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According to Wikipedia, the term newton, for the unit of force, was agreed in 1948.

However, both the metric system, as well as the idea of force as a physical concept, long predated this date.

Did people just write kg m/s$^2$ everywhere, or did they have some other name for this unit?

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    $\begingroup$ Before the introduction of the International system, there was the Gravitational system of units where the unit of force was "kilogram-force" (the weight of 1 kg of mass at certain specified place on the Earth). $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 8 at 14:11
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    $\begingroup$ Gravitational system was never officially accepted and was mostly used by engineers. Physicists mostly used CGS (centimeter-gram-second), where the unit of force was derived and called "dyne". $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 8 at 14:17
  • $\begingroup$ From 1877 there was the poundal, 1 lb·ft/s² but obviously not metric. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 9 at 17:38

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The international system (meter-kilogram-second) with newton as the unit of force was proposed in 1948 and accepted in 1960. Before that there were two main metric systems:

CGS (centimeter-gram-second), where the unit of force was $\mathrm g\cdot \mathrm{cm}/\mathrm{sec}^2= \mathrm{dyne}$, and

"Gravitational system of units" (metre-Kilogram-second) where the Kilogram (force) was the unit of force, and kilogram (mass) was the unit of mass. Kilogram (force) was defined as the weight of one kilogram-mass at a specified place on Earth. This system was mostly used in engineering.

When I studied in high school (in Soviet Union) in 1960s the knowledge of all three systems was required :-)

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    $\begingroup$ The "kilogram (force)" was also sometimes called "kilopond". $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 9 at 7:24
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    $\begingroup$ CGS is still in use in some subfields. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 9 at 7:32
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    $\begingroup$ 1 dyne is 10 uN. The Meter-Tonne-Second system had the sthène, which is equal to 1 kN $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 9 at 15:52
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    $\begingroup$ You might want to note that a newton is $10^5$ dynes. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 10 at 17:04
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    $\begingroup$ In the 60s, in High School (Europe) the (fundamental) unit of force was often called 'kilopond' (also 'kilogram-force') but the (derived) unit of mass wasn't the kilogram, but the Technical mass unit (UTM or TME) defined as the amount of mass accelerated at 1 m/s^-2 by a force of 1 kilopond... $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 11 at 5:06

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