Imperial Gas meters ?

And some of us are considerably older than that.

Reply to
Davey
Loading thread data ...

I was at school from 80 to 93, however from 83 to 90 the schools were in Germany (forces brat) so i learnt the metric system with a little bit on the antiquated olde english system thrown in so we could understand distances and stuff like that when our parents were posted back to england,

For some reason i find it easier to visualise measurements in feet and inches, but i always cut and mark out in millimeters, and the birds are not nearly as impressed by hearing it's 177.8mm :)

When i was looking for a lathe to buy a few years ago, i specifically wanted a metric one, even my dog can figure out the fractions of a millimeter stuff, 0.012mm, take off 0.002mm and it'll be 0.010mm... or something like that, i must admit i turn things to fit other things rather than by measurement at the moment.

i remember 3/4" is as close to 19mm as needed by me, and 1/2" is inbetween

12 and 13mm for when the nut has rounded slightly,

But for spanners it's a lot easier to try a 9mm spanner, find it's too loose, the 7mm is too tight, so it's 8mm, rather than try a 3/8 spanner... too loose, so try the 1/4, far too tight, so it must be the 7/16 then, even worse when you are playing with trucks and using 40 to 50mm spanners... or 1

37/64 and 1 31/32 spanners :)
Reply to
Gazz

"Dragged kicking & screaming into the 19th, never mind the 21st century" is the expression I usually use.

Reply to
Adam Funk

You can get disasters from mixing systems in other ways too. I was reading recently about the Lake Peigneur "disappearing lake" incident, which was apparently caused by mixing up two close but not identical systems of map coordinates. The amazing thing is that no people were killed.

formatting link

formatting link

Reply to
Adam Funk

I agree. I use metric units & weighing dry stuff for brewing, & where possible for cooking. But I can use American recipes if necessary.

Reply to
Adam Funk

Coincidentally I was reading about car tyre codes recently (out of curiosity while shopping for new tyres) --- since it's an international standard, why is it based on mixed units?

Reply to
Adam Funk

TVs in China are sold in "English Inches"

Reply to
Tim Watts

Good point. TVs here are still sold as "32 inch", etc. rather than the metric equivalent.

Reply to
Davey

Not long after Canada had changed to metric units, I visited the scene of a disaster called The Hope Slide, in the Rockies. There was a big wooden board explaining the event, including amounts of cubic feet, tons of earth, etc, and it had obviously been erected before metrication. Then somebody had come along, and stuck a small piece of wood ever each measurement with the metric version on it. The whole effect was of some great big afterthought that made no sense. In South Africa, after its metrication, it was actually illegal to sell Imperial tools to the public, the trade having its own black market so that folk could maintain pre-metric vehicles, of which there were many.

Reply to
Davey

"The highest waterfall in Louisiana". Since the highest point in the State is something like 135 ft above sea level, that is highly likely!

On the subject of losing water to the underground, we once lost 40,000 gallons of water overnight to a Kentucky sink-hole.

Reply to
Davey

If only that vote in 1901 (?) had gone for metric :(

Reply to
Jethro_uk

Eh? I think it's been at least 150 years since any other kind of inch was in use.

Reply to
Adam Funk

I think that temporary one was from nearly sea level *down*!

A natural sink-hole?

Reply to
Adam Funk

That's an interesting one. Cross-ply tyres always had their widths specified in inches - along with the rim diameter.

But when radial-ply tyres came out, they were made to fit the same rims

- but had their widths specified in mm to distinguish them. That system has remained ever since - with the addition that the profile is now specified as well. [I think early radials were all 85%].

Reply to
Roger Mills

I could be imagining it, but I thought that US inches were ever so slightly different - by being defined as exactly 2.54 cm?

Reply to
Roger Mills

Yes. The whole area is full of holes, the largest of which combine to form the Mammoth Cave System.

Reply to
Davey

My 1953 80 inch Land-Rover is entirely imperial and it's the same age as me but less temperamental. It's still working well and so am I.

Is it still the case that softwoods are traded in metric and hardwoods in imperial? Bought some homegrown oak, beech and ash from a rural timberyard a year ago. On ordering, the guvnor commented that using imperial dimensions made his life much easier.

The Dibnah brigade, as you put it, is sadly dying off with little sign of newcomers. Would you have the bottle to scale a spire or an industrial chimney armed only with wooden ladders and lengths of rope? It was many generations of people like him that put the great in Great Britain. I met him about 30 years ago. Had a chat over a cuppa. In that conversation Fred said that the difference between try and triumph is a bit of OOMPH. I think he was a great man.

Just my 2D. Nick.

Reply to
Nick

I'm currently working on some nuclear power station drawings from the

1960's All imperial. Tolerances are often in 1/32s.
Reply to
newshound

Funny you should say that. My father employed an Irish man in the '80s. His name was Metric. Thick as wotsname but very willing and quite amusing at times. Nick.

Reply to
Nick

There were tyres quoted in metric units only (and not just a metric conversion from imperial) - about 20 odd years ago. For some reason it didn't become universal, so I'd guess that's why they stick with inches for the wheel diameter. Otherwise, you'd need two different standards running side by side. It's not like you could supply a convertor to fit metric tyres to imperial rims.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.