5 ms·

Metrification was also killed by Reagan.

WillPostForFood 3y ago
Metrification was dying, and the plug was pulled by the Reagan Admin. Biggest blow was probably the abandonment of converting highway signs to km in 1977. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/06/30/metric-plan-for-road-signs-killed/edd5e38c-8b0a-4519-b991-c599b347b5a8/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/06/30/metr...
- shagie 3y ago
  The biggest blow was the British privateers... yes, the British are why the US isn't on Metric. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/28/574044232/how-pirates-of-the-caribbean-hijacked-americas-metric-system https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/28/574044232... https://www.military.com/history/why-pirates-might-be-reason-united-states-doesnt-use-metric-system.html https://www.military.com/history/why-pirates-might-be-reason... > Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state in 1794, was eagerly awaiting a meeting with French physician and botanist Joseph Dombey. The Frenchman was supposed to meet Jefferson in Philadelphia to discuss a couple of critical international trade issues between their governments. > He was also going to revolutionize the way Americans did business. > But instead of meeting Jefferson in Philadelphia, Dombey found himself in the Caribbean, where his ship was being boarded by British privateers. Upon learning he was a Frenchman, and a famous scientist at that, he was captured and taken prisoner. https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/pirates-caribbean-metric-edition https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/pirates-caribbean-... > The marauders now swarming Dombey’s ship were a particular breed of pirate: British privateers—the state-sponsored terrorists of the 18th century. These waterborne gangs had the tacit approval of the government in London to harass and plunder other countries’ maritime commerce and keep part of the spoils as their profit. > After seizing control of the ship, the pirates came across a sailor speaking Spanish with a curiously French accent—Joseph Dombey. A French physician and botanist acting under orders from the French government, Dombey had left the port city of Le Havre, France, weeks earlier for Philadelphia and the meeting with Jefferson, the United States’ first secretary of state and future president. But storms had pushed Dombey’s ship off course and deep into pirate territory. > ... > Some historians view this event as a tragic missed opportunity whose consequences we are still living with today. When the U.S. became an independent nation, it inherited an inconsistent collection of traditional British weights and measures. Congress was aware of the flaws with its British measures, and a congressional committee was formed to recommend solutions. Thomas Jefferson, an admirer of French scientific ideas, lobbied for a measurement system similar to that of France. But Congress didn’t adopt it, and the British-influenced system took hold in the U.S. instead. However, If pirates hadn’t intercepted Dombey on his way to Philadelphia, the situation might be very different today. As historian Andro Linklater writes in his book Measuring America, > “The sight [in Congress] of those two copper objects [Dombey’s meter and grave], so easily copied and sent out to every state in the Union, together with the weighty scientific arguments supporting them, might well have clarified the minds of senators and representatives alike. And today the U.S. might not be the last country in the world to resist the metric system.”
akira2501 3y ago
What, fundamentally, would be actually different if the US was "metric?" Why should a federal government enforce one particular standard or another?
- blooalien 3y ago
  Easier interactions around measurements when communicating with nearly the entire rest of the world for starters. Also, pretty much all of science is metric measurement these days, so there's that. We could also do away with the confusion of using two entirely different measurement systems here as we currently do. Milk often comes in gallon jugs but soda in 1 and 2 liter bottles for one example.
- fbdab103 3y ago
  It is literally in the constitution. >To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
  - akira2501 3y ago
    "Congress shall have the power" was omitted, there. Congress is a representative body. Of course, representatives should have the power to recognize a national standard, the administration isn't entitled to just choose a standard and enforce it against the wishes of the people as represented by congress. That was actually the point I was trying to get at. Thank you.
- throwawa14223 3y ago
  I really like that the US hasn’t adopted the metric system. I like the idea that humanity has some redundancy even in something like a system of weights and measures. It seems like the world would lose something intangible if we all went with the same one. Like if we all spoke the same language or had the same government.
  - defrost 3y ago
    The official US foot has been based on a metric measure for more than a century now though: The Mendenhall Order marked a decision to change the fundamental standards of length and mass of the United States from the customary standards based on those of England to metric standards. It was issued on April 5, 1893, by Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, with the approval of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, John Griffin Carlisle. At this point every US unit of measure (length, mass, volume, temp, second, etc) is defined in terms of a metric fundemental. The US public are really just pretending that they don't use metric.

Metrification was dying, and the plug was pulled by the Reagan Admin. Biggest blow was probably the abandonment of converting highway signs to km in 1977. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/06/30/metric-plan-for-road-signs-killed/edd5e38c-8b0a-4519-b991-c599b347b5a8/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/06/30/metr...

shagie 3y ago
The biggest blow was the British privateers... yes, the British are why the US isn't on Metric. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/28/574044232/how-pirates-of-the-caribbean-hijacked-americas-metric-system https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/28/574044232... https://www.military.com/history/why-pirates-might-be-reason-united-states-doesnt-use-metric-system.html https://www.military.com/history/why-pirates-might-be-reason... > Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state in 1794, was eagerly awaiting a meeting with French physician and botanist Joseph Dombey. The Frenchman was supposed to meet Jefferson in Philadelphia to discuss a couple of critical international trade issues between their governments. > He was also going to revolutionize the way Americans did business. > But instead of meeting Jefferson in Philadelphia, Dombey found himself in the Caribbean, where his ship was being boarded by British privateers. Upon learning he was a Frenchman, and a famous scientist at that, he was captured and taken prisoner. https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/pirates-caribbean-metric-edition https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/pirates-caribbean-... > The marauders now swarming Dombey’s ship were a particular breed of pirate: British privateers—the state-sponsored terrorists of the 18th century. These waterborne gangs had the tacit approval of the government in London to harass and plunder other countries’ maritime commerce and keep part of the spoils as their profit. > After seizing control of the ship, the pirates came across a sailor speaking Spanish with a curiously French accent—Joseph Dombey. A French physician and botanist acting under orders from the French government, Dombey had left the port city of Le Havre, France, weeks earlier for Philadelphia and the meeting with Jefferson, the United States’ first secretary of state and future president. But storms had pushed Dombey’s ship off course and deep into pirate territory. > ... > Some historians view this event as a tragic missed opportunity whose consequences we are still living with today. When the U.S. became an independent nation, it inherited an inconsistent collection of traditional British weights and measures. Congress was aware of the flaws with its British measures, and a congressional committee was formed to recommend solutions. Thomas Jefferson, an admirer of French scientific ideas, lobbied for a measurement system similar to that of France. But Congress didn’t adopt it, and the British-influenced system took hold in the U.S. instead. However, If pirates hadn’t intercepted Dombey on his way to Philadelphia, the situation might be very different today. As historian Andro Linklater writes in his book Measuring America, > “The sight [in Congress] of those two copper objects [Dombey’s meter and grave], so easily copied and sent out to every state in the Union, together with the weighty scientific arguments supporting them, might well have clarified the minds of senators and representatives alike. And today the U.S. might not be the last country in the world to resist the metric system.”

akira2501 3y ago

What, fundamentally, would be actually different if the US was "metric?" Why should a federal government enforce one particular standard or another?

blooalien 3y ago
Easier interactions around measurements when communicating with nearly the entire rest of the world for starters. Also, pretty much all of science is metric measurement these days, so there's that. We could also do away with the confusion of using two entirely different measurement systems here as we currently do. Milk often comes in gallon jugs but soda in 1 and 2 liter bottles for one example.
fbdab103 3y ago
It is literally in the constitution. >To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
- akira2501 3y ago
  "Congress shall have the power" was omitted, there. Congress is a representative body. Of course, representatives should have the power to recognize a national standard, the administration isn't entitled to just choose a standard and enforce it against the wishes of the people as represented by congress. That was actually the point I was trying to get at. Thank you.
throwawa14223 3y ago
I really like that the US hasn’t adopted the metric system. I like the idea that humanity has some redundancy even in something like a system of weights and measures. It seems like the world would lose something intangible if we all went with the same one. Like if we all spoke the same language or had the same government.
- defrost 3y ago
  The official US foot has been based on a metric measure for more than a century now though: The Mendenhall Order marked a decision to change the fundamental standards of length and mass of the United States from the customary standards based on those of England to metric standards. It was issued on April 5, 1893, by Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, with the approval of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, John Griffin Carlisle. At this point every US unit of measure (length, mass, volume, temp, second, etc) is defined in terms of a metric fundemental. The US public are really just pretending that they don't use metric.