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Did Pirates Really Ruin the US Dream of the Metric System? · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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  Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
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  Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Let's have an R made for
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  Speaker 1: our super producer, mister Max Williams.
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  Speaker 2: I and R.
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  Speaker 1: You're Noel Brown, I'm Ben Bowling Noel. What would your
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  Speaker 1: pirate name be if you had to choose one? Ooh goodness,
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  Speaker 1: gracious put me on the spot. Why don't you?
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  Speaker 2: Uh? I mean, I don't know, like long John something,
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  Speaker 2: Perhaps that's good.
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  Speaker 1: I like that.
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  Speaker 2: I like John long John Platinum a.
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  Speaker 1: Long time plus, so I would probably get tagged with
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  Speaker 1: something like bend the Red yeah, and which which would
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  Speaker 1: be funny because I can't because I'm partially red green
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  Speaker 1: color blinds.
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  Speaker 2: So we're wearing a red hat currently. Oh oh really weird? Okay,
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  Speaker 2: so I got elephants on. It's really good, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Uh. Here in the US, we do love nicknames. We
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  Speaker 1: also love weird comparisons. It's kind of a known joke
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  Speaker 1: in our culture today that we will, in general come
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  Speaker 1: up with any comparison to avoid the metric system. Right.
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  Speaker 2: Well, wolves and oranges, as we like to say.
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  Speaker 1: I saw his story a while back about wearing. A
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  Speaker 1: newscaster described an alligator as ariana grande sized.
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I can see that she's she's kind of compact.
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  Speaker 1: As a unit of measurement. You know, are we.
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  Speaker 2: Talking about her ponytail length? That's yeah, okay, got it. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, well, you always see those comparisons where
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  Speaker 1: they're like this, you know, this object is about the
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  Speaker 1: size of four quarter pounders, or this is this many
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  Speaker 1: football fields, when it would be much more rational and
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  Speaker 1: sane to just use the metric system. It's almost like
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  Speaker 1: our country has a phobia about this, like we only
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  Speaker 1: talk about the metric system here in general when we're
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  Speaker 1: speaking about science, drugs, or firearms.
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  Speaker 2: It's true. I always think of the clip from pulp
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  Speaker 2: fiction where it goes, they ain't got they got the
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  Speaker 2: metric system over there, they wouldn't know what a quarter
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  Speaker 2: pounder is.
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  Speaker 1: Roy I love his accent though in too so, even
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  Speaker 1: though it's a laugh, and there are loads of examples
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  Speaker 1: that we might get to later. Today, there is a
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  Speaker 1: conundrument at play, like why didn't the US catch up
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  Speaker 1: with the rest of planet Earth, with the rest of
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  Speaker 1: human civilization. Why are we so averse to the metric system.
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  Speaker 1: According to one legend, the answer may be pirates.
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  Speaker 2: Ah. Yes, of course we fear change and pirate. So
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  Speaker 2: what is in fact the metric system? For any of
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  Speaker 2: you non US residing ridiculous historians, this could well be
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  Speaker 2: old beans to you, as you would say, mister Boland,
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  Speaker 2: but it's definitely something that we as Americans really do
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  Speaker 2: need to wrap our head around. Like, the metric system
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  Speaker 2: is humanity's most popular form of measurement. It is a
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  Speaker 2: decimal system of weights and measures based on the meter
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  Speaker 2: for length and the kilo or kilogram for mass.
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  Speaker 1: And we owe this to the French Revolution.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it came up in our last episode, Yeah, of
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  Speaker 2: seventeen eighty nine. It ushered in a lot of chaos,
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  Speaker 2: and along with that it ushered in some pretty solid innovations,
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  Speaker 2: like the metric system or the guillotine. Ah, yes, Neil,
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  Speaker 2: that'll chestnut love. It a very very very efficient way
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  Speaker 2: of murdering a human. And interestingly enough, I think this
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  Speaker 2: has come up in recent episodes. Two was still in
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  Speaker 2: use much more recently than folks might think.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this was terrible for the executioner industry. You know,
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  Speaker 1: they were automating people's jobs.
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  Speaker 2: They're taking our jobs. Our friends of Batanaga have this
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  Speaker 2: to say about it. We love our friends in Britannica.
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  Speaker 2: In seventeen ninety one, the French National Assembly directed the
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  Speaker 2: French Academy of Sciences to address the chaotic state of
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  Speaker 2: French weights and measures. It was decided that the new
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  Speaker 2: system would be based on a natural physical unit to
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  Speaker 2: ensure immutability. Love that word. The Academy settled in the
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  Speaker 2: length of one ten millionth of a quadrant of a
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  Speaker 2: great circle of Earth. Might need to unpack this a
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  Speaker 2: little bit measured around the poles of the meridian passing
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  Speaker 2: through Paris being the center of the universe, and Arduis
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  Speaker 2: six year survey which eventually yielded a value of thirty
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  Speaker 2: nine point three seven zero zero eight inches for the
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  Speaker 2: new unit to be called the meter from Greek metron,
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  Speaker 2: meaning measure.
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  Speaker 1: There we go simple enough, right, and things move quickly
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  Speaker 1: from there. By seventeen ninety nine we see the emergence
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  Speaker 1: of the meta and kilogram of the archives, which is
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  Speaker 1: a flawless French accent. There these are platinum embodiments, artifacts
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  Speaker 1: that show us what a kilogram weighs and how long
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  Speaker 1: a meter is. They're the legal standards for all measurement
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  Speaker 1: in France, and the motto of the metric system is
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  Speaker 1: really cool. It's kind of inspiring. It's for all people,
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  Speaker 1: for all time. Nice.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I do like that. It is efficient, it
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  Speaker 2: is egalitarian. By eighteen seventy five, the system went wide,
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  Speaker 2: went global international with the signing of the Treaty of
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  Speaker 2: the Meter. It's fun and the establishment of the International
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  Speaker 2: Bureau of Weights and Measures Treaty of.
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  Speaker 1: The Meter and Weights. Okay, so International Bureau of Weights
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  Speaker 1: and Measures sounds like a weird band I would hear
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  Speaker 1: in Athens, Georgia.
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  Speaker 2: Agreed. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna copy that. Of the
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  Speaker 2: Meter is their album.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we're onto something here. Look, the metric
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  Speaker 1: system is not perfect, but it is way way better
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  Speaker 1: than the often arbitrary measurement systems of the past. It's
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  Speaker 1: a political it's based in science. It establishes uniformity for
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  Speaker 1: everyone involved with the metric system. You no longer have
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  Speaker 1: to worry about a span being different in one town
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  Speaker 1: to another.
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  Speaker 2: You know, like it is a little it is a political,
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  Speaker 2: but it does have a little bit of that Viva
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  Speaker 2: la France. Vibe to it, and that Paris was the
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  Speaker 2: center of the measurements and questions.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just like Greenwich meantime, you know.
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  Speaker 2: But it's not like they brag about it or that
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  Speaker 2: it's inherent in the naming conventions, right, but it's just,
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  Speaker 2: you know, that's how they derived that thirty seven point whatever.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they gave the Greeks their their credit. They get
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  Speaker 1: a shout out. They didn't call the meter the Paris
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  Speaker 1: Now anythink.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, that's true. That is everyone, of course, except for
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  Speaker 2: the United States, along with Liberia and meandmar that's a
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  Speaker 2: story for a different day, accepted these these conventions, right. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So to answer the question about the US and its
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  Speaker 1: fraud relationship with the metric system, we would like to
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  Speaker 1: share with you an incredibly popular legend travel back with us,
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  Speaker 1: fellow ridiculous historians. The US still has that new car smell,
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  Speaker 1: even though cars have not been invented yet.
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  Speaker 2: So as a result, this new nation under God, it's
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  Speaker 2: a bit of an shiit sa shoe w this. Every
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  Speaker 2: state agreed to be part of this new country. However,
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  Speaker 2: there were a lot of details to work out. Different
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  Speaker 2: parts of the country, different regions, had different identities, different
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  Speaker 2: perhaps opinions, different political leanings, and that also includes something
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  Speaker 2: as simple, seemingly a political as how to go about
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  Speaker 2: measuring things. So for some reason Thomas Jefferson was really
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  Speaker 2: vexed by this lack of continuity.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, it was a real bug on his shoulder,
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  Speaker 1: and yeah it's a real crossbow is But you know,
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  Speaker 1: at the time of the American Revolution, these thirteen colonies
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  Speaker 1: more or less used a presently defunct English measuring system ounces, pounds, feet, miles.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds familiar to the present system in the United States,
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  Speaker 1: but it's not quite the same. So if you go
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  Speaker 1: to boffins like Keith Martin at the National Institute of
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  Speaker 1: Standards and Technology, you'll see that in New York, according
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  Speaker 1: to Keith, people were using Dutch measurement systems, makes sense,
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  Speaker 1: but in New England they were using English systems. The
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  Speaker 1: way things were measured literally changed from one state to
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  Speaker 1: the next, and as we can all imagine, that's not
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  Speaker 1: great for business. Here's the legend. The metric system, as
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  Speaker 1: we said, it emerges in France seventeen ninety one. Just
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  Speaker 1: a few years later, according to the story, old Tommy
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  Speaker 1: J who is now the Secretary of State. Hears about
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  Speaker 1: this new French system. He's intrigued. He says, maybe this
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  Speaker 1: will help solve America's measurement madness are phrased.
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  Speaker 2: His Yeah, it's sort of like reform madness, not as fun. No,
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  Speaker 2: revermads doesn't fun at all. Never mind, take that back.
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  Speaker 2: That was a really gnarly propaganda war against them.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, let's keep it. Listen, more people should know about
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  Speaker 1: reformatag Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: No, I'm saying keep it. But it wasn't fun.
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  Speaker 1: Oh it wasn't.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like it might be. We read for madness.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone's walking up having a good time. No, that is
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  Speaker 2: not what it was. It was an absolute moral panic
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  Speaker 2: that was manufactured in order to other minorities.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the main fear being misingenation. So weirdly enough, So okay.
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  Speaker 1: Tommy J. Writes to his colleagues, his fellow thought leaders
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  Speaker 1: over in France, and they hatch a plan. They're going
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  Speaker 1: to send a scientist, a botanist, an aristocrat, not three guys,
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  Speaker 1: all the same guy named Joseph Dombi. He's going to
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  Speaker 1: cross the Atlantic. He's going to visit Jefferson, and on
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  Speaker 1: his person he will have two strange artifacts, a rod
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  Speaker 1: that measures exactly a meter and a small copper cylinder.
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  Speaker 1: It's got a little handle on the top. It's about
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  Speaker 1: three inches tall, it's about three inches wide. It weighs
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  Speaker 1: exactly one kilogram. So the idea is that if Dombie
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  Speaker 1: can get over to the new United States and talk
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  Speaker 1: with Jefferson, then maybe they can they can get the
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  Speaker 1: US on board with this French ciss them. Unfortunately, Dombie's
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  Speaker 1: travels do.
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  Speaker 2: Not go well, No they don't. His ship passes through
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  Speaker 2: a massive storm in the Atlantic that blows the vessel
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  Speaker 2: far Afield, far south of the Mark into the Caribbean Sea.
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  Speaker 2: And the Caribbean was a particularly rough neighborhood populated by
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  Speaker 2: roving bands of British privateers aka more or less pirates.
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  Speaker 2: They weren't technically criminals, they were sort of these mercenaries
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  Speaker 2: of the sea right. However, they capitalized on their more
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  Speaker 2: or less lack of oversight from the British government and
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  Speaker 2: sort of had a bit of a carte blanche, a
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  Speaker 2: bit of a blank check to do whatever they wanted
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  Speaker 2: to whomever they wanted, because they controlled the high seas
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  Speaker 2: and they actually did have a bit of co sign
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  Speaker 2: for some of these nasty shenanigans. They were in fact
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  Speaker 2: encouraged by the British to harass, attack, and disrupt any
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  Speaker 2: perceived enemy ship lanes shipping activities.
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  Speaker 1: Right yeah, because let's keep in mind the British are
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  Speaker 1: still a little bit irritated that the United States is
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  Speaker 1: a thing not loving me. They're they're not feeling it,
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  Speaker 1: they're not vibing. So these pirates, in all but name,
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  Speaker 1: these privateers, they take over the ship that Dombie is
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  Speaker 1: on and they imprison him on an island that they control, Mansarrat,
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  Speaker 1: and they are thinking, Okay, this is a pretty fancy guy, right,
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  Speaker 1: he's clearly upper class. Let's ransom him, you know what
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  Speaker 1: I mean, let's make a little coin. Unfortunately for the
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  Speaker 1: pirates and unfortunately for Domby, he dies in captivity. He
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  Speaker 1: never makes it to the US, which means that the
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  Speaker 1: rod and the cylinder, the meter and the kilogram don't
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  Speaker 1: make it there either.
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  Speaker 2: No, they don't. However, the pirates weren't interested in any
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  Speaker 2: of the objects that Dombi was carrying, uh So they
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  Speaker 2: were just auctioned off along with the rest of the
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  Speaker 2: goods aboard the ship. So the story goes if Danbie
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  Speaker 2: had not been let's just say, diverted by that storm
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  Speaker 2: and waylaid by the hooliganery of these mates and their crew,
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  Speaker 2: he may well have made it to Jefferson, and Jefferson
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  Speaker 2: would have actually done his razzle dazzle on Congress, and
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  Speaker 2: we all may well be full on metric heads today.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a fascinating tale, and I think it would
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  Speaker 1: be great for ridiculous history cinema. It's widely cited as
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  Speaker 1: a fact in any number of reputable US news sources,
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  Speaker 1: so not just more tabloidy stuff like the New York Posts,
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  Speaker 1: Sorry guys, that's true, but also things like the Washington Post.
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  Speaker 1: The question is, is this story, as our friend Law
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  Speaker 1: would say, is this the actual facts explanation for the
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  Speaker 1: US's metric system phobia? Are pirates? Genuinely the reason America
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mess with the metric system today.
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  Speaker 2: Have a little bit of an apocryphal vibe to it.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie right right, it feels like a
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  Speaker 2: legend kind of you know what I mean, the stuff
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  Speaker 2: of love legend. Absolutely a metric system needs one, right.
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  Speaker 1: We do know it is true that Dombie's ship was
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  Speaker 1: captured Dombi was a real person and at the time
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  Speaker 1: he was carrying these new measurement artifacts. We know that
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  Speaker 1: he did die in captivity. There are letters informing Jefferson
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  Speaker 1: about it, but the details and context of the time
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  Speaker 1: show us to your point, Nol, the story is not
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  Speaker 1: as cut and dried as as we would like to
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  Speaker 1: bust the myths here. We're going to get some help
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  Speaker 1: from our friends at Snopes.
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  Speaker 2: So Jefferson wasn't just intrigued by this new French system.
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  Speaker 2: He was already, as you would say, Ben ten Toes
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  Speaker 2: down with it on fixing America's measurement issue. So by
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  Speaker 2: in the seventeen ninety before the French system came into affect,
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  Speaker 2: Jefferson had already published and submitted to Congress a paper
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  Speaker 2: on the topic of uniform measurements. And the report, however,
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  Speaker 2: didn't really make it to the top of the stack.
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  Speaker 2: Let's just say it kind of got sidelined a bit,
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  Speaker 2: and as they call it in Hollywood, turnaround limbo.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, languished in limbo. Pictured this way. So he pitched
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  Speaker 1: two different ideas for a uniform measurement system, and the
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  Speaker 1: second one, the one that he really liked, was base
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  Speaker 1: tend thing. It was. It was decimal. It was like
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  Speaker 1: the French system, like the metric system today. Everybody that
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  Speaker 1: he talked to about this, everybody they pitched on it,
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  Speaker 1: kind of said, oh yeah, no, good point, Tom, we
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  Speaker 1: gotta think about that one.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna put this right here on the
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  Speaker 1: fridge with the other drawings.
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  Speaker 2: We'll give you a gold star for exactly and give
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  Speaker 2: you a little bit of a participation award.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. After the game was out of boys his back pats,
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  Speaker 1: everybody went on to do other things. Granted, at this
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  Speaker 1: point in history of the United States, there was still
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  Speaker 1: a lot of other stuff they needed to do.
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  Speaker 2: For sure, early days, lots to be done. This consorted
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  Speaker 2: be seen as certainly not priority number one by the
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  Speaker 2: folks in charge. What happens to be a pet concern
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  Speaker 2: of mister Jefferson, as we mentioned.
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  Speaker 1: Right, like, is his passion project? Does he leave the
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  Speaker 1: room and people all roll their eyes and chefs.
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  Speaker 2: And again going on about the metric system.
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  Speaker 1: What does that guy do? Isn't he supposed to be
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of State?
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  Speaker 2: You guys, we need to rethink this whole situation a bit.
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  Speaker 1: It's like Elon musk and video games.
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  Speaker 2: You know what I mean, man stuff, He's gonna come
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  Speaker 2: for you, Ben, He's gonna come for you.
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  Speaker 1: I'll have to try to do my best to doge it.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, dojan weave, Dojiah Weave. There we go.
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  Speaker 1: So the US didn't make any real progress toward unified
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  Speaker 1: measurement until decades later, the eighteen twenties.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, after continuous prompting and poking and prodding from Tomas Jefferson,
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  Speaker 2: like literally be like, hey, guys, them over here, look
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  Speaker 2: at me, remember me. We need to work this out.
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  Speaker 2: It's a big deal.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so we can conclude it is highly likely.
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  Speaker 1: We can't prove this, but we can conclude that Dombie
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  Speaker 1: and piracy their role is somewhat overstated in the legend.
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  Speaker 1: It's very likely that even if Dombie arrived safely with
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  Speaker 1: his Chochke's in tow, the stalemate over measurements would have
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  Speaker 1: persisted because it wasn't that people couldn't think of a
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  Speaker 1: thing like the metric system. It was that no one really.
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  Speaker 2: Cared, right except Tommy Jay, who cared a lot. And
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  Speaker 2: can we also just say that, like it really seems
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  Speaker 2: apocryphal of this notion that you know, the items were
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  Speaker 2: the deal breaker, the staff and the whatever, you know
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  Speaker 2: what I mean, Like, couldn't they just if it was
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  Speaker 2: really that important to them, they could have found something else,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Yeah, yeah, and they could have worked it out, right,
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  Speaker 2: they could have figured it out.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. And so now we have to move to speaking
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  Speaker 1: the artifacts. Let's quote that question that you and I
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  Speaker 1: often get at the airport, what happened to our kilo?
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  Speaker 2: We do? It's weird. I don't know why people think
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  Speaker 2: the we're some sort of authority on this. It is
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  Speaker 2: our burden to bear and it is a heavy one.
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  Speaker 2: But God knows what system we should use to weigh it, right, right,
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  Speaker 2: We certainly don't. Maybe God does no comment FBI. Ultimately, though,
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  Speaker 2: we do know a little bit about these artifacts. That
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  Speaker 2: lost kilogram cylinder made it to America, eventually in the
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  Speaker 2: hands of an American land surveyor named Andrew Ellicott, and
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  Speaker 2: then it was passed down as a relic in the
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  Speaker 2: Elicott family all the way up to nineteen fifty two.
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  Speaker 2: And this is when a scion of the Ellicott family,
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  Speaker 2: Andrew Ellicott Douglas, he realizes what they have a piece
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  Speaker 2: of history. He's an astronom, and he doesn't try to
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  Speaker 2: make a buck off this or anything. He gives it
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  Speaker 2: to the agency that later becomes the National Institute of
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  Speaker 2: Standards and Technology or NIST NIST.
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  Speaker 1: I love it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, can we just take a quick moment to just
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  Speaker 2: talk about just the idea of standardization, like the what
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  Speaker 2: is so much less important than this, like this whole
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  Speaker 2: you know discussion, like what is the objects? Because at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day, it's just about deciding and
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: agreeing what the number is and what we use. So
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: it's like whether it's this rod and this you know
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: whatever pendance or whatever the crap these objects. It just
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: seems kind of beside the point and sort of getting
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: hung up on the wrong details. But I guess therein
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: lies the conundrum of history and the politicization of seemingly
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: benign things, right, Yeah, exactly.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: And we also know, I think that point about consensus
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: is really key here. We also know that the kilogram
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: has been redefined over the decades. The version that Dambi
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: was carrying that copper cylinder with a cute little handle,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: it was almost certainly not the same mass as what
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: we consider the modern kilogram, which is a platinum iridium
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: thing still stored in France. Now, that's what all kilograms
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: and gram derivatives are based off.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: The France does to this day kind of hold a
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: lot of prominence in the fields of science and education,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: like the Sarball and like certain institutions there. I mean,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: they are still held up very high and revered, you know,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: across the world, although it does seem that to some degree,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: the US still has sort of a weird little beef
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: with France in terms of just attitude. You know, this
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: is often a little bit of dismissiveness when you have
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: certain folks talking about the French. Yeah, I love, I
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: love the French. I love all of the history that
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: we're talking about here. I think we're on the same
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: page there, you know what I mean though, isn't an
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: odd little kind of bit of not bigotry exactly, but
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: sort of a little bit of an attitude.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of a jocular animosity. It goes both ways too,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: you know. Every time that's a perfect example. Yeah, every
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: time I'm hanging out in France. I've got some French
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: national friends in Amsterdam. Get a little ribbing for being
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: from the States. But I think I like to think
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: it's well intentioned, and yeah, France is just amazing. The
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: food is better that that stereotype is true. But like
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: you're saying, the French American animosity aside, the United States
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: still hasn't gone fully metric. You can see legally required
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: metric conversions on all kinds of things, right like the
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: speedometer of your vehicle, the ingredient list or serving sized list,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and things you buy on the grocery store. But most
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: people are going to be talking in terms of inches, feet, ounces, pounds.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: You know, could we take a minute and just talk
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: a little bit about why metric is better than that
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: what you just mentioned, Ben, what we use, like what
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: there is it because of these sort of basis in science,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: The basis in like physical you know, understandable objects and
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: feet and inches seems a little bit less so and
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: maybe a bit more arbitrary.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're I think you've kind of answered
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: that right. It's easier to learn because it's a it's
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: a decimal system, but it's got gradation. Yeah. It also
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: it doesn't it doesn't have some of the historical baggage
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: that other measurement systems have, you know, like feet, miles, yards,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: those are just weird, right, And I think the biggest
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: point now too, is regardless of which system a person
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: may prefer individually, your point about consensus holds it is
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: a matter of what everyone agrees on it. And the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: rest of the world said, tally ho, bully for the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: metric system. We've all finally agreed on at least this
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: one thing, and the US said, nah, banana for scale.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Whereas over here it's like the question like, how long
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: is a yard I was the length of one yard stick?
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Right, right, right?
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Remember yardstick? That was very much a staple of elementary school.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know why I'm thinking about the yard stick now.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: It doesn't really come up much anymore. Can you even
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: still buy yardsticks? Is that thing? Okay?
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you could buy them. It's just I think they're
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: less frequently seen in households.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: That makes sense.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: You know, it's not quite as antiquated as the rotary telephone,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: but it's getting there, you know what I mean. If
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: you have a yard stick, the yard stick is probably
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: old and you probably got it from what are your relatives?
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Now that being said, if we're talking about the UK,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: they have a quite different use of the term yard
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: It is a measurement of ale, a quite massive boot size,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: you know, glass of ale, a yard a.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Yard of ale. So we love nerding out on this
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. I think it's fair to say that
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: we're fans of the metric system, but we are not
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: measurement experts ourselves. So we were all Noel Maxima. We're
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: all surprised to learn that the US has often had
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: brushes with metric modernity. The mission of Tommy J. Continues apace.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty six, Congress did authorize the use of
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the metric system, and furthermore, they supplied every state with
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: a set of standard metric weights and measures that every
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: state apparently just.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Ignored, yeah, completely. In eighteen seventy five, the United States
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: signed the Convention do Meta Established It. That is a
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: very interesting name for a United States treaty establishing an
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: international body to maintain metric standards. In eighteen ninety three, however,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: all weights and measures used or defined with respect to
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: metric standards. So a pound is officially defined as point
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: four five three five nine two three seven kilograms, and
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: which is why, yeah, exactly in one yard is point
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: nine one four four meters.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Again, come on, you know what I mean, I feel
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: like Thomas Jefferson difficult.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: So then there is in nineteen seventy five, and there's
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: some great MPR pieces about this as well. In nineteen
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: seventy five there's the Metric Conversion Act. And the Metric
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Conversion Act is the one that is going to get
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: us on the right path. They say, Look, per this Act,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the US is going to use the metric system of
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: measurement as our preferred system of weights and measures for
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: all US trade and commerce. Cool dandy, jolly good, the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: public ignores once again.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: The Act was later amended by the Omnibus Foreign Trade
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: and the Competitiveness Act that's a mouthful of nineteen eighty eight,
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: These Savings in Construction Act of nineteen ninety six, and
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: the Department of Energy High End Computing Revitalization Act of
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: two thousand and four, which were all aimed at pushing
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: the use of the metric system. However, each of these
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: had their own varying degrees of success or lack thereof.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, by which we mean no success exactly.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: It's rough.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: It's still you know. It's hold my yard of beer
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: banana for scale all the livelong day here in the
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: United States. We're not defending British privateers. We're not saying
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: pirates are super funkadelic or whatever.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: But they're objectively pretty cool. The image of them is cool.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: They did some horrific atrocity, yes.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: And they were very dirty, but they also had systems
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: of democracy that were streets ahead rights of the government
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: or the governance you would see in official military vessels.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: What was that island that they had in the Caribbean.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: I want to say, we did an episode Tortuga Tortuga
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: where they had like an excellent system of government that
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: seemed to function quite well. Ben, this is your research brief,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: is it not? This is yeah, very very well done.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: And you end with you leave us with you keep
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: making this reference to banana for scale. Let's go to
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: this Language Nerds site article that you found, which is
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: a series of fun kind of examples that show Americans
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: will measure with anything but the metric system.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what are my favorites? And you can find all
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: kinds of lists like this. Now that we've redeemed pirates,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: it's not their fault that the US is not on
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: board with the metric system.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: They did, they were not They were naughty.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: They did capture probably kill that guy, but we wanted
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: to spend just a little time Palin about having some
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: fun with this weird notion that here in America we
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: will use any kind of made up measurement system other
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: than the metric system.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: It's a grudge thing. It's very weird. I don't think
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: we fully unpacked that aspect. I think we've hinted at it,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: but I think it's still TBD as to where the
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: long standing beef is. To your point about the pirates,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: we've sort of debunked that a little bit, but yet
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: it continues this avoidance, this absolute rejection. It would seem
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: culturally of the metric system. I think maybe the people
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: think it's too European.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's it. I bet you there's some xenophobia wrapped up.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: There's probably just the inertia as well. Critical mass is
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a hell of a drug, yes, right. So. One of
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: my favorite examples in this Language Nerds collection is a
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: picture of a toilet bowl. There's a real avertisement and
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the picture of the comde you'll see a sign advertising
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: this is real, it's accommodations. Yeah, it says flush is
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: seven billiard balls in a single flush. Why can't you
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: just say what it is in the metric system billiard
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: ball sized poops? You know what, Maybe that's it.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Those are some heavy poops, seriously, man, And can we
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: also just take a moment to talk about just like
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: the idea of the foot, like it's sort of the
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: length of an average foot kind of human foot, but
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: also not. It's just I don't know, using that term
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: has always thrown me because one of these images you
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: found in this article is that no measuring tape, no problem,
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: your body will do approximately six feet two inches long.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: And once again a foot of a human is approximately
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: the length of a foot of the measurements. Right.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's weird too, because you know that opens the
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: door for, like we were saying, arbitrary systems of measurements,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: where let's say the king says we're measured in feet
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: and the foot is based on my foot, and then
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: the king dies, right, we got a new king footing foot.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Another way, a sinkhole roughly the size of six to
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: seven washing machines or.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Two to three Honda odyssees, two to three Honda odyssees.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, and then things like oh, this is the smallest mammal,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the bumblebee bad weighs less than one coin.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: What's what coin? What denomination? What are you talking about? America? God,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: get off your high horse. We've got shop with space.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Give everyone four hangars of distance. I wish I had
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: that extra closet space. I think this is a callback
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: to maybe COVID times, a clever use of COVID social
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: distancing stickers, some of which you still see in like
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: subway stations and train stations, et cetera, but using it
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: as like an advertisement in hashtag in this together. Yes,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: shop with space and these hangars, though, I gotta say,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: ben are weirdly misshapen. These seem like it's absurdly squashed
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: and long hangers.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: That's true. It feels like somebody got lazy in photoshop
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: just a little bit. But they're they're doing their best,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: and they helpfully provide the real explanation of six feet,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: but they don't say the meters at all. They just
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: have these four, as you said, deformed coat hangers. Give
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: everyone four deformed coat hangers of distance.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Got a great sweet from San Miguel's sheriff here describing
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: a traffic what do you call it? Obstruction? Large boulder.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: The size of a small boulder is complete. What you
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: could have at least had a large boulder the size
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: of several small boulders still absurd, but at least a
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: little better, because is it not just a small boulder
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: at this point, it's completely blocking eastbound lane Highway one
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: forty five? What the heck? Sam Miguel Sheriff.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Adult deer are as tall as a bicycle. They weigh
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: as much as eight hundred hamburgers.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: That's really helpful that by that I mean not helpful
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: at all.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Ah, yes, yeah, I agree. We've got this helpful quote
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: unquote helpful explanation explaining to the average person in the
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: US how long six feet.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Is, which is already like the medadness of this. His
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: six feet is already absurd the concept, right, So now
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: let's just measure it with other absurd things. We got
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: roughly three clarinets, okay.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: M hm oh, one trombone if the slide is extended.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Which is a very important caveat one flagpole but come on, now,
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: that doesn't even make sense. What kind of flagpole one
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: in the in the a school yard has way longer
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: than six feet, taller than six feet? What are we
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: talking like a color guard flagpole very unclear? Or one marimba, Oh,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: of course marimba, the marimba system and marimba's length, yes, okay,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: and then of course three trumpets.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: And then they've got one joke that might give you
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: a chuckle. They say six feet is also the distance
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: one trumpet player, leaving room for ego.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: That's funny. Yeah, trumpet players notoriously into themselves is I
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: don't know about this. I don't know man Miles Davis was,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: that's for sure.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But also any musician at that level, no matter
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: what they play, is going to be like that. Right.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: I've met some particularly cocky marimba players in my day.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Really. Oh yeah, there's just something snooty about them.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: The worst.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: I will say, Okay, this is not a personality stereotype,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: but I will say, you've spent time in Nashville too.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: There is an aura about pedal steel players because it's yeah,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: especially the old timers. Yeah, they got a specific instrument
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: that can be difficult to learn. And when you see
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Nashville is rife with beautiful music. When you see a
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: banding together to play in Nashville, often the pedal steel
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: guy kind of shows up at the last minute, does
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: his bit and ghost because he's going to play for
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: another band.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Very true. It's a very hot commodity, the pedal steel player.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Because to your point, Bent, it's not something that your
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: average musician can just pick up from scratch. It definitely
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: requires a certain set of skills. And why don't one
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: for this last one bring it home to a flyer
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: from our very own Explored Georgia organization. He's encouraging, you know,
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: finding the outdoors here in the beautiful state of Georgia,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: which is in fact quite beautiful this time of year.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Let's explore Georgia's safely once again social distancing. Let's stay
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: six feet apart aka one deer's length. Fun fact, the
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: white tailed deer is the official mammal of the state
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: of Georgia.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Beautiful. I've got to shut out one more please. It's
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: from our friends at Wisconsin.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: At the State of Wisconsin.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, for ten years, Wisconsin has recycled three hundred and
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: twenty five million pounds of electronics. That's the combined weight
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: of the Eiffel Tower, ten blue whales, the Brooklyn Bridge,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: and five Statues of Liberty. They could have just used kilograms.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: They could have just said a ton, and if they
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: wanted to be metric about it, they could have said
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: a metric ton.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, one metric ton is a thousand kilograms.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: God, it makes sense. Whole numbers, guys, whole numbers, and.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Everybody else just calls it a ton. But here in
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the US we call it a metric ton because.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: USA weird man, yeah weird. Still still can't quite wrap
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: my head around it, but maybe it's not for us
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: to understand. But Ben, thank you for this incredible research
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: on this topic. I think we shed a lot of
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: light on it, and as much as we made it even.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Murkier, big big things of course, to our super producer
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: mister Max Williams, his biological bro Alex Williams, who composed.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: This track true, Chris Frasciotis and he's Jeff cot Here
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: in spirit, Jonathan Strickland, the quiz or a j Bahamas,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: Jacob's the Puzzler.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Rachel Big Spinach, Lance, the Rude Dudes, a ridiculous crime.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: We shouted out the twister just a second ago. I
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: guess we'll do it one more time, may as well? Yeah, okay,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: shout out.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: We don't summon him Strickland.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we can't say it three times.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: End the shows, the show, at the show.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: We'll see you next type books. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.