this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Mildly Interesting

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How Pirates Thwarted America’s Plan to Go Metric (psnaudus.medium.com)
submitted 2 years ago by CaspianXI@lemmy.world to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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In the late 1700s, Thomas Jefferson wanted the United States to adopt a unified system of measurement and saw the metric system as the best solution. However, a pirate attack in the Caribbean disrupted these plans. Joseph Dombey, a French scientist carrying a kilogram and meter stick to demonstrate the metric system, was captured by pirates. By the time France sent another scientist to explain the system to the Americans, Jefferson was no longer in office, and plans to go metric were disregarded.

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[–] Scolding7300@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Is there a non-paywalled link? The archive.org link doesn't seem to work

[–] CaspianXI@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I was pretty sure this isn't behind a paywall. I made a pastebin that expires in one week: https://pastebin.com/rK82JgyY

[–] Scolding7300@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Thank you! On Firefox mobile it asks you to download the app to read but not ln Brave mobile. reazlied that after reading the pastebin entry.