A position/statement of that nature can only be attributed to the "fuzzy"
view that comes from looking "across the pond," which happens both ways. As
I show below, the U.S. couldn't have "planned" to be converted before 1982
or 1985.
The United States Congress passed the Metric Study Act in 1968 and directed
the National Bureau of Standards (NIST's predecessor) to evaluate "the
costs and benefits of alternative courses of action which may be feasible
for the United States." As the study progressed it became clear that the
U.S. was slowly going metric and sooner or later would "probably become
predominately metric."
The study narrowed the courses of action to two: 1.) The U.S. follow no
plan, with every firm and entity pursuing its own transition policy, with
no national target date, and the government neither impeding nor fostering
change; or 2.) A national plan be developed with a target date for becoming
predominately metric. All segments of business and society would dovetail
plans and timetables together to attain the national target.
The Sec. of Commerce essentially proposed course two, with a specific
recommendation for a ten year time frame. (I've attached a pcx file of the
Secretary's letter to Congress, as my OCR software is acting up.). This was
in the Summer of 1971, it took Congress four years to pass a law that
essentially chose the first course. The law set up a government agency to
coordinate things, but since there was no target and no "mandate" that
agency failed to "foster" anything but confusion.
I hope this clarifies the issue to set the picture straight for the
Independents over on your side, and gives some info to our Listserv members
who didn't know the facts.
At 10:26 PM 1/24/01 +0000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>Someone on the Independent's Argument forum
>(http://www.independent.co.uk/argument) is claiming that the USA
>originally intended to go metric in time for the Bicentenary. I don't
>think I'd heard this before: can anyone say if there is any truth in
>it?
>
>Chris
>--
>Chris KEENAN
>UK Metrication: http://www.metric.org.uk/
>UK Correspondent, US Metric Association
report.pcx
