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How Pirates Thwarted America’s Plan to Go Metric
The true story about how pirates of the Caribbean hijacked the metric system
In the late 1700s, Massachusetts was using feet, gallons, and pounds. But just one state over, New Yorkers were using roedes, okshoofds, and ons to measure goods.
Communication was quickly becoming a nightmare. Since each state decided its own system of measures, people near borders found it impossible to conduct business. Someone would order a hundred pounds of wheat but receive a hundred ponds. It was a mess.
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson wanted the entire country to use a single unified system. He knew France had recently implemented the metric system, and he began thinking this was exactly what the US needed.
France had supported the US through the Revolutionary War, and Jefferson was eager to strengthen ties between the two countries. He wrote a letter to some friends to ask for more details about how the metric system worked. Joseph Dombey, a French scientist, was so excited he grabbed a 1-kilogram piece of copper and a meter stick, then boarded the next ship across the ocean.
But unfortunately, Dombey never made it to America.
Dombey’s vessel ran into a storm and veered off course, accidentally passing through the Caribbean Sea. Before the captain could realize they were in dangerous waters, it was too late. They had already been spotted by the infamous pirates of the Caribbean who received support from the London government.
Upon recognizing Dombey as a French dignitary, the pirates imprisoned him on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. But when they accidentally killed Dombey before the French could arrange a ransom for his release, the pirates resorted to holding the kilogram and meter stick hostage.
Since the French viewed their weights and measures as sacred objects, the pirates knew they could demand an exorbitant fee to have them returned. Two years after the French retrieved their measuring instruments, they sent another scientist to explain their…
