The system of weights and measures in France at the close of the eighteenth century was chaotic. There were different standard units of length in each province and there was a different method of measurement for each trade. An influential French geographer, Charles La Condamine (1701-1774), strongly advocated an international standard system of measurement but died sixteen years before anything was done to follow up on his suggestions.

On May 8, 1790, the French National Assembly finally decreed there would be reform, and the Academy of Sciences established a commission to consider what the new set of units should be. One of the committee members was Pierre-Simon Laplace, who was known as the "Newton of France." Another, Gaspard Monge, was a personal friend of Napoleon.

Committee Chairman Joseph-Louis Lagrange made a convincing argument to the commission that the new system should be based on decimals, suggesting that each...