Attempts to Adopt The Metric System in the United States to 1907

Alan James Clamp, University of South Carolina

Abstract

Some discussion of the metric system occurred during the early days of the United States through the 1820s, but it did not receive serious consideration as the standard system of measurement for the United States during this period. A serious movement to make the metric system America's standard system of measurement did begin around the Civil War period, however. This movement gradually gained momentum, but it encountered intense opposition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.