i live in a 1776 big old city, i knew there was going to be measurement problems when they went form the chain standard to the foot 1 inch style. ben franklin did not want to change all those public records to the 1 inch rule. a little lesson here for the ansi worshippers.
In 1959, the
National Bureau of Standards finally tackled troubling issues with minor measurement variations between countries.
While it would be some time yet before issues between the use of metric measurements and what is now called the U.S. standard system of measurement, long-overdue changes were finally underway.
In place of the meter came the yard. In place of the kilogram came the pound. The inch developed when the yard was determined to measure 0.1944 meters or three feet. At first, an inch measured 25.4 millimeters.
In fact, the American Standards Association (1933) and NASA (1952) had already adopted the 25.4mm inch prior to the ratification of the 1959 ISM.
How long would it take before the United States landed upon the modern measurement of a precisely 12-inch foot? According to
one metric system historian, it would take four iterations of the inch before the foot itself became a solidly established unit of measurement.
