The metre and the pendulum

Abstract

The metre and the pendulum SIR -In his Commentary on 'The metre and the pendulum' (Nature 348, 105; 1990), J. H. Freeman remarks that no records appear to exist on contacts that might actually have taken place between France and England following the Act of the French National Assembly of 8 May 1790.In this act, as well as proposing the establishment of a new system of weights and measures, the Assembly instructed Louis XVI to write to the King of England asking for the cooperation of the British Parliament in the venture.In fact records of such contacts do exist and were published in Nature (69, 425-427; 1904) by Herbert McLeod.Briefly, the events, as recounted in some detail