In the mid-1970s, the United States seriously considered making metric units mandatory as well as legal. This filmstrip, audiotape, and leaflet were “prepared as an educational tool to help people learn the metric language,” and distributed by the Educational Relations Department of retailer J. C. Penney.
The filmstrip and tape have separate plastic containers. They fit with the leaflet in a cardboard box with an orange lid. Text on the front of the audiotape reads: The Metric Song. Additonal text there reads: JCPenny. Text on the containers for the tape and for filmstrip reads: 1974. The leaflet gives the lyrics of the song and describes the contents of the ten-minute filmstrip.
A mark in ink on the side of the box reads: R. M. T. The initials are those of R. Maxwell Tinsley, the father of the donor and a fellow of the U.S. Metric Association.
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