The two
weights which are being compared may both of them change if the
weighing is effected in different places, but they are attracted in
the same proportion. If once equal, they remain equal even when in
reality they may both have varied.
The current law defines the kilogramme as the standard of mass, and
the law is certainly in conformity with the rather obscurely expressed
intentions of the founders of the metrical system. Their terminology
was vague, but they certainly had in view the supply of a standard for
commercial transactions, and it is quite evident that in barter what
is important to the buyer as well as to the seller is not the
attraction the earth may exercise on the goods, but the quantity that
may be supplied for a given price. Besides, the fact that the founders
abstained from indicating any specified spot in the definition of the
kilogramme, when they were perfectly acquainted with the considerable
variations in the intensity of gravity, leaves no doubt as to their
real desire.
The same objections have been made to the definition of the
kilogramme, at first considered as the mass of a cubic decimetre of
water at 4 deg.
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