A coloured print in six scenes. A man pours wine through a funnel, a woman weighs on a balance, a man measures cloth with a rod, and others measure a wall, count coins and stack firewood. — *Usage des Nouvelles Mesures*, a Paris print of 1800 showing the new units in daily use.
Image: L. F. Labrousse (engraver) and J. P. Delion (publisher), Usage des Nouvelles Mesures, hand-coloured print (Paris, 1800), Musée Carnavalet · Public domain

A Knaph story

The Story of Metric Prefixes

How kilo, centi and milli got their names

1585 – 2022

A book of tenths, a revolution, a kilogram stolen by pirates and a committee that ran out of letters: how a few small words came to work on every unit.

A Knaph story

How kilo, centi and milli got their names

1585 – 2022

A book of tenths, a revolution, a kilogram stolen by pirates and a committee that ran out of letters: how a few small words came to work on every unit.