Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Abacus (2004), Paperback
Description
In June 1792, the erudite and cosmopolitan Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and the cautious and scrupulous Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain set out from Paris -- one north to Dunkirk, the other south to Barcelona to calculate the length of the meter. In the face of death threats from village revolutionary councils, superstitious peasants, and civil war, they had only their wits and their letters to each other for support. Their findings would be used to create what we now know as the metric system. Despite their painstaking and Herculean efforts, Mechain made a mistake in his calculations that he covered up. The guilty knowledge of his error drove him to the brink of madness, and in the end, he died in an attempt to correct himself. Only then was his mistake discovered. Delambre decided to seal all evidence of the error in a vault at the Paris Observatory. Two hundred year later, historian Ken Alder discovered the truth. With scintillating prose and wry wit, Alder uses these previously overlooked letters, diaries, and journals to bring to life a remarkable time when everything was open to question and the light of reason made every dream seem possible.… (more)
Media reviews
The Measure of All Things is one of the finest narrative histories I have ever read. It is beautifully written throughout, endlessly informative and meticulously documented. . . The result of this diligence, and Alder's brilliance as a writer, is a book which thrills at every level. It is at once a
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historical detective story, a marvellous demonstration of how science and its social context animate one another, a human drama of the highest order and a parable which proves that - as Protagoras put it 25 centuries ago - 'man is the measure of all things'. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member cmc
As the Revolution raged, two astronomers were sent to determine the length of the meridian passing through Paris, from Dunkerque in the north to Barcelona, Spain, in the south. That figure, in turn, would be used to determine the length of the meter, a new measure of length that would, in turn, be
Both expeditions ran into problems from their onset—the weather, ignorant peasants, angry revolutionaries, approaching armies, disease, and the land itself. But Mechain’s measurements were undermined further by his own personality, his insistence on precision leading him into a significant error and an attempt to cover up that error.
Alder not only covers the details of expeditions, but also the politics surrounding the quest to establish a new measurement standard and the efforts required to get them adopted by France and other nations. The book is well written and a great read. If you ever wondered about the origins of the metric system, Alder’s book is a great place to start.
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used to establish an entire system of weights and measures—the metric system.Both expeditions ran into problems from their onset—the weather, ignorant peasants, angry revolutionaries, approaching armies, disease, and the land itself. But Mechain’s measurements were undermined further by his own personality, his insistence on precision leading him into a significant error and an attempt to cover up that error.
Alder not only covers the details of expeditions, but also the politics surrounding the quest to establish a new measurement standard and the efforts required to get them adopted by France and other nations. The book is well written and a great read. If you ever wondered about the origins of the metric system, Alder’s book is a great place to start.
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LibraryThing member BoundTogetherForGood
The subject is a heavy one but I still plugged away and found it pretty interesting.
LibraryThing member Swampslogger
Book Review
Title: The Measure Of All Things- The Seven Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed The World
Author: Ken Alder
This is, to quote the blurb “the astonishing tale of one of history’s greatest scientific adventures. Yet beyond the public triumph lies the secret error -- -- --,”
The purpose of their endeavor was to establish a “natural” basis for a unit of measure that would become the metric system. Not only was the sheer magnitude of their assignment daunting, it included multiple triangulations across the Pyrenees Mountain range, it took place during the French Revolution and wars with Spain, England, and Prussia. A number of regime changes in France occurred during that period including the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Scientists ( called savants then) at the time recognized the need and value of a uniform and universal system of weights and measures. The Ancien Regime, prior to the revolution, had a hodgepodge of measures that varied widely among the several areas and communities of France. The book gives the history of how they evolved and what effect they had on commerce, individuals, and taxation.
The period involved is that of the awakening where scientific and rational thinking began to replace dogma and superstition.
The book covers the personal drama that each of the savants experienced, their dedication to the cause of science, and their own demons.
When the work was finally done the use of the meter as a universal basis of measurement was not readily accepted. Thomas Jefferson, originally enthusiastic about determining a universally agreed upon measure, objected to the meridian measured being only in France.
The French population was extremely reluctant to abandon the units they were familiar with. The government threatened fines and jail sentences for noncompliance. Today all of the sciences and most countries embrace the use of the metric system. The U.S. has encouraged its use but it is very slow to catch on. The U.S. space program suffered an embarrassment when a joint effort between European and American manufacturers failed to use the same units of measurement. One used the metric system the other feet and inches.
According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the origin of measurement goes back to Cain. Cain was a surveyor and city planner, Josephus says. To round out his sins “”he put an end to that simplicity in which men lived before, by the invention of weights and measures“. For those interested in history and the history of science this is a book well worth the time.
Title: The Measure Of All Things- The Seven Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed The World
Author: Ken Alder
This is, to quote the blurb “the astonishing tale of one of history’s greatest scientific adventures. Yet beyond the public triumph lies the secret error -- -- --,”
Show More
Ken Alder discovered this through his research and only two people know of it. They were the French astronomers charged with the momentous task of measuring the Meridian between Dunkerque, France and Barcelona, Spain. The year was 1792. What was expected to take one year extended over a seven-year period.The purpose of their endeavor was to establish a “natural” basis for a unit of measure that would become the metric system. Not only was the sheer magnitude of their assignment daunting, it included multiple triangulations across the Pyrenees Mountain range, it took place during the French Revolution and wars with Spain, England, and Prussia. A number of regime changes in France occurred during that period including the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Scientists ( called savants then) at the time recognized the need and value of a uniform and universal system of weights and measures. The Ancien Regime, prior to the revolution, had a hodgepodge of measures that varied widely among the several areas and communities of France. The book gives the history of how they evolved and what effect they had on commerce, individuals, and taxation.
The period involved is that of the awakening where scientific and rational thinking began to replace dogma and superstition.
The book covers the personal drama that each of the savants experienced, their dedication to the cause of science, and their own demons.
When the work was finally done the use of the meter as a universal basis of measurement was not readily accepted. Thomas Jefferson, originally enthusiastic about determining a universally agreed upon measure, objected to the meridian measured being only in France.
The French population was extremely reluctant to abandon the units they were familiar with. The government threatened fines and jail sentences for noncompliance. Today all of the sciences and most countries embrace the use of the metric system. The U.S. has encouraged its use but it is very slow to catch on. The U.S. space program suffered an embarrassment when a joint effort between European and American manufacturers failed to use the same units of measurement. One used the metric system the other feet and inches.
According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the origin of measurement goes back to Cain. Cain was a surveyor and city planner, Josephus says. To round out his sins “”he put an end to that simplicity in which men lived before, by the invention of weights and measures“. For those interested in history and the history of science this is a book well worth the time.
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LibraryThing member hailelib
Alder, an associate professor of history, has written a very interesting book about the establishment of the the metric system. It did, however, take me a while to get into the book because I began it in a very start and stop manner and because I knew very little about the early days of the French
Being familiar with the metric system (I'm American and still deal in feet, pounds, and gallons in everyday life but had to become fluent in metric when studying math, physics, etc.) was helpful but Alder raised a lot of issues surrounding people's resistance to adopting new standards that I had not thought about previously.
A great deal of the book concerns the political reasons behind establishing a new system of measurement in France and the political reasons that made it extraordinarily difficult. Every new group that came into power in Paris threatened the completion of the project. Just trying to travel in the early days of the Revolution was fraught with peril with both Delambre and Mechain being detained at various times. They both found themselves in warzones, suspected of being spies, sorcerers, and enemies of whichever locals they had to deal with. The weather was often uncooperative, France underwent a period of hyperinflation which played havoc with their funding, and the Academy was abolished so that their mission was in danger of being cancelled altogether.
Then there was Mechain's tendency to melancholia, the accident which undermined his physical health, and the 'error' whose contemplation caused him extreme mental agony and led to his fudging the data he eventually reported to his colleagues in Paris. The geodesic data collected by the two teams did in time lead to a better understanding of the difference between accuracy and precision and just what constitutes error. Indeed, the analysis of this data years later by Legendre and Gauss led to the development of modern statistics.
All in all, I was pleased with Alder's book on a fascinating piece of scientific history.
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Revolution. This made following events as Alder told them a little confusing and I had to backtrack a bit each time I picked up the book. About a third of the way through the book caught me and the rest went relatively rapidly.Being familiar with the metric system (I'm American and still deal in feet, pounds, and gallons in everyday life but had to become fluent in metric when studying math, physics, etc.) was helpful but Alder raised a lot of issues surrounding people's resistance to adopting new standards that I had not thought about previously.
A great deal of the book concerns the political reasons behind establishing a new system of measurement in France and the political reasons that made it extraordinarily difficult. Every new group that came into power in Paris threatened the completion of the project. Just trying to travel in the early days of the Revolution was fraught with peril with both Delambre and Mechain being detained at various times. They both found themselves in warzones, suspected of being spies, sorcerers, and enemies of whichever locals they had to deal with. The weather was often uncooperative, France underwent a period of hyperinflation which played havoc with their funding, and the Academy was abolished so that their mission was in danger of being cancelled altogether.
Then there was Mechain's tendency to melancholia, the accident which undermined his physical health, and the 'error' whose contemplation caused him extreme mental agony and led to his fudging the data he eventually reported to his colleagues in Paris. The geodesic data collected by the two teams did in time lead to a better understanding of the difference between accuracy and precision and just what constitutes error. Indeed, the analysis of this data years later by Legendre and Gauss led to the development of modern statistics.
All in all, I was pleased with Alder's book on a fascinating piece of scientific history.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lorin
In the original definition of the meter, the distance from the north pole to the equator equaled exactly ten million meters. Shortly before the French Revolution, two French astronomers set out to estimate this distance more accurately than ever before, in order to create the meter stick that would
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serve as the reference meter. Alder tells the story of the journeys of these astronomers, as they surveyed regions of France and Spain in order to calculate the true length of the meter. It's a fascinating story, including the reasons why they slightly underestimated this distance. Show Less
LibraryThing member Devil_llama
When is an error not an error? Read this book, and find out. Half history, half adventure, the tale of two men who brave weather, disease, and the French Revolution in an attempt to determine the correct size of the Earth. Great reading.
LibraryThing member KR2
I have always believed in the paradox of formal systems. The accuracy of any measurement can only go so far no matter how perfect we think the system is. With the latest news of the deteriorating condition of the "official' kilogram which rots away in some shed in France, this book seems all the
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more timely. The metric system is flawed, but not by paradox; it is due to human error. Alder writes an excellent account of how this mistake happened and what its ramifications were and are. Show Less
LibraryThing member jaygheiser
mildly interesting, but too long
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
This book examines in great detail the genesis of the meteric system in France in the 1790's. I thought the explanation of the tools and methods used by the French savants who generated the data used to create the meter could have been explained better, and also thought the importance ot the error
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could have been better explained. But I presume a scientist would find the account fully adequate. I did not find the book of great interest till it reached the history of the metric system and its adoption--eventually by all the countries of the world excep Yemen, Liberia, and the United States. Maybe the Tea Party will lead this country to get in sync with reat of the world? Show Less
LibraryThing member DoingDewey
In The Measure of All Things, Ken Alder describes the surprisingly difficult and adventurous process by which the length of the meter was determined. Savants or learned men of France decided that the best way to develop a universal standard of measurement was to base that measurement on the natural
The author did a great job setting up an exciting story. The selection of a basic unit of length sounds trivial but as the author points out the idea of a universal standard of measurement was connected to the ideas of justice, equality, free trade, and the free exchange of ideas. For savants, the French Revolution with its’ public support for individual rights was the perfect time to pursue this goal.
With many individuals and events connected to the derivation of the meter, this book was a nice balanced mix of all aspects of the story. There were little bits on historical customs, personal stories, details of the wars in which France was involved, and highlights of the scientific advancements being made. In fact, at the beginning of the book, I was all ready to give it 4 stars, because it just started out so well. Unfortunately, like the expedition, the story began to drag on.
A lot of the end of the book was tangential information and not much about the expedition. And when the expedition ended, the book still didn’t. Most disappointingly, the error mentioned in the title came down to worn out equipment and insufficient statistical knowledge and it didn’t really change the world – it just made the meter a little shorter than it should have been. Despite the ending, the story of the meter was a very interesting and surprisingly adventurous story and the author did a great job connecting it to major world events of the time period.
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world. They selected one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the north pole and tasked two savants with leading expeditions to measure part of that distance using triangulation (the rest of the distance would then be estimated based on their results). Their journey started while the French revolution was taking place and over the seven years of their travels they faced challenges including civil war, wars with other countries, mountainous terrain, and malaria.The author did a great job setting up an exciting story. The selection of a basic unit of length sounds trivial but as the author points out the idea of a universal standard of measurement was connected to the ideas of justice, equality, free trade, and the free exchange of ideas. For savants, the French Revolution with its’ public support for individual rights was the perfect time to pursue this goal.
With many individuals and events connected to the derivation of the meter, this book was a nice balanced mix of all aspects of the story. There were little bits on historical customs, personal stories, details of the wars in which France was involved, and highlights of the scientific advancements being made. In fact, at the beginning of the book, I was all ready to give it 4 stars, because it just started out so well. Unfortunately, like the expedition, the story began to drag on.
A lot of the end of the book was tangential information and not much about the expedition. And when the expedition ended, the book still didn’t. Most disappointingly, the error mentioned in the title came down to worn out equipment and insufficient statistical knowledge and it didn’t really change the world – it just made the meter a little shorter than it should have been. Despite the ending, the story of the meter was a very interesting and surprisingly adventurous story and the author did a great job connecting it to major world events of the time period.
Show Less
LibraryThing member hcubic
In 1792, the French Academy of Sciences appointed two respected scientists to survey a north-south meridian from Dunkirk to Barcelona, for the purpose of determining the size (and shape) of the earth. Why is this important? Because it would establish an international basis for the meter, foundation
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of the metric system. It was expected that the work would be finished in about a year, but the expeditions, led by Pierre Francois Andre Méchain and Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, which were carried out amidst the chaos of the French Revolution, outlasted both the Academy and the monarchy. Ken Alder has located the lost correspondence between these two, and has discovered the surprising fact that Méchain’s guilt over the possibility of a critical error in a measurement near the southern end of the meridian led him to agonizing self-doubt that brought him close to what we would call a nervous breakdown and almost prevented his completion of the project (about seven years later than first expected). Show Less
LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
While the French Revolution raged around them, the Royal Academy of Sciences had a plan - to measure the circumference of the world and they knew just the two scientists (astronomers also known as savants) to do it. Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre was to head north from Paris while his partner,
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Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain headed south. What was supposed to be a year-long adventure turned into seven but the end result was the definition of the meter and the birth of the metric system. Part biographical, part scientific, part historical and part adventure Alder adds intrigue when he delves into a secret error that only Delambre and Mechain knew about. He goes on to question exactly what is an error and he speculates on the lives of the men who changed the course of weights and measures. Show Less
LibraryThing member melydia
This is the true story of two French scientists who triangulated their way up and down the meridian crossing France - during the French Revolution, no less - in order to determine a precise length for the meter. The author, in researching all of this, discovered that not only was there an error in
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their measurements - rather than being a set one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole, the first meter was about 200 micrometers too short to meet that definition - but that they had known about it and covered it up. This should be a fascinating book, but to be honest, it was dry almost to the point of being unreadable. I kept having to go back and reread paragraphs over and over again. Finally, a few chapters in, I gave up. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Longman/History Today Book of the Year (Shortlist — 2003)
BSHS Hughes Prize (Winner — 2003)
Language
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
480 p.; 7.7 inches
ISBN
0349115079 / 9780349115078