Dear Bill,
Thanks for the reminder about Independence Day.
To keep this on topic, Independence Day gives us all an opportunity to
reflect on the contribution that the 'founding fathers of the USA'
made to the metrication of the whole world. As I have written elsewhere:
I doubt whether, without the influence of three Americans in the 1770s
and 1780s, we would now have a worldwide metric system at all.
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington were very
active in promoting the idea of decimal numbers for both money and for
all measurements in the 1770s and 1780s. It was probably their
influence that encouraged the French revolutionary government in the
1790s to devise the 'decimal metric system' that we now all use every
day.
See: the article 'Who invented the metric system' at http://www.metricationmatters.com/who-invented-the-metric-system.html
for a detailed discussion of the contributions made by Benjamin
Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington.
Even more detailed information can be found at the very long (132
pages), Metrication timeline that you will find at: http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/MetricationTimeline.pdf
where you could simply search for the names of Benjamin Franklin,
Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington or for the initials, USA.
By the way, is Independence Day also called 'Flag Day'? I heard a very
funny radio monologue recently about Flag Day in Lake Wobegon where
Garrison Keillor described a Flag Day where the whole town wore red,
white or blue caps to form into a flag shape in the town square.
Unfortunately, as everyone was occupied at the time, it was a major
achievement for every person – one at a time – to climb to the top of
the tallest building to see the effect from above! It took hours. I'm
still laughing when I think of this scene.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the forthcoming book, Metrication Leaders Guide.
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
On 2009/07/05, at 8:28 AM, Bill Potts wrote:
Ah, but did you know the Declaration of Independence was signed on
1776-07-02?
July 4 was the date of its publication.
Of course, I don't think many (if any) people already celebrated on
Thursday.
Bill
Bill Potts
WFP Consulting
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Bill Hooper
Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2009 14:48
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:45307] Independence Day
Happy 4th of July to all our American members.
That's our Independence Day holiday, as I am sure most of you know.
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
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GO METRIC, AMERICA!
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