Here's my contribution toward the Metric Postage Stamp suggestion. I'm
mailing it in the morning.
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Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee
United States Postal Service
475 L'Enfant Plaza SW, Room 4474E
Washington DC 20260-2437
Greetings:
A stamp or series of stamps commemorating the metric system of measure
is long overdue.
Congress has declared the SI metric system to be the preferred system of
weights and measures in the United States. All US standards for customary
(inch-pound) measurements are based on metric standards. Our most immediate
neighbors, Canada and Mexico, are metric nations. Virtually the entire world
uses the SI metric system in everyday trade and commerce. Even in the US,
nearly all scientific work is done in metric. And numerous sectors of our
business community are metric, from photography and pharmaceuticals to
liquor and skis.
Public awareness and familiarity with the SI metric system would be a
useful goal of a US Postal Service stamp series on metric measures. A 2 cm
by 3 cm stamp showing a 1 cm long line divided into 10 one-millimetre
segments would be an excellent starting point. (A rough sketch, true size,
is shown at the right. Surely the graphics department of the USPS can do
better.)* I hope the Committee will consider this suggestion for its
practical and educational values to US citizens.
Regards,
Dr. William Hooper,
Professor of Physics (ret.)
The University of Virginia�s
College at Wise
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*Sketch not included in this email copy.
