Why doesn’t the USA use the metric system? Pirates are the answer, apparently

Have you ever wondered why the logical metric system isn’t used in the US? Well, there’s a bizarre story behind it and it involves pirates.

When the United States was still in its formative stages, the haphazardly run new states didn’t use the same systems of measurement. A pound in New York could weigh less than a pound in Virginia.

The problem was so great that, in 1790, President George Washington said in his first State of the Union address that “uniformity in the currency, weights and measures of the United States is an object of great importance”.

Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson proposed a system in which all measurements would be divisible by 10, making an inch a 10th of a foot and so on. After seeing a similar system in France that would evolve into the metric system, he invited French scientist Joseph Dombey to sail to the US in 1793 with “a small metallic cylinder with what looked like a handle on top. This was the official ‘kilogram’ and weighed one kilogram”.

Jefferson planned to use it to demonstrate the metric system to Congress and get it approved for the US, writes Dan Lewis in his book, N ow I Know: The Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?!

Unfortunately, Dombey’s ship was blown off course towards the Caribbean, and British pirates captured him, imprisoning him for the rest of his life. The official kilogram didn’t arrive, and the US moved on, embracing the current, imperial system instead.

This is just one of 100 quirky, little-known facts packed inside Lewis’ book.

The metric system does make a lot more sense. Damn pirates!

DISNEY LAND’S CHICKEN HACK

Walt Disney has long used adorable mice, dogs and other animals to endear children and adults to his wonderful world. But his company uses chickens for an entirely different purpose.

Walt Disney World strategically places eight flocks of the birds, known as “sentinel chickens” around its theme park to deflect mosquitoes from biting humans

Park staffers regularly test the chickens for any mosquito-borne illnesses, such as zika, so they can act quickly and secure the park if any serious diseases are detected.

Spare a thought for the brave chickens.

WARNING LABELS ON MATTRESSES

The message on mattress labels in the US declaring not to remove them under penalty of law isn’t for you.

In the days way before memory foam, mattress manufacturers stuffed them with items you wouldn’t want to remember.

“(In the early 20th century), mattresses were often constructed with some unsavoury stuffing, (including) horse hair, corn husks, food waste, old rags and newspaper.”

To combat this, a law was passed, requiring mattress manufacturers to print what was inside them on the infamous label, and inspectors would spot-check them at the factory.

The problem was, after the spot check, manufacturers would rip off the label. So another law was passed, making it illegal to remove the tag “prior to the time any textile fibre product is sold to the consumer”.

The new book features 100 fun facts.

Sneaky light bulb hack.

LIGHT BULBS IN SUBWAY STATIONS

Ever try to steal a light bulb from the subway in the US? If you did, you probably wound up with glass in your face.

To prevent theft, subway light bulbs are threaded left-handed instead of right-handed. But even if you know this in advance and unscrew them the correct way, they still won’t work anywhere but in the subway.

SPELLING NEW YORK’S VERRAZZANO BRIDGE

The spelling of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York has been controversial ever since the decision was made to name it for Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1958.

“Opponents of the name change decided to redirect their argument toward the spelling – specifically, the number of z’s,” Lewis writes. Meanwhile, the Italian-American community fought back, lobbying to make the two-z spelling standard.

After two years of contentious debate, Governor Nelson Rockefeller gave the one-z crowd their way, signing the single-z version into law in 1960.

But the fight didn’t stop there.

An online petition in 2016 demanded that “the bridge be renamed with the correct spelling of the explorer’s name”.

It wasn’t until October 2018 that the spelling was officially changed to Verrazzano.

And yet, remnants of the alternative spelling abound. “Today, there are dozens of businesses and even a public school in the area that bear the name ‘Verrazano’, ” Lewis writes.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission