A Sea of troubles

On 25th July 1789, with reports of disturbances in Paris still filtering their way around London, Sir John Riggs Miller rose in the House of Commons. He was a distinguished Parliamentarian with a long interest in weights and measures and he craved the indulgence of the House in order to propose a Committee whose job it might be 'to establish one general standard of weights and measures…..'

Echoes of this proposal found their way across the Channel. The following year Sir John found a l...