The reasons for its adoption were various. A new wave of revolutions in the 1830s would see France and Belgium re-adopt the system, while the second half of the 19th century would see it become a truly international system. The meter’s fortunes would soon rebound, however. John Quincy Adams, for his part, couldn’t recommend that the United States adopt a measurement system that nearly vanished after the demise of the French Empire. ![]() ![]() His beef was that the meter was conceived as a portion of a survey of France, which could only be measured in French territory. Jefferson rejected the metric system, however, because in origin he found it to be too French-which was saying something coming from the nation’s foremost Francophile. He had been instrumental in creating the dollar-the first fully decimal measure any nation ever used. As our first secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson was charged with deciding which set of measures would be best for the country. The original metric system was developed in France during its revolution, and was so radically decimal that it divided the day into 10 hours. The measurement debate actually goes back to our nation’s very beginning. ![]() ![]() The gains have always seemed too little, and the goal too purist. Why is it that America hasn’t gone full-on metric? The simple answer is that the overwhelming majority of Americans have never wanted to.
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