Gabriel Ciscar's contribution to the Congress for . the Reunification of Weights and Measures Held in Paris in 1798

Abstract

In 1798 Paris played host to the Congress that first established the units of length and mass of the Decimal Metric System and fixed the standards that represented them. The meetings held following the initiative of the National Institute were attended by countries politically neutral or allied to France. The delegates of the Spanish Government were Gabriel Ciscar and Agustin de Pedrayes. The present article analyzes the causes that gave rise to the calling of the Congress and goes into the works performed at the time by the different commissions, on the basis of the reports that Ciscar periodically sent to his seniors at the Navy. His own specific contribution to the works of the Congress is also emphasized since he was a member of the Commission which defined the length of the meter standard. After the meetings came to a conclusion. Ciscar directed the construction of four sets of meters and kilograms, the first Spanish decimal standards which would in 1851 serve as a term of comparison of the old units used in Spain against those of the new metric system established.