An interesting book.

“In the world of measurement, this blackboxing of the kilogram’s definition might seem retrograde, shutting ordinary women and men out of a field that affects their lives. It’s the sort of alienation that motivates anti-metric campaigners and the exact opposite of the medieval pietre di paragone that let anyone verify units of measure with their own hands and eyes. But increasing precision in measurement and the subsequent increase in obscurity is a direct result of the fusion of science and industry; a precursor to and product of the benefits of the contemporary world. And this is the bargain we have made for our current comforts. Who cares how units of measurement are defined, as long as the benefits remain? Perhaps one fair way to judge the situation is with Peirce’s philosophy of pragmatism, which he once suggested was only a restating of Jesus’s wisdom: ‘Ye shall know them by their fruits.’45 In this case, the fruits of modern 307measurement are the fruits of the modern world, for better or for worse.” Excerpt from Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement James Vincent