You might enjoy NIST SP447, available on their website. An iron copy of the 1799 meter was brought to the US in 1805 by Ferninand Hessler. This is actually before we received the yard copy (1815) known as the Troughton scale. The iron meter was used in the US Coastal Survey until 1890, and was the official US metric standard at the time of the Metric Act of 1866.
As Congress did not officially adopt anything (w&m) until 1832, it is not clear whether an earlier copy of the meter would have changed anything. We had ten years in which we had a relatively good meter standard and no yard standard. The War of 1812 obviously delayed us in getting a yard. Congress has many times demonstrated the ability to fiddle and avoid acting, when the need for action is relatively pressing. ________________________________ From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, October 19, 2010 2:52:45 AM Subject: [USMA:48678] Re: The metre we use On 2010/10/19, at 12:55 , Carleton MacDonald wrote: Huh. Wonder what would have happened to measurement standards in this >country if the pirates HADN'T attacked ... Dear Carleton, While checking the story of the pirates, I found this: 1793 December 11 The French government tried to present the USA with its first metric standards as a gift. In a report, 'Le Système Métrique Décimal', published by the Ministère du Commerce et Industrie in Paris they wrote: Standard metres and graves (kilograms), made by the temporary Commission, were very probably distributed, at least in part, in several foreign countries. In the papers of the Committee of Public Safety, kept in the National Archives, there is a mention under the date of 21 frimaire year I (11 December 1793), that a copper metre and a copper grave both with gradations were sent to the USA through an agency for a Correspondent of the Natural History Museum, Joseph Dombey. Robert P Crease, Chairman of the Department of Philosophy, Stony Brook University, and historian at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA describes this as a 'Missed metric moment'. Robert P Crease wrote: The unfortunate saga of Joseph Dombey contributed to the failure of the US to capitalize on an early opportunity to go metric. On 17 January 1794 a French doctor and botanist named Joseph Dombey stepped aboard the Soon, a brig departing from Le Havre for Philadelphia. Dombey bore a letter of introduction from the Committee of Public Safety, the executive body that ruled France during the Reign of Terror. Dombey was carrying to the US Congress a copper length prototype – newly named the metre – and a copper kilogram, which were intended to help the US reform its system of weights and measures. … Andro Linklater in his 2002 book Measuring America (Walker and Co.) "He was the ideal choice in every way but one – his luck was phenomenally bad." Had Dombey succeeded, today we might not be in the ludicrous situation of the US – the world's largest economy – persisting with non-SI units. … The following year, Congress appointed a committee that recommended Jefferson's proposals. It was a key moment for US metrological reform. Western nations were being seized, settled and surveyed – and any delay in implementing a new system would make it harder to overturn the existing one. But while Congress considered the committee's recommendation, it had other pressing business and put off taking a vote. This is how matters stood when Dombey set sail in January 1794. … Due to a series of misfortunes, Dombey never made it to American shores. In March, as the boat neared Philadelphia, a fierce storm damaged the brig and drove it south to the Antilles, where it had to land at Point-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. … Right after it left the harbour, the ship was attacked by British privateers who seized its cargo and took the crew hostage. Despite disguising himself as a Spanish sailor, Dombey was recognized and imprisoned for ransom at the British colony of Montserrat, where in April – still ailing – he died and was buried. … Dombey's metre and kilogram are apparently lost, though the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Washington, DC – which still seeks US conversion to SI – has in its collection other prototype standards that were made in France at about the same time. … For a country to switch to a new measurement system is an immensely difficult undertaking requiring strong leadership, political will and the right social climate. All these were present in the US in 1794, but the moment was not exploited. To see the full article in Physics World by Robert P Crease go to: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/43030 Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY 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. 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