Charles Sanders Peirce and the first absolute measurement standard

No doubt Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) was exaggerating somewhat. But when it came to metrological matters, Peirce (pronounced purse) knew what he was talking about. Best known as a logician, mathematician, and America's most original philosopher (a founder of the philosophical school known as pragmatism), he was also a leading scientist. Peirce made precision measurements, and improved techniques for making them. His work helped remove American metrology from under the British shadow and usher in an American tradition.