Measuring America
by Andro Linklater · first published 2002
4mentions
2recommended by
3HN commenters
2012–2023first – last mentioned
67% recommend33% neutral
Linklater's fascinating, provocative and eye-opening story of why America has ended up with its unique system of weights and measures, is explained in this volume that also shows how it has shaped the culture and country.
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…one way or the other, or interested themselves in engaging in land speculation, so were less than honest in their surveys. Anyone interested in this fascinating history should read Andro Linklater's Measuring America.
on “A Sloppy Land Surveyor Almost Caused a War Between Missouri and Iowa” ↗Also recommend Measuring America, very readable history of the American survey. http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8989073835&...
on “NASA releases stunning photos of Earth at night” ↗Andro Linklater in Measuring America says this is one of the great tragedies of forcibly relocating Native Americans from their traditional lands: the loss of the oral histories bound to routes and landmarks on those lands. So the theory…
on “Fresh look at mysterious Nasca lines in Peru” ↗…system took hold in the U.S. instead. However, If pirates hadn’t intercepted Dombey on his way to Philadelphia, the situation might be very different today. As historian Andro Linklater writes in his book Measuring America, > “The sight [in Congress] of those two copper objects [Dombey’s meter and grave], so easily copied and sent out to every state in the Union, together with the weighty scientific arguments supporting…
on “Where Did the Carter White House's Solar Panels Go? (2010)” ↗