( HAPTER XI 



Inching Toward the Metric System, 1959-79 



Simon Langley invented the bolometer 



Which is really a kind of thermometer 

 That can measure the heat from a polar bear's seat 



At a distance of half a kilometer. 



— Anonymous . 



Not long before he left the Congress, Chairman Teague on No- 

 ember 27 , 1978, sent a letter to Dr. Louis F. Polk, Chairman of the 

 U.S. Metric Board, defining the policy intent of Congress in the 

 Metric Conversion Act of 1975- Teague stated: 



That policy is to facilitate the conversion to Metric use in our country in order 

 to reduce the total cost and inconvenience to our people. The intent of the Act is 

 that the Metric Board should seek to reduce the time needed to make the conversion 

 and to coordinate the conversion activities so as to achieve the benefits of Metric 

 use sooner and reduce the cost and inconvenience arising from an unduly prolonged 

 period of dual use. Furthermore, the policy is based on the principle of voluntary 

 participation and for that reason the Act specifically states that the Metric Board 

 shall have no compulsory powers, but it is expected to give positive guidance to 

 any and all who voluntarily choose to convert to Metric. 



It was a long struggle, requiring a great deal of patient back- 

 ground work, before the committee exerted the leadership needed to 

 enact legislation in 1968 and 1975 nudging the United States toward 

 metrication. 



The Science Committee was just three months old when the 

 subject came up during oversight hearings which the committee was 

 holding on May 21, 1959. Dr. Allen V. Astin, Director of the National 

 Bureau of Standards, sketched the history of metric legislation in 

 this country, including the much-overlooked 1866 law which firmly 

 stated: 



Be it enacted * * *, That from and after passage of this act it shall be lawful 

 throughout the United States of America to employ the weights and measures of 

 the metric system. 



Dr. Astin volunteered to the committee that the metric system "is 

 the only system of measurement generally authorized for use in this 

 country by act of Congress." He elaborated on the international 



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