Han Maenen wrote in USMA 18167: >Today, 2002-02-12 it is 190 years ago when a very foul egg hatched in France, >the emergence of the Napoleonic Systeme Usuel! Too bad he cannot be >awarded the >Inch Perfect Award anymore. It brought the system we cherisch to the brink of >the abyss, but the metric fighters of the day did not give up and fought on, >until they were able to slay this monster in 1840. I keep wondering >whether the >USA would be a metric country today if it had not been for this Napoleonic >intervention. > >Han
"A history of the metric system controversy in the United States", NBS SP 345-10, fully supports Han's hypothesis. It quoted John Quicy Adams' report of i821. "The decimal base of the system, which Adams called "one of its hoghest theoretic excellencies," he thought had proved impracticable among the peole of France. For retail trade purposes the more common divisions of 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, and so on were still widely used. For such purposes, he said, a base-12 system was inherently more suitable because the number 12 can be divided equally by 2, 3, 4, and 6, whereas the number 10 is only divisible by 2 and 5. ....... "Unfortunately, in Adams' opinion, the solution offered by the metric system...had not been taken up in France, but instead had been repealed by Napoleon's 1812 decree. ....... "But he did not believe that the system had yet attained sufficient maturity to recommend its adoption by the U.S. in 1821." Joseph B.Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 TEL. 416-486-6071
