This system was created as a result of efforts to standardize in England and the development of regional divisions over time. The actual units have their roots in classical Rome. Now, the International System of Units is gradually replacing traditional units, but in the United States, the inertia of the outdated system and the high cost of migration have mainly stopped the transformation.
The so-called system Imperial was imposed on the United Kingdom at the same time that the continental nations adopted the metric system in an effort to standardize the measuring units, which up until that point had varied from area to region like the rest of the globe. The British units of measurement are frequently different from those of the United States since the United States did the same thing, but they did not follow the same patterns as the old mother nation and were based on a distinct system.
The United States government acquired copies of the standards for the meter and the kilogram devised in France for reference purposes in 1805 and 1820 respectively. In 1866 the United States Congress passed a law making it lawful to use the metric system in the United States.
The bill, which was permissive rather than mandatory, defines the metric system in terms of commonly used units rather than with a reference to the prototype international meter and kilogram.2 : 10–13 3 In 1893, reference standards for common units had become unreliable. On the other hand, the United States, being a signatory to the Meter Convention, was in possession of national prototypes of the meter and the kilogram that were calibrated. This led to the Order of Mendenhall, which redefined the units of the system, referring to the national metric prototypes, but using the conversion factors from the Act of 1866.3: 16–20 In 1896 there was a bill that would make the metric system was required in the United States.
