Editing Metrication (section)

===Germany (1810–1877)===
[[File:Baeyer.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.75|Johann Jacob Baeyer, founder of the ''[[International Association of Geodesy|Europäische Gradmessung]]''|278x278px]]
[[File:Alter Grenzstein Pontebba 01.jpg|upright=0.75|thumb|Stone marking the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]]/Italian border at [[Pontebba]] displaying [[myriametre]]s (10&nbsp;km), a unit used in [[Central Europe]] in the 19th century<ref name=Europa1842/>]]
At the outbreak of the French Revolution, much of modern-day Germany and Austria were part of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] which had become a loose federation of kingdoms, principalities, free cities, bishoprics and other fiefdoms, each with its own system of measurement, though in most cases the systems were loosely derived from the [[Carolingian]] system instituted by [[Charlemagne]] a thousand years earlier.

During the Napoleonic era, some of the German states moved to reform their systems of measurement using the prototype metre and kilogram as the basis of the new units. [[Baden]], in 1810, for example, redefined the ''Ruthe'' (rods) as being 3.0&nbsp;m exactly and defined the subunits of the ''Ruthe'' as 1 ''Ruthe'' = 10&nbsp;''Fuß'' (feet) = 100&nbsp;''Zoll'' (inches) = 1,000&nbsp;''Linie'' (lines) = 10,000&nbsp;''Punkt'' (points) (for simplicity at the expense of grammar, these are the singular forms of each name) while the ''Pfund'' was defined as 500&nbsp;g, divided into 30&nbsp;Loth, each of 16.67&nbsp;g.<ref name="Europa1842">{{cite web
|url = http://home.fonline.de/fo0126//geschichte/groessen/mas1.htm
|title = Amtliche Maßeinheiten in Europa 1842
|language = de
|trans-title = Official units of measure in Europe 1842
|access-date = 26 March 2011
|archive-date = 14 October 2011
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111014224232/http://home.fonline.de/fo0126//geschichte/groessen/mas1.htm
|url-status = live
}} Text version of Malaisé's book.</ref><ref>{{cite book
|url = http://home.fonline.de/rs-ebs/geschichte/buch/titel.htm
|title = Theoretisch-practischer Unterricht im Rechnen
|language = de
|trans-title = Theoretical and practical instruction in arithmetic
|author = Ferdinand Malaisé
|place = München
|year = 1842
|pages = 307–322
|access-date = 26 March 2011
|archive-date = 14 October 2011
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111014221605/http://home.fonline.de/rs-ebs/geschichte/buch/titel.htm
|url-status = live
}}</ref> [[Bavaria]], in its reform of 1811, trimmed the Bavarian ''Pfund'' from 561.288&nbsp;g to 560&nbsp;g exactly, consisting of 32 ''Loth'', each of 17.5&nbsp;g<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.digitalis.uni-koeln.de/Grebenau/grebenau_index.html
|title = Tabellen zur Umwandlung des bayerischen Masses und Gewichtes in metrisches Maß und Gewicht und umgekehrt
|language = de
|trans-title = Conversion tables for converting between Bavarian units of measure and metric units
|location = Munich
|author = Heinrich Grebenau
|year = 1870
|access-date = 7 March 2011
|archive-date = 22 January 2011
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110122043300/http://www.digitalis.uni-koeln.de/Grebenau/grebenau_index.html
|url-status = live
}}</ref> while the [[Prussia]]n ''Pfund'' remained at 467.711&nbsp;g.<ref>{{Cite thesis
|degree= Dr.&nbsp;med.&nbsp;vet
|pages= 14–20
|title= Der Marstall des Schlosses Anholt (16. bis 18. Jahrhundert) – Quellen und Materialien zur Geschichte der Pferdehaltung im Münsterland
|trans-title= The stables of the castle Anholt (16th to 18th century) – sources and materials on the history of horses in Munster
|language= de
|url= http://elib.tiho-hannover.de/dissertations/parrass_ss06.pdf
|author= Silke Parras
|year= 2006
|publisher= Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover [Hannover veterinary university]
|access-date= 7 March 2011
|archive-date= 19 July 2011
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110719093650/http://elib.tiho-hannover.de/dissertations/parrass_ss06.pdf
|url-status= live
}}</ref>

After the [[Congress of Vienna]] there was a degree of commercial cooperation between the various German states resulting in the German Customs Union (''[[Zollverein]]''). There were, however, still many barriers to trade until [[Bavaria]] took the lead in establishing the General German Commercial Code in 1856. As part of the code the ''Zollverein'' introduced the ''[[Zollpfund]]'' (Customs Pound) which was defined as exactly 500&nbsp;g and could be split into 30&nbsp;'lot'.<ref name="Zollmuseum">{{cite book
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vnwuk-LpMGkC&q=zollpfund+30+lot+1854&pg=PA129
|title = Die Mass-und Gewichtsreformen in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der Rolle Carl August Steinheils und der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
|trans-title=The weights and measure reforms in Germany in the 19th century with special reference to Rolle Carl August and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 
|first1 = Cornelia 
|last1 = Meyer-Stoll
|page = 129
|isbn = 978-3-7696-0124-4
|publisher = Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften [Bavarian Academy of Sciences]
|language = de
|location = Munich
|year = 2010}}</ref> This unit was used for inter-state movement of goods, but was not applied in all states for internal use.

In 1832, [[Carl Friedrich Gauss]] studied the [[Earth's magnetic field]] and proposed adding the [[second]] to the basic units of the [[metre]] and the [[kilogram]] in the form of the [[Centimetre–gram–second system of units|CGS system]] ([[centimetre]], [[gram]], second). In 1836, he founded the ''Magnetischer Verein'', the first international scientific association, in collaboration with [[Alexander von Humboldt]] and [[Wilhelm Eduard Weber|Wilhelm Edouard Weber]]. [[Geophysics]] (the study of the Earth by the means of [[physics]]) preceded physics{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} and contributed to the development of its methods. It was primarily a [[natural philosophy]] whose object was the study of natural phenomena such as the Earth's magnetic field, [[lightning]] and [[gravity]]. The coordination of the observation of geophysical phenomena in different points of the globe was of paramount importance and was at the origin of the creation of the first international scientific associations. The foundation of the ''Magnetischer Verein'' would be followed by that of the Central European Arc Measurement (German: [[International Association of Geodesy|''Mitteleuropäische Gradmessung'']]) on the initiative of [[Johann Jacob Baeyer]] in 1863, and by that of the [[World Meteorological Organization|International Meteorological Organisation]] whose second president, the Swiss [[meteorologist]] and [[physicist]], [[Heinrich von Wild]] represented [[Russian Empire|Russia]] at the [[General Conference on Weights and Measures|International Committee for Weights and Measures]] (CIPM).<ref>{{Cite web|date=8 December 2015|title=History of IMO|url=https://public-old.wmo.int/en/about-us/who-we-are/history-IMO|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231218170901/https://public-old.wmo.int/en/about-us/who-we-are/history-IMO|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 December 2023|access-date=7 January 2021|website=World Meteorological Organization}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Wild, Heinrich|url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/028982/2014-11-11/|access-date=7 January 2021|website=hls-dhs-dss.ch|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=1903|title=Heinrich Von Wild (1833-1902) in Comlté International Des Poids Et Mesures. Procès-Verbaux Des Séances. Deuxième Série. Tome Ii. Session De 1903.|url=https://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/obituaries/1903_CIPM_CH&RU_WILD-Heinrich.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124084245/https://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/obituaries/1903_CIPM_CH%26RU_WILD-Heinrich.pdf|archive-date=24 January 2021|access-date=|website=BIPM}}</ref> In 1867, the European Arc Measurement (German: ''[[International Association of Geodesy|Europäische Gradmessung]]'') called for the creation of a new, ''international prototype metre'' (IPM) and the arrangement of a system where national standards could be compared with it. The French government gave practical support to the creation of an International Metre Commission, which met in Paris in 1870 and again in 1872 with the participation of about thirty countries. The [[Metre Convention]] was signed on 20 May 1875 in Paris and the [[International Bureau of Weights and Measures]] was created under the supervision of the [[International Committee for Weights and Measures|CIPM]].

Although the Zollverein collapsed after the [[Austro-Prussian War]] of 1866, the metric system became the official system of measurement in the newly formed [[German Empire]] in 1872<ref name=Alder/>{{rp|350}} and of Austria in 1875.<ref name="PopularScience">{{cite journal
|journal = Popular Science Monthly
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IyUDAAAAMBAJ&q=The+Metric+System+-+Shall+it+be+compulsory&pg=PA394
|title = The Metric System – Shall it be compulsory?
|author = W Leconte Stephens
|date = March 1904
|pages = 394–405
|access-date = 17 May 2011}}</ref> The Zollpfund ceased to be legal in Germany after 1877.<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://universal_lexikon.deacademic.com/3160/Pfund
|title = Pfund
|publisher = Universal-Lexikon
|access-date = 17 May 2011
|year = 2010
|language = de
|archive-date = 6 September 2014
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140906091848/http://universal_lexikon.deacademic.com/3160/Pfund
|url-status = dead
}}</ref>