8113. STANDARD (Measures), Odometer.—
I have lately had a proof how familiar
this division into dimes, cents, and mills, is to
the people when transferred from their money
to anything else. I have an odometer fixed to
my carriage, which gives the distances in miles,
dimes, and cents. The people on the road inquire
with curiosity what exact distance I have
found from such a place to such a place. I
answer so many miles, so many cents. I find
they universally and at once form a perfect
idea of the relation of the cent to the mile as
an unit. They would do the same as to yards
of cloth, pounds of shot, ounces of silver, or
of medicine. I believe, therefore, they are
susceptible of this degree of approximation to
a standard rigorously philosophical; beyond this
I might doubt.—
To Thomas Cooper. Washington ed. v, 378.
(W.
1808)
