![]() ![]() So what was the precious cargo he was to have delivered as a gift to the United States? Two small copper items (of which only six sets existed on Earth at the time)- standards representing a meter and a grave, the latter better known today as a kilogram.Īt the time, the United States, having already become one of the first nations in the world to adopt a decimal, base ten system for currency was strongly considering doing the same with the system of weights and measures to get rid of the hodgepodge of British weights and measures system mixed with others also commonly used throughout the young nation. Dombey was eventually taken to the small Caribbean island of Montserrat where he ultimately died before he could be ransomed. Being French in this situation wasn’t exactly ideal, so at first he attempted to pass himself off as Spanish, but his accent gave him away. And so it was that around the time he was supposed to deliver his precious cargo to Jefferson, he found himself instead at the mercy of British pirates. Unfortunately for Dombey, fate had other intentions and storms pushed the ship he was aboard well of course. ![]() His mission was to meet with Thomas Jefferson and give him two of the rarest items on Earth. In 1793, noted French scientist Joseph Dombey departed Le Havre, France bound for Philadelphia. Finkbonner14 asks: Why doesn’t the United States stop using idiot units and go metric? ![]()
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