The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World

This is the story of two intrepid scientists who for the good of France and all mankind set out on a mission to measure the earth during the unsettled time of the French Revolution in the 1790s. Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre would make his way north from Paris to Dunkirk, while Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain voyaged south to Barcelona in an endeavour to measure the earth and define the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance between the pole and the equator.

The story has fascinating information about the astronomical measurements, instruments and mathematics involved and delves into the political intrigue of the French Revolution. The book covers the trials and tribulations of Delambre and Mechain as well as their colleagues and family left behind in Paris in a rapidly changing world. While we all know that most of the world has taken up the metric system few know about the scientific mission behind it. This entertaining book reads like a novel but is in fact a rigorous factual account that delves deep into the history, cultural impact and science of the metric system. I particularly enjoyed reading about Mechain’s wife who held both his work at the L'Observatoire de Paris and the family together while he suffered and seemed to loose his health and sanity in his dedication to complete the mission.

The one metre standard at Rue de Vaugirard, Paris , France. Photo taken by Ann Cairns

The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World, by Ken Alder. (Free Press, 2003), 448 pages. ISBN 978-0743216760