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English, with its quirky vowels and verbs, was tough. So was the measuring system, all inches and yards and pounds. Just what the heck is an acre, anyway?
A native of Holland, Van Lin came to run an orchard for Dr. Archie Skemp, and soon started one of his own near La Crescent.
Since retiring in 1992, Van Lin has had time to expound on some of his ideas — usually in letters to the editor. Some relate to his profession. Some to his eclectic interests. Some to the differences between the U.S. and the rest of the world. His topics included the history of dwarf rootstocks, the hoe, emigration, the cause of precipitation and the problems with supply-side economics.
And the metric system.
The 87-year-old Van Lin is a strident proponent of the decimal-based system that is the standard in most places outside the U.S.
“Is there anything else?” he said when asked why we should switch. “The whole world is metric.”
The metric system has been around for more than 200 years. Congress first authorized the use of the metric system in 1866, but didn’t mandate it. More than a century later, it passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, which called for voluntary conversion and established the U.S. Metric Board. Within six years, the board reported back it lacked the mandate to force the conversion. It disbanded the next year.
Now the U.S. is among only three countries that have not officially adopted the metric system, according to the U.S. Metric Association. The others are Liberia and Myanmar.
Pop quiz.
How many feet in a mile?
OK. Close enough.
How many cups in a gallon?
No cheating. This is a closed-book test.
How many teaspoons?
“Nobody knows our system completely,” Van Lin said. “Everybody knows metric — from second grade on.”
A meter has 100 centimeters, a kilometer a thousand meters. A thousand milliliters make a liter, and a liter of water weighs one kilogram. A milliliter weighs one gram.
It’s just so simple. So logical. A matter of decimal places.
Van Lin said the only way to go is cold turkey — change all the road signs to kilometers, switch the labels to grams and liters.
“To compare metric to standard makes no sense,” he said. “Don’t ever convert. When Minneapolis is going to be 200 kilometers, that’s what it is.”
The USMA is lobbying Congress to allow American companies to put metric-only labels on products. As it is, said Valerie Antoine, executive director for the nonprofit organization, many companies that export goods have to print two sets of labels — one in inch-pounds for domestic distribution, another in metrics for overseas.
So far, Van Lin’s metric advocacy efforts have been local. In 2003, he landed three guest editorials in the Houston County News. Last week, he put up a display at the La Crosse Public Library.
After all, he has other things to attend to, such as his collections. Van Lin has more than 500 cameras in one room of his La Crescent home. Another room is lined with egg beaters and cheese graters.
He has a garage full of grass clippers and pruning shears. Some of his other collections are on loan to historical society museums in La Crescent and Caledonia. (His advice: don’t smoke and don’t drink; that way, you’ll have time and money for your hobbies.)
But when he’s not collecting, Van Lin keeps working on his essays designed to open America’s eyes to the way things are done elsewhere in the world.
“We should learn there’s foreign countries,” Van Lin said. “Get off the island.”
Test yourself
Comfortable with the old inch-pound system? Try these questions to test your knowledge:
1. What’s the distance from the North Pole to the equator?
2. How much does a gallon of water weigh?
3. How many cubic inches are in a gallon?
4. At what temperature does water boil?
5. How much material is required to fill an area 15 feet, 6 inches long, 10 feet, 3 inches wide and 4 inches deep?
6. How many square yards are in an acre?
Answers
1. The distance from pole to equator is 6,214.94 miles, or 10,000 kilometers.
2. A gallon of water weighs about 8.34 pounds. On the other hand, 1 liter of water weighs 1 kilogram.
3. There are 231 cubic inches in a gallon. There are 1,000 cubic centimeters in a liter.
4. At sea level, water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, or 100 degrees Celsius.
5. Approximately 1.94 cubic yards (you must convert each dimension to decimal feet — i.e., 4 inches is about 0.33 feet — multiply and then divide by 27 to convert to cubic yards). In the metric system, the same area would be about 4.72 m by 3.12 m by 0.1 m, or 1.47 cubic meters.
6. An acre is 4,840 square yards. A hectare is 10,000 square meters.
Chris Hubbuch can be reached at chris.hubbuch@lee.net or (608) 791-8217.
