Wait, WHAT?
Via ScienceAlert: Pirates are to blame for why the US doesn’t use the metric system –
In 1793, botanist and aristocrat Joseph Dombey set sail from Paris with two standards for the new “metric system”: a rod that measured exactly a metre, and a copper cylinder called a “grave” that weighed precisely one kilogram.
He was journeying all the way across the Atlantic to meet Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson – a fellow fan of base-ten systems who, Dombey hoped, would help persuade Congress to go metric.
Then a storm rolled in, knocking Dombey’s ship off course. The unlucky academic was washed into the Caribbean – and straight into the clutches of British Pirates.
Technically, they were “privateers” because they were tacitly sanctioned by His Majesty’s government so long as they only raided foreign ships. But it amounted to the same thing.
The brigands took Dombey hostage and looted his equipment. The luckless scientist died in prison shortly after his capture; his belongings were auctioned off to the highest bidders.
Hat tip: Instapundit
