Inch - Everything2.com
Inch Tue Apr 13 2004 at 21:35:59 Curiously, the inch is exactly 2.54 cm. The story goes that Henry Ford was frustrated at the lack of standardization of parts measurements and things; the US at that time used various different inches, while the cm was fixed. So Ford asked Swedish inventor Carl Edward Johansson to make some end-gauge for Fords factories. Johansson was happy to, so while Congress mucked around trying to come up with a standard, he picked the handy 2.54 cm to an inch that we know ...
Source: everything2.com