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Robert Morris
(20 Jan 1734 - 8 May 1806)
British-American financier and government official who was U.S. Superintendent of Finance 4 Mar 1789 - 3 Mar 1795. On 15 Jan 1782, he drafted a proposal recommending Congress should establish a United States Mint and implement a system of decimal currency. Eventually, the Coinage Act of 1792 (2 Apr 1792) did establish the mint, established the dollar as the unit of money with a decimal system of coinage.
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Science Quotes by Robert Morris (1 quote)
[Decimal currency is desirable because] by that means all calculations of interest, exchange, insurance, and the like are rendered much more simple and accurate, and, of course, more within the power of the great mass of people. Whenever such things require much labor, time, and reflection, the greater number who do not know, are made the dupes of the lesser number who do.
— Robert Morris
Letter to Congress (15 Jan 1782). 'Coinage Scheme Proposed by Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance', from MS. letters and reports of the Superintendent of Finance, No, 137, Vol. 1, 289-300. Reprinted as Appendix, in Executive Documents, Senate of the U.S., Third Session of the Forty-Fifth Congress, 1878-79 (1879), 430.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
