 The great interest in geodesy during this era, and the measurement system ideas that developed, influenced how the continental US was surveyed and parceled.The story of how Jefferson's full vision for the new measurement system came close to displacing the Gunter chain and the traditional acre, but ended up not doing so, is explored in Andro Linklater's "Measuring America".During the nineteenth century the metric system of weights and measures proved a convenient political compromise during the unification processes in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.