About hidden motivations of the meridian mission

The suspicion that the choice of the meridian based unit of length was just a veil for other reasons is not a new one. Many arguments are given for example in the captivating Alder's The measure of all things[10]. We are inclined to believe in the most noble cause advanced in this book, i.e. the académiciens were mainly interested in making a decided step in the understanding of the shape of our planet. Borda's interest to see his repeating circle protagonist of a great enterprise seems also a good reason, but we see it at a second level. (It seems to us the anonymous' quote ``Sometimes to serve the people one must resolve to deceive them'', reported in Ref.[10], is quite appropriate to the case.)

However, and that was the irony of fate, the improved knowledge of the Earth decreed that the basic premise on which the meridian mission started was wrong: all meridians are different from each other, and the different arcs of the same meridian are unique.⁴² The definition of the meter had then an intrinsic uncertainty, such that it would have become soon or later unsuitable for a standard of length.⁴³