I got this from: http://zapatopi.net/labs/kibioctets.html "In 1884, the Lord Kelvin had the following to say about inadequate measurement systems:"
Here I went to their source and expanded the quote from Lord Kelvin in his address "A Lecture Delivered Before The Academy Of Music, Philadelphia, Under The Auspices Of The Franklin Institute, 29 September, 1884, printed in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, November 1884, 118: 321-341.": "You, in this country, are subjected to the British insularity in weights and measures; you use the foot and inch and yard. I am obliged to use that system, but I apologize to you for doing so, because it is so inconvenient, and I hope all Americans will do everything in their power to introduce the French metrical system. I hope the evil action performed by an English minister whose name I need not mention, because I do not wish to throw obloquy on any one, may be remedied. He abrogated a useful rule, which for a short time was followed, and which I hope will soon be again enjoined, that the French metrical system be taught in all our national schools. I do not know how it is in America. The school system seems to be very admirable, and I hope the teaching of the metrical system will not be let slip in the American schools any more than the use of the globes. I say this seriously: I do not think any one knows how seriously I speak of it. I look upon our English system as a ! wickedly brain-destroying piece of bondage under which we suffer. The reason why we continue to use it is the imaginary difficulty of making a change, and nothing else; but I do not think in America that any such difficulty should stand in the way of adopting so splendidly useful a reform." [Source: http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/papers/wave_theory_of_light.html] Jim
