[PW] Thomas Jefferson and decimal numbers

[S M Colowick]

There's a radio show called the Thomas Jefferson Hour, featuring "the
award-winning humanities scholar and author" Clay Jenkinson, who
portrays TJ on the show and elsewhere. This seems like the kind of
question that he would find intriguing (and might even be able to
answer). You can "Ask Mr. Jefferson" at
http://jeffersonhour.org/?id=24.

smc

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 8:18 PM, Pat Naughtin
<pat.naughtin at metricationmatters.com> wrote:
> Dear Wombatistas,
>
>  Last year I had the delightful experience of visiting Monticello and
>  I have subsequently been able to research the life and times of
>  Thomas Jefferson a little more closely than I had done before my visit.
>
>  However, I have come upon a stumbling block that you may be able to
>  help me with.
>
>  It revolves around two questions:
>
>  1       Did Thomas Jefferson ever have, or have access to, John Wilkins 600
>  page 'AN ESSAY Towards a REAL CHARACTER, And a PHILOSOPHICAL LANGUAGE
>  (1668)'?
>
>  2       When Thomas Jefferson inherited surveying equipment from his father
>  (Peter Jefferson) did his inheritance include a 'Gunter's Chain'?
>
>  The first of these questions might throw some light on the origins of
>  Thomas Jefferson's 'Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage,
>  Weights, and Measures of the United States' that was presented to the
>  House of Representatives in 1790 on July 13. You can find full
>  details of Jefferson's Report to the House of Representatives at:
>  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/jeffplan.htm
>
>  Jefferson's report used some of the scientific investigations aimed
>  at reform of the French weights and measures in the 1790s but it
>  varied in the detail. Jefferson's proposals had a remarkable
>  similarity to the design for a 'universal measure' outlined by John
>  Wilkins in 1668. This led me to believe that Jefferson had access to:
>  'An Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language
>  (1668) by John Wilkins'. This conjecture seems more likely when we
>  set Wilkins' plan for length alongside that of Jefferson.
>
>  Wilkins' plan
>
>  Jefferson's plan
>
>  Let this Length therefore be called the Standard; let one Tenth of it
>  be called a Foot; one Tenth of a Foot, an Inch; one Tenth of an Inch,
>  a Line.
>  And so upward, Ten Standards should be a Pearch; Ten Pearches, a
>  Furlong; Ten Furlongs, a Mile; Ten Miles, a League, & c.
>  Let the foot be divided into 10 inches; the inch into 10 lines; and
>  the line into 10 points. Let 10 feet make a decad; 10 decads one
>  rood; 10 roods a furlong; and 10 furlongs a mile.
>
>  And there are many other parallels. Jefferson suggested a pendulum
>  that had a rod instead of a string, but his report to the House of
>  Representatives might have been taken straight from John Wilkins'
>  essay with only slight changes to the names of the various components
>  of the plan. You can view my translation (from 17th Century English)
>  of the relevant parts of Wilkins' Essay at: http://
>  www.MetricationMatters.com/articles.html where there are three
>  Wilkins' references near the top of the page.
>
>  I have been unable to confirm that Jefferson had access to Wilkins'
>  book although I have searched several catalogs of Jefferson's
>  extensive book collections. These included the Library of Congress
>  and the University of Virginia Library. I know that Jefferson was a
>  very keen book collector and although I suspect that he either owned
>  or had access to Wilkins' 'Essay', I do not know this for sure. I
>  suppose that Jefferson's copy of Wilkins' book could have been lost
>  in the Library of Congress fire of 1851, (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/
>  jefferson/jefflib.html )
>
>  The second question arises from this reference: http://
>  celebrating200years.noaa.gov/theodolites/theodolitehead_zm.html where
>  they write:
>
>  While it may not be common knowledge that Presidents Washington and
>  Lincoln were practitioners of the science of surveying, it should
>  come as no surprise that Thomas Jefferson, the same President who
>  referred to freedom as 'the first born daughter of science', sent the
>  Lewis and Clark Expedition west and established the Survey of the
>  Coast, was also fascinated by the mathematics and techniques of
>  surveying. Although he filled the post of Albemarle County (Virginia)
>  Surveyor for a short time, Jefferson primarily used his skills on his
>  own lands. However, in 1815, at the age of 72, Jefferson used the
>  theodolite to determine the elevation of the Peaks of Otter in the
>  Blue Ridge Mountains.
>
>  I suspect that both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington became
>  active proponents of decimal currency and a decimal measurement
>  system because they learned their surveying using a decimal 'Gunter's
>  Chain' that from about 1620 became a standard tool for surveyors
>  because it simplified all of their calculations.
>
>  I would appreciate any help you can give me on these two questions.
>  Please send any response to me at: pat.naughtin at metricationmatters.com
>
>  Cheers and thank you,
>
>  Pat Naughtin
>
>  PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
>  Geelong, Australia
>  Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
>
>  Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
>  helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
>  modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
>  now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
>  their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
>  different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
>  and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
>  Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
>  and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See
>  http://www.metricationmatters.com/ for more metrication information,
>  contact Pat at pat.naughtin at metricationmatters.com or to get the free
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>
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