Rating: 
Summary: Informative and engaging read about the journey of meter
Review: An engaging read, Measure of all things is the story of the meter and the two intreprid astronmers who set about measuring it. Imagine, France three centuries ago. There were quarter million different units of weights and measures being used across the country. Perfectly natural for the people in those days, but unimaginable and chaotic in our current era. French Astronomers at that time came up with a radical proposal of having a single measure. To make it acceptable not only to the French denizens, but all the people around the world, they wanted to get the measurement from the earth itself. The concept was to fix the value of meter as one ten-millionth of the distance from the NorthPole to the Equator. They set out to measure the meridian arc from Dunkrik to Barcelona, running through Paris and then extrapolate this measurement. The catch was in their assumption that the Earth is a perfect sphere, whereas it is warped, due to which their measurement fell short minutely from the actual value.
This error has been perpetuated in every subsequent redefinition of it's length, including our current definition of the meter in terms of the distance travelledby light in a fraction of second. The meter fell short by 0.2 millimeters short. The tale is not a dry essay on science or measurements. It's a personal saga of courage and dedication from the two astronomers whose expedition stretched for seven years admist political upheavals and war. Even as the French revolution claimed millions of lives, even as many of their scientific colleagues like Lavosier ended up in gullotine, Mechaine and Delambre soldiered on their task. Ending up in enemy territory in the middle of war didn't deter Mechaine. The savant community was unified irrespective of their political affliations, for this was a effort for the whole of mankind. Mechaine is a punctilious astronmer, extremely obsessed in his measurement. A mismatch in his measurements drowned him in paranoia and fearful of loss of his reputation. Even though errors of this nature in an expedition of this nature was expected, Mechanie's nature of being self-critical and monomaniac turned him melachonic and forced him to fudge measurements to match the existing meter value of that time. Delambre on the other hand is practical and open about his efforts. A geodesic of equal calibre, he completes the northern portion of measurement and provides emotional and logistic support to Mechaine. The very act of measuring length is done using the principle of triangulation. If you know the three angles of a triangle and length of one side , you can calculate the length of other two sides. Hence if you know all the angles in a set of triangles connected side by equalside in a chain, plus the length of any single side, you can calculate the length of all their sides. The strength of the book is it is a easy read, which is targeted for all audiences. It is well written without lingering or digressing on extraneous turns. The element of human drama, especially the state of Mechaine during his worse times, the triumph of human spirit, the highs and lows of human nature, the camaraderie and squabbles in the savant community, all of this is superbly expressed by KenAlder's prose. It's a story of human spirit and Alder fittingly concludes, Man is the measure of all things! Afterall, measurement is an accepted standard. So what if the atheletes who are running a 100m race are actually running 99meters and 98 centimenters. It's the same distance for all the runners! The quibble is the book could have been 100 pages shorter without losing it's imapact or details or message. The philosopher in Alder keeps coming forth to make observations on human triumph and foibles and the last two chapters are observations on the importance of errors and their understanding for better measurements. The dreams of Mechaine and Delambre has come true. Except three countries (USA, Burma and Liberia), every country in the world follows metric system.
Rating: 
Summary: Science History as Entertainment
Review: Disclaimer: Ken was a high school classmate with whom I have spoken once since graduation. Prof. Alder's achievement in writing this book is considerable. Firstly, like any good historian, he brings to life a story (of the creation of the metre) that is familiar to few. In doing so, he also brings to our attention the two individuals charged with performing the measurements -- the metre was to be 1/40000000 of the "Paris Meridian" -- and the times in which they worked. Because those times happen to coincide with the demise of the Ancien Regime and the French Revolution, there is excitement and action aplenty, no minor thing for a history of science. That he also managed to unearth the undiscovered letters of Mechain and Delambre in the Paris Observatory to flesh out his understanding of the two principals makes this book an important academic work as well as a popular account of history. Secondly, he tells a story that grips the reader. His book will naturally draw comparisons to Dava Sobel's "Longitude," but in my estimation Alder's story is the more compelling of the two. In fact, there is an additional similarity I would draw to Thomas Pynchon's fictional "Mason and Dixon," which likewise tells the story of two geographers traveling across perilous country to perform a measurement (or, in the case of Mason and Dixon, to draw boundaries). Of the two works, "The Measure of All Things" is the more readable account and no less poignant a story than that of Mason and Dixon. Thirdly, from my perspective as a practicing scientist, Alder achieves yet more with this book. The tragic story of Mechain's horror regarding his perceived errors of measurement leads neatly into Alder's coda regarding the nature of error in measurement. Error analysis, now the staple of all science, was completely unknown in the time of Mechain, and consequently he was unable to perceive of the limitations of his own instrumentation and methods as the ultimate source of error. Instead, tormented by his sense of personal failure, Mechain drove himself to death in a misguided attempt to correct his mistakes. The pathos of this subplot transforms "The Measure of All Things" from a dry work of scholarship into the stunning work of literature that it is. Anyone with an interest in science and history should find this book to be something special.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in science or history. This book gives an excellent helping of both as you follow the path of two French astronomers trying to overcome one obstacle after another in the pursuit of perfection. I was initially hesitant to read this work, but the fact is that anything well written can be fascinating, and this one does not disappoint. I do disagree with the last reviewer on one point, and that is the issue of the importance to the book of the decompensating mental health of Mechain. It is absolutely critically important to the narrative, and for me the most compelling and human part of this story. It clearly underscores the philosophical and psychological differences between Delambre and Mechain as they cope very differently with the disappointments and struggles of their undertaking. It is what elevates this book above and beyond mere textbooks on the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but not very exciting scientific history
Review: Ken Alder's "The Measure of All Things" follows two French scientists as they traverse France over the course of years in the 1790's. Their goal was to accurately measure the distance from Dunkirk to Barcelona, triangulating from mountaintops and cathedrals, so that the size of the earth could be extrapolated from their calculations. Then they hoped to have a precise figure for the length of the meter, the new unit of measurement defined as being one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. My favorite aspect of the book was how the measurement expedition was tied to the French Revolution. The decision to switch to the meter, intended to be a gift to the world, was a consequence of the era of rationality in France that led to the Revolution. However it was the Revolution that almost derailed the men. The scientists, rather suspicious when setting up their arcane instruments on top of local high points, were repeatedly detained by locals who mistook them for spies. The extreme political chaos is contrasted nicely with the high-minded goals of the Scientific Academy, seeking to replace France's hodge-podge of measurement systems with a rationally defined and scientifically determined unit. Unfortunately the senior of the two scientists, Méchain, suffers from a crisis of confidence throughout the narrative, and ended up fudging his results a bit to reduce the appearance of error in his numbers. (Their calculation was off a bit anyway because the curvature of the earth is less uniform than was thought at the time.) Méchain's dawdling and despair take up a rather unenjoyably large amount of the book. One certainly feels sorry for his partner, Delambre, who has to cajole the reluctant Méchain into finishing his part of the expedition and getting all of his results tabulated. I was glad to learn about the origins of the metric system, and the story of performing ground-breaking science in the middle of revolutionary turmoil was fascinating. The politics of the Scientific Academy and the details about the scientific giants of the time also fleshed out the context well. Méchain's dilly-dallying is the center of my disenchantment with the book. I really grew to hate this guy! Admittedly, he was understandably plagued with doubt after discovering a major discrepancy in his calculations, and techniques of understanding and resolving scientific error were not well-developed at the time. Still, Méchain should have just sucked it up and gotten the job done -- if not for the duty to his country, or for the wife and children he left behind for several years, then to make the book about his journey flow better. There is a lot of interesting history in this extensively researched book; it's too bad you have to plow through page after page on Méchain's mental distress to get to the good stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: The search for precision
Review: Since the book 'Longitude', by D. Sobel, was published and became a best seller, there have been a number of books that have tried to follow the same lines. Some of these efforts have been successful. Unfortunately, I didn't feel that this book lived up to the task.
This story involves the quest for an accurate all encompassing unit of measure that can be agreed upon. During this period of time, the world does not have a standard unit of measure. Each town of province would have it's own standard for a unit of length, weight, and volume. Trade in that area would be based on this standard. This concept worked well until you left the area and tried to trade goods with a aneighboring town.
The neighboring town would have a different set of standards, which caused problems with setting unitary costs for goods. What a trader would pay per bushel of goods wouldn't mean very much when the size of the bushel changed from town to town.
The book goes into detail of the events regarding the determination of the standard meter. I enjoyed the race between the differnet countries, including the French trying to get the United States involved. Another interesting point was how the French Revolution played into the process. It was such a turbulent time and anyone hwo was part of the 'official' King's business were the enemy to the citizens.
The book gets a little long and drawn out regarding the measurements taken. It gets a little dry and, at times, difficult to keep ones interest. Not a bad book, but when compared to some of the better books, this one falls a little short.
Rating:
Summary: Much more interesting that the subject may seem.
Review: The central theme of this book is the quest to measure the quarter meridian upon which Paris was built, and derive the official meter as 1/10,000,000 of that measurement. Two French savants were sent to measure from the end points of the meridian, one in Dunkirk, the other in Barcelona, and measure their way back to meet in the middle. They were using a new device to measure angles, one whose precision was only limited by the number of measurements taken. Against this story is the backdrop of the French Revolutions, whose violence and capriciousness is startling. The savants were arrested and detained as spies for "the enemy", were often stranded as the currency they set out with became devalued or useless, or were hampered by locals who thought any attempts to standardize measurements were only some government plot to cheat them. And of course, the main plot point, the southern savant, Mechain, had an discrepancy creep into his measurements, one that caused an error of only the thickness of a few sheets of paper, but catastrophic to the mission and eventually to Mechain's sanity. The author brings a day-to-day familiarity to the mission, filling in the historical details without the story becoming a dusty history lesson. Not being one particulary interested in European history, I was nonetheless pulled into the tale and thoroughly enjoyed it. The tale was entertaining, and it also introduces one to the concept of "precision" versus "accuracy".
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Summary: A quest for a perfection
Review: THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS is a delightfully written account of the quest by Delambre and Mechain, two astronomers who, in the midst of the French Revolution, attempt to use the latest technology (at that time) to triangulate various points along a meridian to find the perfect measurement, the meter. (One ten millionth the distance between the North Pole and the Equator) Along the way, they combat rapidly changing governments, ignorance and fear of the unknown, and most importantly (in Mechain's case), a crippling fear of error. The twists and turns of this enterprise are amazingly well-researched by Adler, and they are written in a style that is both informative and entertaining. Adler suggests that this quest led to nothing less than the transformation of how science was perceived by its practitioners; the change from the idea of savants (who believed in certain absolutes in science) to scientists (who were "engaged in a struggle to quantify their [scientists] uncertainty. ") The metric systems importance to France and the world at large is explained in political and economic terms that are easily digested by the reader, but at the heart of this book is the basic concept that how man deals with error; it can be his salvation or in the case of Mechain, his downfall. This is a wonderful examination of this momentous undertaking and well worth the time of anyone interested in man's constant efforts to utilize science for the improvement of the human condition.
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Summary: History, Science and Human Nature
Review: The Measure of All Things tells the incredible story of the Metric System's origin. During the early days of the French revolution, two astronomers are sent on a mission to precisely measure a part of the meridian arc passing through France and Spain. The plan is to use these measurements to calculate the length of the Meter, which was then defined as one ten millionth of the distance between the North Pole and the Equator. The book is exceptionally well researched and written, and Adler is not satisfied with simply relating dry historical facts to his readers. This book truly makes 18th century Europe come to life. What I found fascinating about this book was not so much the story of the creation of a new measurement system, but the fact that this ambitious mission took place in an age of extreme political and societal turmoil. While this mission was in progress, governments in France changed several times, wars and battles were won and lost, and hyper inflation devastated the French economy. My biggest complaint about this book, and it is a major one, is that I often felt that Adler was taking creative freedom with history - conjuring the thoughts and feelings of historical figures without basing his conjectures on any reliable source. I feel that this is not appropriate in a book about the history of science. Bottom line: this is a very good book that I warmly recommend to anyone interested in history in general and in the history of science in particular. For those who enjoy the subject, I would also like to recommend "Measuring Eternity: The Search for the Beginning of Time" by Martin Gorst.
Rating:
Summary: A great story of science and history
Review: The metric system of measurement is today used in every country except Myanmar, Libya and the United States. But have you ever stopped to think how long a metre is? During the 18th Century, many French were aware of the inconsistencies that existed throughout the country when it came to measurement. For example, a pound of sugar in one town may be twice that found in the town down the road. Therefore, the French Academy of Science decided that the new metric unit of measurement would be the metre and would be defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator along the Paris Meridian. The measure of all things traces the journey of two scientists, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and Francois-Andre Méchain, who had to accurately measure the distance from Barcelona to Dunkirk. This simple task took six years to complete, and along the way a mistake 'slipped' into Méchain's calculations, which plagued Méchain until his death. Because Delambre later concealed this miscalculation, the metre is 0.02 per cent shorter than it should be! This book is a fantastic read, with easy to understand science mixed with a dash of history. It's great to read a book that places science into context and allows the reader to understand how and why things happened the way they did. The author, Ken Adler, has been interested in science since his early days at school, but in recent years he has been drawn to the history of science, in particular, during the French Revolution. "It was a time of Utopian renewal, the end of history and the rebuilding of the world. Many people at the time turned to nature and reason," says Ken. "In the beginning, the French could have stated that this (some arbitrary length) was the metre. But it would not have been accepted. By basing it on nature it was a political coup. It was a grand gesture by the scientists, and had the aura of being exact." According to Ken, the United States is slowly coming around to the metric system. "The USA had uniform measures (based on the English system) early on, so there wasn't the incentive to change, unlike in France. It takes a huge political push to change, which currently does not exist," says Ken. "But it is changing; even Coke in the States is going metric." This review appeared in The Helix science magazine (October 2003).
Rating:
Summary: An informative and entertaining read
Review: The metric system remains a mystique for Americans. It's "foreign" or "the screws don't fit" or some other phrase that distances it from what is still referred to as the "English" form of measurement. Yet, as every other nation knows, nearly every nation uses it, including the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Ken Alder, pandering to American prejudices has subtitled this book in a way designed to lure pro- and anti-metric readers alike. Both will find comfort here, depending on what is sought in its pages. That, alone, is testimony to the diligence he's used in relating the creation of the metre and the science surrounding it. Alder's task was formidable. He presents the personalities of the two prime figures that performed the Herculean task of measurement. The two men were similar in some ways, wildly divergent in others. Using Paris as a base, Delambre and Mechain struck out to measure, in effect, the diameter of the Earth to establish a piece of it as the basis for the new standard of measurement - the metre. Alder places his figures and their mission firmly within their total environment. Setting out under a royal commission, they are overtaken by the French Revolution. Part of the background of that upheaval was the Enlightenment - the age in which traditions were questioned and new ideas about the world and the universe were proposed. From this distance of time, everything appears to have fallen into place. Alder, however, shows that not only were answers only being teased from Nature, it was becoming obvious that many necessary questions had yet to be asked. With a clever narrative style, he portrays the mentally tortured Mechain in agonies over what appears to be an insurmountable error - irreconcilable readings of latitude even after the most careful surveys. He keeps the true secret - a far more fundamental error than poor equipment or bad methodology - until late in the book. Through the story, however, Alder explains the views of the Enlightenment scientists - which he calls "savants", a term rarely used these days - and their struggles to establish and maintain what we now call "the scientific method". Do the research, then do it again. Confirm, repeat, verify, seek endorsement from others. Science, in a word, is an arduous task, not to be undertaken lightly nor performed inattentively. Alder does science a great service in his descriptions. While perfection, precision and accuracy are terms easily bandied about, Alder takes the time and trouble to explain their true meanings and why we must use them carefully. And accurately. Many will grouse about Alder's pedantic style, but he demonstrates that this work goes far beyond the correctness of the platinum bar locked away in a Parisian vault. Science is important and more people need to recognize that fact. Alder points out that the success of the metre was not a scientific achievement, but a political one. As governments recovering from the Napoleonic Empire regained hegemony, they recognized the efficiency of centralised forms of administration. With the metre carefully established, the Low Countries, Italy, Spain and the colonies of them all adopted the metric system as a vast improvement over the chaos of the ancien regime. Alder is far too clever to launch a promotion on why America should move to metric. He knows his countrymen, and cites some of the arguments used against the standard. He notes the Ohio legislator that condemned metric without mentioning that it was Ohio that once considered changing the value of pi to the whole number 3 and is now entertaining the irrational concept of "intelligent design" creationism. No matter how carefully he shields it, he presents the adoption of metric globally as a vivid message. Only America, among the world's leading nations, stands alone in a resistance without reason. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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