What circumstances during the French Revolution permitted the metric system to gain a foothold?
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Answer:
One of the great under-appreciated stories of our growth in knowledge as a species is that of our development, in modern history, of a standardised mathematical language of measurement: the International System of Units, also known as the SI. Since at least the days of the 19th Century engineer Joseph Whitworth, who introduced some of the earliest widely-used engineering standards, there has been a consistent and necessary movement towards greater standardisation: the consolidation of existing standards into fewer, more rational ones, and the ever more widespread adoption of these rational standards. In Whitworth’s time, the problem was nonstandard fastener sizes causing unnecessary difficulties in the maintenance of steam engines (until 1841, the rail companies had all used different-sized screw threads, causing predictable frustration). Standardisation is, of course, unsexy, but it is a cornerstone of civilised existence in the age of industry, and it has become only more important since Whitworth’s day.