This book is based on original sources, the vast bulk of them unedited manuscripts written in French. Unless indicated otherwise, all translations are my own. The main cache of papers regarding the metric expedition of 1792–99 is located in the E2 series of the archives of the Observatoire de Paris. Important additional Delambre papers are located in the Bibliothèque de l’Institut National, the library of Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, and the Karpeles Museum in Santa Barbara, California, as well as in holdings in Amiens, New York, London, and Utrecht. Important additional Méchain papers are located in the Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa and in the Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen, as well as in holdings in Laon, Milan, and Madrid. Other valuable papers on these two savants, on their contemporaries, and on the metric system in general can be found in the archives of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, as well as in dozens of additional major and minor archives and libraries in Paris, the French provinces, and throughout the world. Below I list those institutions where I found the documents cited in the endnotes and the acronyms and other abbreviations I use when citing them. Following each citation of an archival source, I provide the carton reference number for scholars who wish to locate that document. I want to thank the archivists and librarians who assisted me with my research, and especially the staff of the interlibrary loan office at Northwestern University.
As the endnotes stick closely to the material presented in the text, I would like to acknowledge several key intellectual debts here. The foremost historian of metrology is the great Polish economic historian Witold Kula, whose book Measures and Men, translated by R. Szreter (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986) helped me to formulate the argument of this book, although I differ with him in my conclusions. My thinking on political economy has been shaped by the work of Karl Polyani, whose The Great Transformation (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1944) is a neglected and sometimes baffling classic. In the past decade a new approach to the history of science has transcended the simplistic division between technical histories and contextual studies. The most helpful works on the intersection of the exact sciences and social-cultural values have been the writings of Lorraine Daston, Simon Schaffer, Steven Shapin, M. Norton Wise, and especially Theodore Porter, whose Trust in Numbers: Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995) has inspired me time and again. For general histories of the metric system, no one has yet surpassed two rather dated works from the beginning of the twentieth century: Guillaume Bigourdan, Le système métrique des poids et mesures (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1901), and Adrien Favre, Les origines du système métrique (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1931). The one strong recent treatment is the wry article by John L. Heilbron, “The Measure of Enlightenment,” in The Quantifying Spirit in the Eighteenth Century, Tore Frängsmyr, John L. Heilbron, and Robin E. Rider, eds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 207–42. My own analysis of the political and economic significance of the metric system can be found in Ken Alder, “A Revolution to Measure: The Political Economy of the Metric System,” in The Values of Precision, M. Norton Wise, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 39–71.
Abbreviations of Archives and Libraries
AAS = Archives de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris
ADAu = Archives Départementales de l’Aude, Carcassonne
ADC = Archives Départementales du Cher, Bourges
ADPO = Archives Départementales des Pyrénées-Orientales, Perpignan
ADSe = Archives Départementales de la Seine, Paris
ADSM = Archives Départementales de Seine-et-Marne, Melun
ADSo = Archives Départementales de la Somme, Amiens
ADT = Archives Départementales du Tarn, Albi
AHAP = Archives Historiques de l’Archevêché de Paris, Paris
AMAE = Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris
AMSD = Archives Municipales de Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis
AML = Archives Municipales, Lagny
AMNM = Archivos del Museo Naval de Madrid, Madrid
AN = Archives Nationales, Paris
AOAB = Archivio dell’Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Milan
AOP = Archives de l’Observatoire de Paris, Paris
APS = American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia
BA = Bibliothèque de l’Arsénal, Paris
BEP = Bibliothèque de l’Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau
BI = Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, Paris
BL = Bureau des Longitudes, Paris
BLL = British Library, London
BLUC = Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
BMA = Bibliothèque Municipale d’Amiens, Amiens
BMC = Bibliothèque Municipale de Carcassonne, Carcassonne
BMCF = Bibliothèque Municipale de Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand
BML = Bibliothèque Municipale de Laon, Laon
BMR = Bibliothèque Municipale de Reims, Reims
BMSD = Bibliothèque Municipale de Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis
BN = Bibliothèque Nationale, Tolbiac, Paris
BNR = Bibliothèque Nationale, Richelieu, Manuscripts, Paris
BNRC = Bibliothèque Nationale, Richelieu, Cartes, Paris
BUP = Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa, Pisa
BVCS = Bibliothèque Victor-Cousin, Sorbonne, Paris
BYU = Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
CNAM = Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris
CUL = Lavoisier Collection, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
CUS = David Eugene Smith Collection, Columbia University, New York
DLSI = Dibner Library, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
ENPC = Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris
KBD = Kongelige Bibliotek of Denmark, Copenhagen
KM = Karpeles Museum, Santa Barbara, California
NL = Newberry Library, Chicago
NYPL = Rare Books and Manuscripts, New York Public Library, New York
SBB = Staatsbibliotek Berlin, Berlin
SHAT = Service Historique des Armées de Terre, Vincennes UBL = Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht, Utrecht
WL = Wellcome Library, London
Abbreviations of Serial Works
AP = Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860; recueil complet des débats législatifs et politiques des chambres françaises. First series, 1789 to 1799. Paris: Dupont, 1875–.
AP2 = Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860; recueil complet des débats législatifs et politiques des chambres françaises. Second series, 1800 to 1860. Paris: Dupont, 1862–1913.
ASPV = Académie des Sciences, Procès-verbaux des séances de l’Académie tenues depuis la fondation de l’Institut jusqu’au mois d’août 1835. Hendaye, Basse-Pyrénées: Imprimerie de l’Observatoire d’Abbadia, 1910–1922.
CR = Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des Sciences. Sessions since 1835. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1835–1965.
CT = Connaissance des temps ou des mouvements célestes, pour le méridien de Paris, à l’usage des astronomes et des navigateurs. Paris, 1766–. Exact title and publisher varies. After 1795, edited by the Bureau des Longitudes.
HAS = Académie des Sciences, Histoire de l’Académie des Sciences. Paris: 1666–1792.
MAS = Académie des Sciences, Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences. Paris: 1666-1792.
MC = F.-X. von Zach, ed., Monatliche Correspondenz zur Beförderung der Erdund Himmels-Kunde. Gotha: Beckersche, 1800–1813.
MI = Académie des Sciences, Mémoires de l’Institut. Paris: 1795-1815.
Moniteur = Moniteur universelle, [also known as Gazette nationale]. Paris: Agasse, 1789–1810.
PVCIP = James Guillaume, ed., Procès-verbaux du Comité d’Instruction Publique de la Convention Nationale. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1891–1907.
RACSP = François-Alphonse Aulard, ed., Recueil des actes du Comité de Salut Public. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1889–1951.
Abbreviations of Institutions
ATPM = Agence Temporaire des Poids et Mesures
CIP = Comité d’Instruction Publique de la Convention Nationale
CPM = Commission des Poids et Mesures
Dépt. = Département
Min. Aff. Etr. = Ministère des Affaires Etrangères
Min. Int. = Ministère de l’Intérieur