measures could be generally introduced. To state the case broadly, instead of our engineers and machinists thinking in eighths, sixteenths and thirty-seconds of an inch, it is desirable that they should think and speak in tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. I can assure those who have been accustomed to the fractional system that the change to the more perfect decimal one is easy of attainment, and, when once made, it will from its usefulness and convenience amply repay any trouble which may have attended its acquirement. In the manufacture of my standard gauges of size, the workmen measure to the 1-20,000th of an inch, and these measures are as familiar and appreciable as those of any larger dimensions. It will therefore be at once conceded that the only scale of measurement which can be used for such small sizes and proportionally small differences must be a decimal one, as any other would be productive of insurmountable difficulty, if not of utter confusion.
When the sizes of the fitting parts of machines are determined by sight from the lines on a scale or a two-foot rule, such nicety of measurement is out of the question; and as long as they are made on that system, the progress of improvement will be retarded. My experience has satisfied me that no system of measurement depending on the power of sight is suitable for
