graphic examples of the units, showing the length of the meter in
terms of the soldier's 1903 or 1917 rifle, cited dimensions of other objects
familiar to the average soldier, and included a sketch of the origin of the
metric system, brief tables of equivalents, and a glossary. After printing
and distributing over 100,000 copies for military personnel here and abroad,
the plates were made available to the Army and Navy for printing special
editions.122 With the American armies indoctrinated and a considerable
segment of American industry working in metrics, the long-deferred legisla-
tion seemed at last in sight.
The interest of the Bureau in promoting the metric system went back
to the act of 1866 that legalized its use in this country and the subsequent
ratification of the Metric Convention in 1878, making the United States
party to the creation and support of the International Bureau of Weights and
Measures. Yet legislation to put the metric system into general and com-
mercial use had not followed. Despite our decimal system of coinage, the
fact that our common measures derived from the meter and kilogram, that
almost all scientific measurement was based on the metric system, and that
it was the only system of weights and measures specifically legalized by the
U.S. Congress, opposition had arisen at once and could not be overcome.
120 NBS M2, "The international metric system of weights and measures" (1906) ; M3
(chart, 1908). Over 10,000 copies of the M2 had been distributed since 1906 and 22,000
copies of M3 between 1908 and 1915.
Between 1915 and 1917, 10,500 copies of NBS C47 were printed; another 15,000 were
issued in 1918. For printing data, see Annual Reports, Bureau of Publications, Depart-
ment of Commerce.
Work," pp. 220—221.