Dear John, Thanks for that information.
In the Metrication Timeline at http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/MetricationTimeline.pdf I had written this item for 1878: ## In the USA, the Senate ratified 'La Convention du Mètre' and President Rutherford R. Hayes proclaimed it on September 27. The USA signed 'La Convention du mètre' in 1875 and ratified it in 1878. Signing and ratification are two separate, but necessary, steps in the treaty process. At the same time, various Federal agencies responded unfavourably to the decision of Congress on the use of the metric system in government transactions and purchases. For example, the mint officially adopted the Troy pound as the basis for USA coins. See Weights and Measures Standards of the United States — A brief history (1976) by Louis E. Barbrow and Lewis V. Judson (available from http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP447/sp447.pdf ) ## I will add a reference to Upton's report. Cheers, Pat Naughtin On 2010/11/17, at 10:58 , John M. Steele wrote: > Pat, > I don't know anything about the magazine article. However, the USMA site has > a nice copy of J. K. Upton's 1878 report to Congress on metrication. It was > apparently in response to an inquiry from Congress in 1877. So it sounds > like there was some initiative at that time (there have been several). > Upton's report was very favorable to metrication; it is not clear why nothing > happened. > > From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> > To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> > Sent: Tue, November 16, 2010 4:08:02 PM > Subject: [USMA:48873] Metric reform 1879 > > Dear All, > > It would appear that there was a move for "METRIC REFORM" for the USA in > 1879. See > http://cgi.ebay.com/1879-Metric-Conversion-Metrication-System-Measure-Meter-/310271050139 > > > Does anyone know anything about this metrication effort? 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. 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.
