Weights and measures may be ranked among the necessaries of life to
every individual of human society. § They enter
into the economical arrangements and daily concerns of every family. § They are
necessary to every occupation of human industry; to the distribution and
security of every species of property; to every transaction of trade and
commerce; to the labors of the husbandman; to the ingenuity of the artificer;
to the studies of the philosopher; to the researches of the antiquarian; to the
navigation of the mariner, and the marches of the soldier; to all the exchanges
of peace, and all the operations of war. § The
knowledge of them, as in established use, is among the first elements of
education, and is often learned by those who learn nothing else, not even to
read and write. § This
knowledge is riveted in the memory by the habitual application of it to the
employments of men throughout life.
John Quincy Adams
Extract from the Report on Weights and Measures by the Secretary of State, made to the Senate on February 22, 1821
