"The Tenth"

Occasionally, I'll throw out some minor point in history which has an impact upon society.

The printing press didn't come about until 1525.  Until that point.....books were hand-written....meaning there were very few books published.

At the point where books could now be published.....this suddenly opened up society to sharing open information or knowledge.  In 1585.....Simon Stevin (a Flemish scholar of sorts) published a book over his study of fractions.

What he was suggesting in this small book was the use of decimal fractions (.01, .083, examples).  People had come this idea before.....but no one had published this in some journal or book to get public reaction.

This came under the book title of De Thiende ("The Tenth").

The original document came up in 1585 and later (23 years later).....it was translated into English.  Oddly, it is the driving force to get everyone using exponents of one-tenth.  But Stevin goes one step further in this book.  He actually suggest that one standard measurement start to exist within the world.

You see, up until this point....if you went to Amsterdam, there was a unique measurement used in the local area.  If you went to Rome, there was a unique measurement used in Rome.  If you went to London, they had their own unique measurement.  "The Tenth" went and suggested to the public that everyone would benefit if we all did calculations in the same way.

Bakers, surveyors, scientists, traders, ship captains, etc......they were drawn to this fundamental concept of precise measurements.

If you were looking for one of the top ten books of all time.....which made a difference in society.....it would have to be in the top ten.  Yet, it rarely gets mentioned today.