How the Metric System Was Stolen

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Two names that are synonymous with the birth of the United States.

They've been immortalized in paintings, books, movies, and Broadway musicals.

Over the past 250 years, they've become American myths.

But in the 1790s, they were still just men, desperately trying to figure out what the newly formed United States should be.

dealing with their own biases and insecurities while fiercely debating each other about the future of the country and where it stood on the global stage.

This is the story of how two of the most influential people in U.S.

history thought they had figured out how to turn America into one of the world's major economies.

That is, until a pair of nation-defining revolutions on two continents intersected with a band of marauding pirates in the Caribbean.

And a robbery on the high seas changed everything.

Most notably, the way we measure the world around us.

On today's episode, How the Metric System Was Stolen, this is a twist of history.

It's January 8th, 1790, at Federal Hall in New York City, the interim capital of the United States.

George Washington, the first President of the United States, sits alone in a small back room trying to block out the noise coming from the main chamber while he reads over the speech he's about to give.

But Washington can't stop his hands from shaking.

He spent the majority of his adulthood facing life and death situations on the battlefield.

He's a hero of the American Revolution, a legendary general, and he's viewed as the symbol of newfound American freedom and strength.

But none of that has made him a good public speaker.

He could inspire his soldiers in battle, but that isn't the same as making a speech to a room packed full of politicians.

And that's exactly what he has to do today.

Because the noise in the main chamber of Federal Hall is coming from members of the fledgling United States Congress.

For the first time in American history, a president's going to make a joint statement to both chambers of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

George Washington is about to deliver the first State of the Union address.

In the back room, Washington hears the sound from the main chamber getting louder.

He feels his heart racing.

He's known as a clear-headed leader who isn't prone to exaggeration.

Still, sitting there, he believes this one speech could affect the future of his nation and the world.

The American Revolutionary War, in which the 13 American colonies split from Great Britain to form their own country, ended seven years earlier.

But it took time to establish a form of federal government that all of the colonies, now called states, could agree on.

Colonial leaders simply didn't know what a government devoid of the British monarchy should even look like.

But in 1788, after years of development, the newly formed United States ratified the Constitution, leading to the creation of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidency.

In April of the following year, George Washington was inaugurated as the country's first president, which means he's only been in office for eight months.

Washington's first major public speech as president was eight months earlier at his inauguration, and that didn't go nearly as well as he or other political leaders had hoped.

People respected the content of Washington's speech and his optimism about America's future, but his delivery just fell flat.

This man, who the masses idolize, spoke in a quiet, nervous voice, and his hands trembled.

Washington hears footsteps echoing in the hallway.

He looks up from his papers and sees an aide walk into the room.

In a low, serious voice, the aide tells the president, it's time.

Washington stands and collects himself.

He straightens his dark knee-length coat and smooths his waistcoat.

This is his standard suit for political situations, and Washington definitely looks the part of a politician.

At 6'2, he's tall for the time period.

And with just a month until his 58th birthday, his face has started to wrinkle and his reddish-brown hair is going gray.

He also adds white powder to his hair, which is fashionable for men of his standing at the time.

The overall effect gives him an air of experience and wisdom, two traits most people agree he possesses.

But Washington will never feel as comfortable in this suit as he did in his military uniform.

The sound from the main chamber continues to get louder until Washington enters and then everyone stands and breaks into applause.

Washington takes a spot at the front of a large room with high arched ceiling and tall windows draped with large crimson curtains.

He looks out at the packed chamber, filled with the 90 members of Congress, state politicians, and foreign dignitaries.

While Washington doesn't like public speaking, he's a skilled writer, and he's worked hard on crafting the speech.

He knows at this point the United States is trying to define itself, because everything is new.

The relationship between the President, Congress, and the court is still being worked out.

At the same time, The states all have their own ideas about the future of the country, and they don't always agree.

In fact, New York's serving as an interim national capital because of an ongoing debate between the states.

Some leaders want the capital to remain in New York, some think it should move back to Philadelphia, which housed the colonial government during the Revolutionary War.

And others believe the nation's capital should be moved to an entirely new, impartial site that wouldn't be its own territory and not in a state at all.

George Washington kept these concerns and other state rivalries in mind when writing his address, and he's eager to create a sense of unity among congressional leaders.

But he knows none of that'll matter if his speech doesn't land.

The applause dies down.

The senators and congressmen take their seats, and Washington begins.

As soon as he starts speaking, it's clear this won't be a repeat of his inauguration.

He might be nervous, but he's not showing it like last time.

His hands have stopped shaking, and his voice is steady and even rousing at times.

Washington says all the states must fight for the common good of the country, and he says America will become a home for scientific and artistic innovation.

And together, they'll build a strong military and create a stable, robust economy.

The chamber erupts in applause again, and Washington takes a deep breath.

He knows the next part of his speech isn't flashy, but it's important for him to hammer it home.

Washington looks out at Congress.

He says that in order to build a strong economy, the country has to agree on a universal form of weights and measures.

The United States is so new, it doesn't even have a standard method to weigh and measure things across the states.

The majority of states use an old British system of measurement to weigh and measure everything from agricultural goods to distances on roads.

But this system isn't universal.

This means that in Virginia, an ounce might not weigh the same as it does in Massachusetts, or a foot may be longer in Pennsylvania than it is in New Jersey.

As Washington figured, talking about weights and measures isn't something that instantly brings an audience to their feet.

But he pushes on, and he believes this is a crucial point of his speech.

Because in addition to a lack of universal measurements in the British system, New York is using an entirely different Dutch-based system with measurements like the L, also known as an arm's length.

And all of this has made trade between the states far more convoluted than it should be, and it's made international trade even harder.

Washington wants his new country to be independent and strong.

He believes taking part in world fairs and securing trade deals with European nations can only help build that strength and independence.

But trade has to be efficient.

As Washington talks more about trade, he gets Congress's attention.

And to his surprise, his dry explanation of weights and measurements garners another round of applause.

Washington exhales.

He finishes his speech with a final call for unity.

Another wave of applause echoes through Federal Hall, and Washington walks out of the chamber.

The first State of the Union has been a success.

In the days following the speech, Washington meets with senators and representatives from different states, and the majority of them strongly support his geopolitical view, including his call for universal weights and measures.

They say they want to establish a committee of some of the smartest people in government to determine what that universal standard should be.

And for Washington and Congress, there's only one person to lead that committee.

The author of the Declaration of Independence, who is considered one of the greatest thinkers in the world, Washington's Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson.

It's July 1790, six months after George Washington's State of the Union address.

47-year-old Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson sits playing the violin in a house he's leasing at 57 Maiden Lane, located in what will one day become New York City's financial district.

Jefferson listens to the sound of the violin, and it helps him focus.

It might not look like it to an outsider, but he's hard at work.

Every aspect of the New York house he's living in while serving in George Washington's cabinet is designed to inspire him and help him work more effectively.

He's filled it with paintings and books brought from his beloved home, Monticello, a vast plantation he owns in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Even the chair he's sitting in was chosen with work in mind.

It's a swivel chair, a new piece of furniture in America that Jefferson himself invented.

He plays a series of quick notes on the violin and he feels a twinge of pain shoot through his right wrist.

A few years earlier, he dislocated that wrist while foolishly trying to leap over a fence in Paris, France.

Since then, he doesn't play the violin as often as he used to, but he still picks up the instrument to help him think.

And today, Jefferson has a lot to think about.

He spent the past several months working on advancing Washington's agenda, which includes a plan to establish a universal system of weights and measures for the United States.

He's come up with what he believes is an effective solution.

He just has to make his case to President Washington and then to Congress.

Jefferson understands his idea will take time and resources.

He also knows Washington's a pragmatist when it comes to decisions like this, and the president has been known to accuse him of supporting policies based on emotion and personal biases, like his love of Virginia and France.

Jefferson keeps playing his violin, thinking about the best way to demonstrate to Washington that his idea is sound and that it'll benefit the entire nation.

Suddenly, the solution seems obvious.

He stops playing, puts down the bow and violin, and walks across the room to a table piled with his notes.

Later that afternoon, Jefferson sits in a horse-drawn carriage heading down a cobblestone street towards George Washington's executive residence on Broadway.

Jefferson spends the ride going over his notes a final time, prepping for his meeting with the president.

After riding for less than a mile, Jefferson arrives at the executive residence.

He follows an aide through the sprawling mansion to an office where Washington sits waiting behind a desk.

The two men greet each other and Jefferson sits down across from the president.

Washington and Jefferson share a mutual respect, but they don't always see eye to eye.

In fact, they have very different ideas about the future of the United States.

Washington believes that while working within the confines of the Constitution, the President still has to have significant power and a level of autonomy to effectively lead the country.

Jefferson sees presidential autonomy as a slippery slope.

He wants the bulk of power to reside with the states.

And he worries that if a man who doesn't possess Washington's sense of duty and moral compass were to get elected president, the country could soon find itself back under the rule of a glorified king.

But today, Jefferson doesn't want to argue about any of that.

Instead, he wants to talk about his plans for weights and measures in a way that can excite people.

So he leans into one of his favorite subjects, math.

Jefferson tells Washington that any unified system of measurement can't be made up of a series of arbitrary weights and lengths like the British system.

It has to be rooted in mathematics.

Washington says he agrees.

He and Jefferson have their differences, but Washington has always appreciated Jefferson's love of numbers.

And he knows that Jefferson's understanding of math is what's made him the most vocal proponent of establishing a new American currency system.

It's decimal-based, which means that its main unit, like a dollar for example, can be broken into smaller units by powers of 10.

A dollar would be 10 dimes, a dime would be 10 pennies.

Washington has supported Jefferson's currency idea, which would make the United States the first known decimal-based currency in the world, and he thinks it will soon be adopted by Congress.

So he thinks it's logical that they'd extend this approach to weights and measurements, but he wants to know how they can make that happen efficiently and effectively.

Jefferson knows exactly how they can do that.

He says there's already a very interesting new measurement system being developed in France.

Washington's excitement immediately disappears.

The mere mention of France sucks all the air out of the room.

Like every leader in the U.S.

government, Washington knows that Jefferson loves France.

Jefferson has spent years traveling and even living there.

A number of his ideas about the nature of government, art, and humanity draw direct inspiration from French philosophers.

But it's not Jefferson's love of French philosophy that's completely shifted the mood in the room.

Because right now, France is a major point of contention between these two men for a very different reason.

A year earlier, in 1789, the French Revolution began.

This bloody war is pitting middle and lower class French citizens against the aristocracy and the monarchy.

King Louis XVI and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette.

The call to arms of the French revolutionaries translates to liberty, equality, fraternity, three things Jefferson deeply believes in.

And this call from the people and their hatred of the monarchy has landed him squarely on the side of the revolutionaries.

But Jefferson knows that Washington doesn't see this issue as black and white as he does.

Even if Washington supports the common people, he can't forget the critical role that the French monarchy played in the American Revolution.

France's long-standing rivalry with Britain led King Louis XVI's government to provide significant financial and military aid to the American colonies to help them fight the British.

Without that support, Washington knows that the United States might not even be a country right now.

In the office, Jefferson knows any argument about the revolution will derail the conversation, so he tries to cut it off at the pass.

He says his interest in the French system of measurement has nothing to do with his feelings about the revolution or even the fact that he's a student of French culture.

From everything he's read, which is a lot, this new decimal-based system just makes sense.

And Jefferson argues that once this system catches on in France, which is still one of the most powerful nations in the world despite the burgeoning revolution, there's a strong chance it'll spread across Europe.

He says if the United States wants to strengthen its economy and trade with international partners, it would make sense for them to have the same system that most Europeans will likely adopt.

Washington moles everything over as he looks at Jefferson's full proposal.

He decides this new system is worth exploring and he wants to know the next steps they need to take.

Jefferson says in order to fully understand this new system and to potentially establish it across the country, they need to get a hold of two rare objects, a copper meter and a bronze grav, two handcrafted objects that are the basis for this whole new French system.

Jefferson explains that the meter establishes a universal core length measuring distance, and like Jefferson's concept of the US dollar, the meter can be broken down by powers of 10 to create smaller units of measurement, like a centimeter or millimeter, or expanded to measure larger distances like a kilometer.

And the bronze grav functions the same way but for weighing objects.

But Jefferson says the meter and the grav aren't easy to just get a hold of because this is a new system and there are only six of each in existence.

Of course, with Jefferson's connections in France, he's confident he can have one of each brought to the United States.

Washington tells Jefferson to finalize his report for Congress.

He says if they support it, Jefferson can set things in motion with the French so that some brave soul can sail across the ocean to deliver this rare and precious cargo.

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It's January 13th, 1794.

three and a half years after Thomas Jefferson made his proposal on weights and measures to President George Washington and the United States Congress.

French botanist Joseph Dombey stands on a busy dock in the port city of Lou Auvre, France.

He stares out at a double-masted American ship in the harbor, and he clings to a locked case tucked under his arm.

This is the biggest journey of Joseph's life, because in this case, is a copper meter and a bronze grav, soon to be renamed the kilogram.

And Joseph's been tasked with delivering these prized objects, one of only six sets in existence, directly to the United States Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has become the nation's capital.

Joseph knows that Thomas Jefferson has been in correspondence with counterparts in France for years, trying to make this voyage happen.

But international political matters like this can take a long time even under perfect conditions.

And right now, conditions in France are anything but perfect.

The French Revolution has been raging for over four years, and the war has continued to escalate.

The previous year, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were captured and then publicly beheaded by the guillotine.

Since then, France has been run by a group of revolutionaries, and this new government has now declared war on France's old rival, Great Britain.

and a coalition of other European nations.

Still, amidst all of this turmoil, scientific discovery and innovation has continued in France, and Thomas Jefferson, a known supporter of the Revolution, finally had his request to receive a meter and grav fulfilled a month earlier in December of 1793.

Soon after that, Joseph Dombey wrote to Jefferson personally, expressing how excited he was to meet up with him.

The two men had met years earlier in Paris, and Dombey held Jefferson in high regard.

So as Joseph stands on the dock waiting to board the ship, he can't help but feel a bit of disappointment thinking about that letter.

He knows he won't get to meet with Jefferson, at least not in an official capacity.

Because just weeks after his letter arrived, Thomas Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State.

Over the past several years, Jefferson's disagreements with President George Washington intensified, and Washington regularly sided with his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, when it came to issues regarding the power of the President and the federal government.

Jefferson finally had enough and wanted out.

Still, Joseph knows that President Washington and the United States Congress still believe in Jefferson's ideas about universal weights and measures, and they're awaiting Joseph's arrival.

He hears someone call out on the dock that it's time to board, and he holds his case and other cargo tight as he follows a long line of passengers onto the waiting ship.

Even though the ship belongs to the United States, The majority of the sailors working on board are Spanish.

Joseph watches the sailors effortlessly move across the deck preparing to set sail and he tries to stay calm.

As much as Joseph wants to get to the States, he can't help but feel anxious because he knows that long journey across the ocean doesn't always go as planned.

Joseph is a renowned botanist, and he's sailed to multiple continents and seen more of the world than most people living.

But while sailing, Joseph has encountered disease outbreaks, shipwrecks, war, and angry local villagers.

Ships he's traveled on have been looted, so he's lost irreplaceable scientific discoveries, witnessed gun and knife battles, been captured and imprisoned, and almost died on several occasions.

And now, at the age of 52, adventure on the high seas has finally gotten to be too much for him.

Joseph recently decided to retire and spend his days in France, where he can enjoy his wealth and avoid hazardous ocean journeys for the rest of his life.

But he had taken the commission from the new French government to sail to the United States because, as the French Revolution intensified, he didn't recognize his country anymore and he wanted to escape the violence.

While in the U.S., he's set to discuss agricultural trade between the two countries and to make his special delivery to Congress.

And when he returns home, he hopes things at home will have calmed down and he can finally retire.

Joseph hears the sailors shouting to each other in Spanish, a language he's fluent in, and he knows they're about to depart.

He tells himself there's no point in getting worked up.

The journey across the Atlantic could take anywhere between between 6 and 10 weeks, depending on the wind and weather, and there's no point in worrying about things he can't control.

He walks from the deck to his sleeping quarters and safely stows his locked case containing the meter and graph.

He reminds himself that when the trip across the ocean's over, he'll get to make an important presentation to powerful political allies.

He can pass along everything he knows about the decimal-based method of weighing and measuring that the French government is close to officially adopting.

And to the excitement of Joseph and other French scientists, that method now has a name, the metric system.

It's March 1794, two months after Joseph Dombey set sail from France.

Joseph stands on the deck of the ship, staring out at the sun's reflection on the clear blue water.

Normally, calm waters on a beautiful day would be a welcome sight to Joseph, but today, He feels nervous, because he's not staring out at the Atlantic Ocean like he was when the ship left port.

He's looking at the Caribbean Sea.

Days earlier, a massive storm forced the ship to abruptly change course.

They washed up on the shore of the French-held Caribbean island Guadalupe, where they quickly ran into trouble with the local government who thought they could be enemies.

The whole ordeal has left Joseph feeling sick and on edge.

But right now, It's not even the chaos of the past few days that's really worrying him.

What's causing him to panic is the sight of two ships on the horizon that are quickly cutting through the water towards him.

Because in 1794, the Caribbean Sea is pirate territory.

Bands of pirates sail these open waters, raiding and looting ships for money, weapons, and cargo, while often capturing or killing those on board.

Joseph hears sailors shouting in Spanish as they rush past him and lean over the boat's side to get a better look at the approaching ships.

It's immediately clear they have the same fear as Joseph.

The sailors call out to the captain.

They're sure they're being pursued by pirates.

The captain shouts orders, and the sailors rush to their stations, desperately working the sails to try to alter their course.

But even as the sails catch wind and the ship begins to change direction, Joseph can see that there's no escape.

The ships that are pursuing them are called sloops, and they're built for speed and agility.

Joseph watches in horror as they quickly change course, continue their pursuit, and start barreling across the water.

Joseph shields his eyes from the sun and tries to get a better look at the ships, and he realizes the situation is even worse than he imagined, because the sloops don't belong to just any pirates.

The men aboard those ships are privateers.

That means they're pirates whose raiding and looting is supported by one of the many governments that have financial or military interests in the Caribbean.

And as the two ships get closer, Joseph sees that they're flying the British Union Jack.

The British and French are longtime enemies, and they're currently at war.

Joseph knows that pirates in the employee of Great Britain would like nothing more than to hold a wealthy politically connected French scientist like him for ransom and to steal anything he has in his possession, including the meter and the grav.

The Spanish sailors continue to do everything they can to pick up speed, but it's no use.

The sound of a cannon shot cracks in the air.

It's a warning from one of the sloops, and the captain of Joseph's ship takes it seriously.

He orders the crew to lower their sails.

Joseph understands that the captain hopes if he and his crew cooperate, the pirates will spare their lives and allow them to sail on.

But Joseph can't take any chances.

He knows he'll be a target.

He hears the sailors behind them continuing to shout in Spanish, and he gets an idea.

Joseph flies across the deck and starts peeling off his expensive coat, waistcoat, and breeches as he runs down a set of wooden stairs.

He makes it below deck to the sailors' sleeping quarters and finishes stripping down to his underwear, which is just a long linen shirt.

He scans the room and quickly finds what he's looking for scattered across several cots.

Joseph grabs a workman's shirt and pants, boots, and a cap.

He disguises himself as a sailor as fast as he can, takes a breath, and runs back up the stairs right into a scene of absolute mayhem.

He hears screams in the mix of English, Spanish, and French as the pirates board the ship and storm across the deck with swords, knives, axes, and pistols drawn.

The captain of of the ship shouts for his sailors to stand down, and before Joseph can move, one of the pirates grabs him and slams him onto the deck.

Minutes later, the passengers and sailors have been rounded up, separated, and forced onto their knees.

But Joseph's disguise is working because he's lumped in with the sailors.

A pirate eyes the captives and then starts questioning the sailors one by one in Spanish.

He wants to know about the ship's cargo and what they're doing in the Caribbean Sea.

Joseph listens as each sailor gives basically the same answer.

They set sail from France for the United States across the Atlantic with no special cargo on board, and they had to change course to the Caribbean when a bad storm hit.

The pirate reaches Joseph and asks the same questions.

Joseph looks up, gives the same answer as the other sailors in perfect Spanish, and the pirate walks on.

But suddenly, the pirate stops.

He turns back to Joseph and asks him to repeat what he just said.

Joseph takes a quick breath and responds again, and he immediately knows he's in danger.

Because the pirate turns to his leader and says that this man speaks Spanish with a French accent.

The leader shouts an order.

The pirate grabs Joseph by his shirt, pulls him to his feet, and drags him off towards the passenger's quarters.

Inside Joseph's quarters, the pirate roots through his things and quickly finds Joseph's cargo and his papers.

It's clear now that Joseph isn't just a French passenger.

He's an important scientist with government connections.

The pirate drags Joseph back on deck and puts him with a small group of well-dressed French passengers.

Joseph hears the pirates talking to each other.

He understands that he's a prisoner and he'll be held until the French pay a hefty ransom.

He tries to stay calm.

He's been in more than his share of life-threatening situations.

If he does what's asked, there's a chance French authorities operating in the Caribbean will pay quickly and he can continue on his important journey.

But as he watches the pirates completely loot the ship of money, supplies, and passenger cargo, any hope he has fades.

Because as Joseph watches, a group of pirates break open his locked case, pull out the contents, and admire the copper meter and the bronze grab.

It's May 1794, four months after French botanist Joseph Dombey began his voyage to the United States.

Former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson sits in his office at his Virginia home, Monticello, reading a letter from a French merchant living in New York.

Since leaving George Washington's cabinet, Jefferson has kept busy.

He's drawn up architectural designs for changes he wants to make at Monticello, and he's pursued his passions of art, math, and science, but he hasn't completely left his old life behind.

Jefferson has closely followed all of George Washington's major decisions, and he hoped Congress would move forward in establishing a universal system of weights and measures based on his recommendations.

But Joseph Dombey never arrived in Philadelphia with the meter and the grav, so Congress still hasn't made a decision one way or the other.

Jefferson has spent weeks making inquiries with his connections on both sides of the Atlantic to try to figure out what happened.

And now, reading this letter, he feels like he's finally going to get an answer.

He can tell from the opening lines that this merchant knows Joseph's entire story.

The letter details the pirate raid in the Caribbean Sea and how Joseph was discovered to be a French scientist disguised as a Spanish sailor.

The merchant goes on to write that Joseph was imprisoned by British privateers on the island of Montserrat.

Their intention was to ransom him off to the French government in return for a lot of money.

But while imprisoned, Joseph fell ill and died.

The letter finishes with the news that the meter and grav Joseph was carrying have disappeared.

Even assuming the pirates had no idea what they were, Jefferson knows they could have sold the items at a high price simply for the copper and bronze used in their construction.

Jefferson folds up the letter and tosses it on his desk.

He's heartbroken, and not because of the loss of the meter and grav.

In the letter Joseph wrote to Jefferson before setting sail, he expressed how eager he was to see Jefferson again and to bring the metric system to the United States.

And Jefferson shared that excitement.

Jefferson sits with the image of Joseph, a respected man of science on a journey that Jefferson himself played a part in setting in motion, dying sick and alone.

The one thing Jefferson can still do for Joseph is find the missing meter and grab that Joseph lost his life trying to deliver.

But even with all of Jefferson's connections, after months of inquiries, he can't locate the objects anywhere.

He knows France could send over another set or construct new ones specifically for the United States, but Jefferson no longer has the power he had as Secretary of State to make something like that happen.

On top of that, he's fully aware that the French political situation has continued to spiral out of control.

And so for the time being, Jefferson abandons his quest for the meter and grav, and instead, starts planning his political future.

It's September 1796, over two years after Joseph Dombey's death, President George Washington sits in his office at the the President's house on Market Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

His former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, walks around the room reading aloud from several handwritten pages.

Washington's nearing the end of his second term as president, and the two men are working on his farewell address.

Washington assumes that some people in the government would prefer him to make a grand speech before he leaves office, but he has no intention of doing that.

While he's improved as a public speaker during his time as president, it's still not something he enjoys.

More importantly, he believes his farewell address should be for the entire nation, not just a group of politicians or wealthy Americans who can attend a presidential speech.

To that end, he wants this address to be published in newspapers across the country.

For his part, Hamilton has remained a close advisor to Washington even after resigning from his cabinet a year earlier.

And Washington knows how talented a writer Hamilton is, so the president's been working with his old friend to finalize the address for months.

Washington listens intently as Hamilton reads some of the most recent changes he's made to the draft, and Washington likes what he hears.

He knows he's setting a precedent for future presidents of the United States, not just by leaving office after two terms, but by leaving the American people with his hopes and vision for the future.

After several minutes, Hamilton finishes reading through the draft and Washington commends him on the new changes.

The two men talk a little while longer, and then Hamilton leaves the address on Washington's desk and heads out.

Washington sits alone in silence for a moment.

He strikes a match and lights a candle.

Washington lays out several pieces of blank paper on his desk, picks up his quill, and starts writing his own final draft of the first American presidential farewell in history.

And there's one thing he wants to make clear to the American people and to anyone who might follow in his footsteps as president.

On September 17, 1796, President George Washington's farewell address runs in newspapers across the United States.

On that day, Thomas Jefferson reads it while at Monticello.

From the opening lines, Jefferson is taken with Washington's work, and as he continues to read, he believes this is some of the most effective political writing he's seen in years.

But then he reaches a section of the address and he just stares at the newspaper, stunned.

In this particular section, Washington calls on the American people to avoid creating division based on regionalism and political parties.

He goes on to say that even though the United States needs allies to prosper, the country cannot succumb to undue foreign influence and blind support of other nations.

To most people, this will read like another call for national unity, something that's been common throughout Washington's presidency.

But Jefferson isn't most people.

He recognizes right away that this is a not-so-subtle warning to Jefferson himself.

Jefferson and Washington had fierce fierce debates about the power of the presidency and the federal government ever since the United States was first forming.

And since leaving Washington's cabinet, Jefferson has become a leader of a political party that strongly opposes presidential autonomy, the Democratic-Republicans.

And as war has continued in Europe, Jefferson's remained an avid supporter of France, even as Washington and other leaders have tried to remain neutral.

Jefferson finishes reading the address and sits back in his chair.

He's not angry at Washington's shots at him.

He's impressed.

Washington's smart enough to know that Jefferson could become president someday, and Jefferson sees this as Washington's final attempt to pass on his wisdom and his advice to him.

While Jefferson still doesn't remotely agree with many of Washington's policies, he takes this message to heart.

So much so that it'll play a role in shaping Jefferson's beliefs and how he approaches foreign relations moving forward, even when it comes to things he believes are based in logic, like how things should be weighed and measured.

And that will end any chance of America adopting the metric system for decades to come.

On March 4th, 1801, five years after George Washington's farewell address, Thomas Jefferson became the third president of the United States.

He took office in Washington, D.C., the new nation's capital.

The decision to make D.C.

the United States' permanent capital had actually occurred years earlier, when Jefferson and Hamilton set the plan in motion together during a rare moment of of compromise.

And as president, Jefferson would continue to seek out compromises with rivals when it suited him.

But to the surprise of many, he'd also back away from some of his longtime allies.

By the time Jefferson took office, he still believed in establishing a universal decimal-based system of weights and measures, but he didn't push for the country to adopt the metric system.

Jefferson would give several reasons for this decision.

In the seven years since Joseph Dombey's death, the U.S.

had established trade agreements agreements with a range of foreign nations.

In that time, American farmers and members of the country's nascent manufacturing sector had modified the old British system of weights and measures for use in their daily work.

This lacked the universality across the states and mathematical grounding that Jefferson believed was needed.

Still, he knew a complete and sudden shift in methods would put a significant burden on American farmers and workers.

But ultimately, Thomas Jefferson, who'd long been famous for his love of France, had come to believe that the metric system was even too French for him.

The system's base measurement of length, the meter, was a decimal-based unit, but it had originally been determined by measuring the distance between two points in a French territory.

And Jefferson had decided that the United States shouldn't rely on a measurement so unique to France.

The metric system had also been adopted by a French government born out of the Revolution.

While Jefferson remained a staunch supporter of the Revolution, he now denounced the violence and brutality that leaders of the Revolution had inflicted on their own people after the fall of the monarchy.

In short, Jefferson realized that his support of France couldn't remain unshakable.

He had serious concerns that their new leader, a war hero named Napoleon Bonaparte, was bent on world domination, and George Washington's farewell address had specifically warned against the dangers of blind foreign allegiances.

Jefferson would always admire the culture, but he'd strive to view France no differently than any other foreign power.

To that end, Jefferson continued to fight for a new decimal-based form of measurement, but one that was American in origin.

And the metric system no longer had one of its earliest, most influential supporters.

Further calls to adopt the metric system would emerge in the United States off and on from the 1830s all the way through the 1970s.

But even though roughly 95% of the world now uses the metric system and it's the scientific standard of measurement around the globe, the United States never embraced it.

The meter that Joseph Dombey carried with him was never found.

But some historians suggest that through a series of auctions, his grav, or kilogram, ended up with a well-known American surveyor who was Joseph's contemporary.

Today, that grav is housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland, though nobody can prove definitively if it's the same one Joseph had with them on his fateful journey.

Multiple factors played into the metric system's failure to catch on in the United States.

But there are historians who suggest that if Joseph had made it to Philadelphia and if he could have delivered his precious cargo to Congress, American lawmakers might have embraced the system because they could have held a kilogram in their hands and seen the elegant simplicity of the meter for themselves.

And if Congress had received the meter and grav, they could have reproduced them and sent them across the United States.

Vendors, importers, and exporters could have used them in their day-to-day business, easing the transition into the metric system.

Of course, we'll never know, because a storm led Joseph Dombey's ship off course into the Caribbean Sea.

And a band of pirates stole America's metric system.

From Balin Studios, this is a twist of history.

A quick note about our stories.

They're all heavily researched, but some details and scenes are dramatized.

A Twist of History is hosted by me, Joel Blackwell.

Executive produced by Mr.

Bollin and Zach Levin.

Our head of writing is Evan Allen.

Produced by Perry Kroll.

This episode was written by Mike Federico and Angela Jorgensen.

Story editing by Mike Federico.

Sound design and audio mixing by Colin Lester Fleming.

Post-production supervision by Jeremy Bone and Cole LaCasio.

Research and fact-checking by Abigail Shumway, Camille Callahan, Evan Beamer, Alex Paul, Patricia Nicole Florentino, Calvin Riley-Holgate, Matt Gilligan.

Production coordination by Samantha Collins and Avery Siegel.

Artwork by Jessica Cloxton-Kiner and Robin Vane.

Thank you for listening to A Twist of History.