1873 – A number of gentlemen in New York City founded the American Metrological Society, feeling that a change to the Metric System was needed by civilized nations. 100 years later they’re defunct and gallons, miles, and Fahrenheit rule the US.
http://books.google.com/books?id=DKhPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=american+metrological+society+1873&source=bl&ots=gT8i4uxLl6&sig=OStywp4Jujdjwfuac0vsHqSVCMI&hl=en&ei=j5DhTrDpG8nQiAK6jMWVDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CFoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=american%20metrological%20society%201873&f=false
http://www.archive.org/stream/bulletinamerica00socigoog#page/n1/mode/2up
1913 – Dr William David Coolidge received his patent for improvements in tungsten and methods for making filaments in incandescent lights. It made light bulbs last a lot longer. Too bad that in 1928, GE got a court to declare the patent was not an invention.
1924 – Astronomer Edwin Hubble announced that he had found stars in the spiral nebula Andromeda, and using Leavitt’s formula measured them as 860,000 light years away proving Andromeda was a separate galaxy. He would go on to find a dozen more galaxies.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1971ASPL…10..425B/0000427.000.html
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.