Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 765 - 716: Unified Measurement Standards_2
Europeans began to unify their measurement systems at the end of the 18th century during the time of Napoleon, as Napoleon found the chaotic measurement units of various European countries quite inconvenient while conquering Europe.
At that time, the various European countries followed France's lead, gradually unifying their own systems of measurement, and then, under France's promotion, established an international metric system across the continent.
In this matter, a certain Eastern major power had already achieved this over two hundred years before the common era, leading Europeans by a full two thousand years.
This world also faced similar issues; that is, among the countries of the Old World, each used its own measurement units, which was very inconvenient in international trade.
Initially, all of this would have been resolved with the development of the Industrial Revolution, as having a different set of units in each country was far too complicated to use.
Especially since some countries even had a mess of measurement systems within themselves, using different measurement units in different regions, and they couldn't even unify the measurement units within their own countries.
As for currency... oh, let's skip that topic; no one wants to calculate what kind of hell it is to use hundreds of different currency units in a place as small as Europe.
While currency and daily life issues indeed cause some inconvenience, they are not severe enough to cause major problems.
But for industrial production, this is simply a nightmare.
Victor Empire itself had a unified measurement system, and the one who accomplished this was the former empress who had passed away.
With the empire expanding and more colonies being established, considering the trade interactions between the colonies and the homeland, the empress issued a decree to unify the measurement units across the nation, giving Victor Empire a standardized measurement system.
However, this was still a rather immature measurement system.
You have precisely 11 different units just for a volume unit! Pint, quart, gallon, bushel, kanning, peck, bottle...
Just counting these units and figuring out their conversion relationships is already troublesome, not to mention that these are just the units for measuring liquids.
Furthermore, due to the lack of sufficiently precise standard units, differences existed between the standards used in various places and even among different factories.
During this time, Perfikot oversaw the construction of airships in the factory and personally witnessed two different manufacturers under the same standard producing completely different items.
At first, she suspected someone was shirking responsibility, but upon investigation, she discovered that both manufacturers were using their own measuring tools, and the discrepancy between the tools was astonishing.
Faced with this situation, aside from being angry and ordering both companies to redo everything, Perfikot had no other solutions.
The Royal Shipyard and its downstream industries had a universal unit system that was generally accurate, mainly because the downstream industries primarily served the Royal Shipyard, and the various issues had been worked through, ensuring precise measurements between different manufacturers.
Because of this, Perfikot needed to issue the current decree to unify measurement standards, so she could consolidate all the chaotic units and create a set of standard measurement units, thereby establishing an effective measurement system.
And after having a unified set of units and standard measuring scales, the uniform production norms Perfikot truly wanted to implement would finally be able to play their role.
Though some may not understand, there was no problem with Perfikot wanting to push this bill.
After all, this was not a bill involving political interests of various parties, and with Perfikot proposing it, she could forcefully pass it using her prestige.
Because of this, although the bill did not pass unanimously, the cabinet itself had no objections.
Perfikot was very satisfied with this, realizing that things must be done step by step and not pursuing unrealistic efficiency as long as things could proceed according to her plans.
It was absurd to expect a nationwide unified set of production standards when universal units hadn't been implemented nationwide. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶
As for how to establish unified measurement units, this was still Perfikot's work.
It's not that she didn't want to entrust the task to others, but it was highly likely that others wouldn't execute it well.
The fundamental reason was the excessive discrepancy in Victor Empire's original units, and without even a concept of the original instrument for calibration, others found it difficult to fully grasp Perfikot's intentions, let alone accomplish her goals under challenging work conditions.
Furthermore, she did not intend to continue using Victor Empire's bizarre units but planned to adopt a new unit system inspired by France from the original world.
Among these, the units of length were the easiest to establish, defining a meter as one ten-thousandth of the Prime Meridian's length, and then segmenting a meter into one hundred parts to define a centimeter, thus providing a reference and standard for a standard length unit.
However, measuring the Prime Meridian involved astronomical and mathematical knowledge that even elementary school students were capable of handling in the original world, but in this world, it was considered an engineering feat!
Facing this situation, Perfikot was completely uneasy about leaving this task to others.
After all, as an alchemist capable of performing various precise operations, the tremendous role played at such times was irreplaceable.
Especially when determining weight units, alchemy's precise manipulation was indeed invaluable.
Whether it was controlling the state of the standard medium to conform better to the standards or carrying out delicate adjustments, alchemy was exceedingly useful.
The statement "one cubic meter of pure water at 4°C equals one ton" appears simple, yet it involves three different measurement units, and without Perfikot's intervention, conflicts among these units were bound to arise.
The reason is simple: determining which unit to anchor first.
However, without establishing length and temperature units, quantifying what one cubic and 4°C actually means is indeed difficult.
Especially the latter; have you understood standard atmospheric pressure? The quantification method for temperature measures it based on water's phase changes under standard atmospheric pressure, involving numerous related disciplines and measurement methods.
Without Perfikot's knowledge, converging so many complex measurement experiments and ensuring they coordinate effectively was extremely challenging.
After all, scientists of this era did not know precisely how to establish new measurement standards.
Without Perfikot, even with clear goals, they would still need to repeatedly verify and calculate, then find a specific anchoring method to establish a target measurement unit.
Perfikot naturally followed the same logic, calculating the Prime Meridian's length, dividing it into ten thousand equal parts, confirming the meter's length, creating a measuring instrument, and then binding all the other units together with the meter, thus establishing the new measurement system.
As for the original national measurement units, they would gradually be discarded.
After all, they were truly impractical, without any value or significance.
Once each measurement unit had been defined, a universal production standard based on standard units held clear significance, greatly enhancing the compliance rate of the various parts needed by Perfikot, and allowing different manufacturers' parts to be universally interchangeable.
Before this, even bolts, the most ordinary parts, could appear in at least seven or eight specifications, which further heightened Perfikot's frustration and blood pressure.
