Toise of the Châtelet
Toesa del Châtelet
- Date
- 1668 · confidence medium
- Place
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Credited to
- French royal administration (Louis XIV)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
An iron bar of six pieds du roi (about 1.949 m) fixed on the stairway of the Grand Châtelet in Paris as the official length standard. It was France's legal reference until the Toise of Peru replaced it (1766); the provisional metre was derived from the latter.
The iron bar was installed in 1668 and wore with time; in 1735 more precise copies were made for the Peru mission. The definitive metres were compared with it.
What it led to
- a material length standard with legal force in France
- the Toise of Peru used in the meridian measurement and for the metre
- the wish for a universal standard independent of a king