The story of how the metric system began started in February of 1791 when the Chevalier JC de Borda requested that a commission be set up to for a uniform system of measurement. They decided to use a quarter meridian, the distance from the North Pole to the equator, as a reference of measurement. However, the exact length of the meridian was currently unknown. In order to determine as precisely as possible the size of the Earth, several teams about 7 years to measure the length of as long a segment of a meridian as possible. This ended up being the meridian spanning Barcelona and Dunkirk because it was the longest segment almost fully over land within French territory. Interestingly, even though during the years measuring, France and Spain
