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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that takes the measure of history one day

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Speaker 1: at a time. I'm Gaye B. Lousier, and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're looking at the origins of the metric system, an

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Speaker 1: invention that made human life a whole lot simpler, even

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Speaker 1: if there are still a few holdouts. The day was

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Speaker 1: April seventh. The basis for the metric system was officially

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Speaker 1: defined and adopted by the revolutionary government of France. The

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Speaker 1: French First Republic had formed three years earlier following the

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Speaker 1: fall of the monarchy when King Louis the sixteen was

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Speaker 1: dethroned and are executed. The revolution offered a rare chance

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Speaker 1: to upend old societal habits and traditions, and that included

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Speaker 1: the country's confusing system of measurement. At the time, France

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Speaker 1: used thousands of different units of measure, including almost four

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Speaker 1: hundred different ways to measure the area of land. It

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Speaker 1: was much the same in other countries and had been

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Speaker 1: since action times. Units of measure were derived from parts

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Speaker 1: of the human body, the length and width of feet, hands, arms, elbows, thumbs,

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Speaker 1: you name it. The problem was people have different sized

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Speaker 1: body parts. In case you haven't noticed, local forms of

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Speaker 1: measure were also derived from other variable factors, such as

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Speaker 1: the width of the looms used by a certain town

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Speaker 1: or how much land a man can work in a day.

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Speaker 1: In practice, this meant the ways to measure length and

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Speaker 1: weight varied not only between countries, but across regions of

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Speaker 1: the same country, and even from town to town or

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Speaker 1: house to house. So when the French Republic finally wrestled

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Speaker 1: power from the monarchy, it decided to throw out all

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Speaker 1: the local units of measure in France and instead start

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Speaker 1: fresh with a formal system based on multiples of ten. However,

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Speaker 1: devising a standardized system of measurement was no easy task.

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Speaker 1: In fact, it took the nation's leading scientific thinkers about

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Speaker 1: seven years to develop it. Part of the challenge was

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Speaker 1: finding a way to express new measures in terms of

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Speaker 1: logic and nature, rather than local customs and other variable factors.

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Speaker 1: The scientists needed a natural physical unit on which to

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Speaker 1: build their new system, a point of reference for length

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Speaker 1: that wouldn't change over time. Eventually, the group settled on

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Speaker 1: using the length of one ten million of the distance

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Speaker 1: between the north pole and the equator passing through Paris.

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Speaker 1: That very specific length later became known as the meter,

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Speaker 1: the fundamental base unit for what would later become the

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Speaker 1: metric system. The only problem was that no one actually

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Speaker 1: knew how long that distance was. It had never been

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Speaker 1: measured before, so what followed was a grueling six year

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Speaker 1: survey to figure out exactly how long a meter was.

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Speaker 1: That task was spearheaded by French astronomers and mathematicians named

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Speaker 1: Pierre Machane and Jean Baptiste de Lambre. Machane traveled south

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Speaker 1: to Barcelona, Spain, and de Lambre headed north to Dunkirk, France.

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Speaker 1: Once the men were in position, they set to work

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Speaker 1: taking measurements across their respective cities. Sometimes the work took

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Speaker 1: them to strange places, like the middle of busy streets

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Speaker 1: or the tops of churches. Getting in everyone's way didn't

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Speaker 1: win them any friends, but the data they gathered eventually

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Speaker 1: allowed Machine and de Lambre to measure the meridian arc

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Speaker 1: between Barcelona and Dunkirk. With that they would be able

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Speaker 1: to extrapolate the distance between the north pole and the equator.

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Speaker 1: That would yield an exact value for one ten million

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Speaker 1: of that distance, the true distance of a meter. Getting

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Speaker 1: to that point would take the pair another few years,

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Speaker 1: and in the meantime other members of the French Academy

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Speaker 1: of Sciences set to work on fleshing out and formalizing

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Speaker 1: the rest of the system. The base unit's name, the meter,

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Speaker 1: came from the Greek word metron, which means measure. By

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Speaker 1: sevente four, other new units had been derived from the meter,

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Speaker 1: thus creating an entire metric or metric system. This early

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Speaker 1: form of the system was outlined in Article five in

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Speaker 1: the Constitution of the French First Republic on April seven

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Speaker 1: of that year. They're the scientists provided definitions for the

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Speaker 1: five new units of measure to be used throughout all

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Speaker 1: of France. These included the meter for length, the leader

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Speaker 1: for capacity, the gram for mass, and the hour for

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Speaker 1: the area of land. There was also a unit called

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Speaker 1: the steer, which was used exclusively for measuring the volume

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Speaker 1: of stacked firewood. It doesn't get as much use these days.

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Speaker 1: Defining the units in mathematical terms was a crucial step,

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Speaker 1: but in order for them to be of use to

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Speaker 1: the general public, they needed to be more tangible. In

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Speaker 1: June of sevent de l'ambre and machine finally presented their findings,

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Speaker 1: and the length of a standard meter became a point

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Speaker 1: of fact. Soon, physical representations of the meter and the

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Speaker 1: kilogram were created out of platinum. These embodiments of the

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Speaker 1: new units were then adopted as the legal standards for

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Speaker 1: all measurements in France. If there was ever a question

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Speaker 1: of exactly how long a meter was or how much

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Speaker 1: a kilogram ways, these objects would be the answer. The

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Speaker 1: hope was that the new system would be adopted smoothly,

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Speaker 1: not just by the French public, but in all countries.

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Speaker 1: That hope was reflected in the system's motto, for all people,

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Speaker 1: for all time. The motto never quite came true, but

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Speaker 1: more than two centuries later, it's pretty close. Today, the

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Speaker 1: metric system is the official system of measurement for every

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Speaker 1: country in the world except three Liberia, Mean mar and

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Speaker 1: of course the United States. But even in those countries,

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Speaker 1: the metric system is still the standard used for global trade,

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Speaker 1: and most citizens have at least a passing understanding of

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Speaker 1: metric units. It's a little annoying to have just three

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Speaker 1: countries as holdouts, but old customs and economies can be

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Speaker 1: tough to shake. That was the case even in late

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Speaker 1: eighteenth century France, where the system was born. Despite all

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Speaker 1: the years of hard work and planning that went into

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Speaker 1: crafting a standard system of measurement, most people in France

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Speaker 1: at the time were reluctant to use it. They preferred

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Speaker 1: the ways of measuring they were used to, the ones

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Speaker 1: they had grown up with that were tied to the

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Speaker 1: places where they lived. This commitment to the old ways

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Speaker 1: endured in rural areas, but in Paris, police inspectors were

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Speaker 1: sent to the city's market places to make sure the

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Speaker 1: metric system was being used. That militant approach worked well

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Speaker 1: for a while, but any progress they made was eventually

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Speaker 1: undone in eighteen twelve, when Napoleon threw out the whole system.

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Speaker 1: It continued to be taught in schools, but officially people

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Speaker 1: were allowed to use whichever units of measure they pleased.

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Speaker 1: That reversion to the old ways proved to be short lived,

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Speaker 1: as the metric system was reinstated in eighteen forty and

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Speaker 1: has been in wide use ever since. Many historians believed

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Speaker 1: that France was only able to implement a new system

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Speaker 1: of measurement because the country was in the midst of

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Speaker 1: a revolution, where many other aspects of society and government

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Speaker 1: were being changed as well. Similarly, when England adopted the

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Speaker 1: metric system in the nineteen seventies, it was also going

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Speaker 1: through a period of political upheaval. I'm not suggesting that

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Speaker 1: anyone so political and social discord in Liberia, Myanmar or

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Speaker 1: the US, but if it happened to come about naturally,

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Speaker 1: it might be a good time for fans of the

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Speaker 1: metric system to make their move. I'm Gabelusier and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: he did yesterday. If you have a second and you're

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Speaker 1: the show on Apple Podcasts, or you can send your

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Speaker 1: feedback directly to us at this Day at I heart

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Speaker 1: media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another Day in History class. M