ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 1, 1996 TAG: 9612030033
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: RANDOLPH E. SCHMID ASSOCIATED PRESS
Whatever happened to the U.S. metric system?
Virtually every nation measures the universe in meters and grams, but Americans still love their feet, pounds and ounces. That despite the fact that metric was adopted as the official U.S. system of measurement more than 100 years ago.
States have tried posting highway speed limits in kilometers per hour. We didn't like it. Someone tried to get service stations to dispense liters of gasoline. Sorry, we'll keep our gallons. Water freezes at zero degrees Celsius? Forget it.
Yet, there has been some progress in the move to metric. In trade and business, the change is zipping along: Think of 35 millimeter film or soft drinks sold in 1- and 2-liter bottles.
But in cultural areas, like displaying temperatures or speed limits: ``We've gotten nowhere,'' said Gerard Iannelli of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose job it is to assess such things.
Technically, the United States does use the metric system: It's been the nation's official system since 1893. The pound and foot and so forth legally are defined merely as fractions of the official kilogram and meter.
But most Americans prefer to ignore the official system in favor of weights and measures that are relics of when this was a British colony. Somehow, inch and foot and mile seem to trip easily off the American tongue, which stumbles over liter, meter and gram.
In terms of the family of nations, America's only kin on the metric issue are Liberia and Burma.
Periodically, educators or bureaucrats or reformers try to nudge the nation along the metric path, normally with little success.
The 1975 Metric Conversion Act required federal agencies to use the system whenever possible in business activities, though exemptions have been granted.
``I think what happened in the 1970s effort was they tried to change everything at once and had tremendous cultural resistance to changing things that deal with everyday life and traditions,'' Iannelli said.
Today, economic self-interest seems to be slowly working. Change often passes unnoticed.
Anyone who reads nutrition labels contemplates milligrams - a metric measure - daily. Soft drinks are routinely sold in 1- and 2-liter containers. Wine and liquor bottles long ago were changed to metric sizes. And cars and other products seeking to compete overseas generally are made to metric specifications.
Yet metric has failed to take hold in what Iannelli calls ``cultural areas, where we have an ingrained culture, tradition, habit.'' Meat and potato salad, for example, still are sold by the pound, and other items by the bushel or the dozen.
``Let's say I went to buy a pound of hamburger and I found the store selling it in kilograms,'' Iannelli said. ``I'd be a little startled and rather worried.''
Indeed, that was Americans' reaction a few years ago when some service stations sought to market gasoline in liters - resistance was loud until gallons returned.
Largely because the public didn't want the change and partly because of the $200 million cost, Congress also last year eliminated a requirement that road signs be in metric.
``The feeling was, and this was almost universal, that Americans simply weren't ready to think in terms of metric system numbers,'' said Jeff Nelligan, spokesman for the House Transportation Committee.
Nevertheless, some states still are installing metric signs with overlays showing speeds and distances in miles. They expect that someday, the mile overlays will simply be peeled away.
That seems a distant possibility. But with new generations, things do change.
Teaching of the metric system is on the increase, generally in junior high schools, said Gail Burrill, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
``It's very useful for measurement, and people rarely disagree with it'' for that, she said. But some students and teachers have problems with temperatures in Celsius.
``This time, if we are ever going to sell the public, educate them, it's got to be done in a nonthreatening way,'' Iannelli said.
``We're really talking about a new language, and do you then give up your old language? A lot of people fear giving up language they know.''
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