A couple of stories about Metric/Imperial confusion.

1. I saw this on a TV programme about 20 years ago.

In the 1800s an American millionaire acquired architects plans for a French style chateau and commissioned American contractors to build it on land he had bought in the US. Unfortunately the contractors thought the measurements were inches but were actually centimetres. The resulting chateau was 2.5 times bigger than intended.

2. I came across this one while reading a biography of the actor David Niven.

He had a residence in the south of France and employed a local firm to construct a swimming pool in the grounds. His hand written instructions were in feet which they thought were metres, so the pool was about 40+ feet at the deep end.

Vintage