...meter, when adopted by the French Government, near the beginning of the present century, was supposed to be one ten-millionth part of a quadrant of the earth's circumference, measured from the equator to the pole. 624. The names of the different units of length, surfaces, volume...

...basis a certain unit of measure called the meter. 1. The length of the meter was originally intended to be one tenmillionth part of a quadrant of the earth's circumference, or of the distance from either pole to the equator ; but later calculations have shown the meter to...