TEMPERATURE, ETC.
Figures are used to express temperature, specific gravity, and like technical matter.
122. The specific gravity of gold is 19.27. Its melting-point is 1947° F. (1064° C.)
The letters “th,” “st,” and “d” (“d” is preferable to “nd” or “rd”) should not be used with the number expressing the day of the month, except when preceding the name of the month:
123. We left on July 9, 1915.
123-1. We left on July 9.
123-2. We left on the 9th of July.
Many good writers would use “th” in No. 123-1, probably because it expresses the usual oral form of the date.
In printing consecutive numbers, like dates, numbers of pages, etc., certain omissions may be indicated by the dash; but the exact meaning of this and another mode of writing these numbers should be understood. Examples will illustrate this:
124. He was in England in 1914-15.
124-1. He spent the winter of 1914-15 in England.
125. Further information will be found on pages 25-27.
125-1. Further information will be found on pages 25, 26, 27.
125-2. Further information will be found elsewhere (pp. 25, 26) in this work.
125-3. Further information will be found on pages 25 to 40.
No. 124, strictly interpreted, means all of the two years indicated; but it may be an indefinite portion of the last of 1914 and a like portion of the first of 1915. In No. 124-1 the latter meaning is specifically given by the word winter.
No. 125 means that the subject is treated continuously on the pages mentioned; but it may not occupy all of pages 25 and 27.
No. 125-1 means that the subject is referred to on each of the pages numbered, but not to the exclusion of other matter.
In No. 125-2, in order to save space, the comma takes the place of “and” between two numbers, just as the dash takes the place of “to” between “25” and “27” in No. 125. Such omission of “and” is found in the text only when the figures are enclosed in parentheses; but it is common without the parentheses in foot-notes, tables, and indexes.
In No. 125-3 we use “to” instead of a dash. “To” is generally used when a considerable number of pages is named. No definite rule can be given for such usage.
An apparent exception to the interpretation of the numbers in No. 125 is not infrequently found in the manner of writing the street numbers of a building, especially as found on letter-heads:
126. John Smith & Co.
25-27 Water Street
Chicago
As buildings on one side of a street take the odd numbers, and on the other side the even numbers, we know that John Smith & Co. are located at 25 and 27 Water Street.
An accepted form of shortening an address which contains the words street and avenue is to write “avenue” first with its number expressed in words, followed by the street with its number in figures:
127. He resides at the corner of Tenth Avenue and 52d Street.
If a house number precedes the spelled-out name of the street, the former takes figures, in order readily to distinguish it from the name of the street:
127-1. He resides at 34 Tenth Avenue South.
If it is desirable to begin a sentence with a number, such number should be spelled out, and not expressed in figures:
128. Two thousand people met in the park.