UKC

Now that we are leaving Europe can we please go back to Imperial weights and measures? And lets revert to £sd again.

So much easier to use and much more easily divisible.

1p coins are virtually worthless and clog up your purse. At least the 1d was worth something and looked the part.. Even ha'pennies and farthings had a value. And don't forget the guinea - what a wonderful way of charging 5% more without the customer really appreciating that they were being robbed

In reply to Trangia:

What would you be able to buy with your farthing now?

In reply to hokkyokusei:


A British steelworks?

In reply to Trangia:
A farthing is almost a milliguinea.

In reply to David Riley:


What's that in grammes?

In reply to Trangia:

http://www.wired.com/2010/11/1110mars-climate-observer-report/

In reply to Trangia:

Please explain the more divisible bit. Give an imperial and metric example. Start with 1kg and go from there.

In reply to Fraser:

Don't know. But maybe it will be the same as the Euro in a few years ?

In reply to Trangia:

Back in the 50s and 60s my mother used to work in one of those snobby upper class ladies' dress shops... the sort where on entering the shop the prospective buyer was greeted with lots of bowing and scraping and was always referred to as Madame - pronounced Moddum. Their prices were always in Guineas. Pounds was just too common!

In reply to Trangia:

Huh ! Typical... give them an inch and ...

...can't fathom it, out of my league.

In reply to Trangia:

I'm not sure if you're being ironic or serious!

In reply to Trangia:

Oh for the poppyseed, line, barleycorn, digit, finger, hand, nail, shaftment, link, span cubit ulna, ell, fathom, rod, perch, pole, chain, furlong, stade, and league.

The rood, carucate, bovate, percha and virgate.

The drop, dram, teaspoon, tablespoon, jigger, jack, gill, cup, quart, pottle,, peck, kenning, bushel, strike, coomb and hogshead,

The grain, nail clove and tod.

In reply to Trangia:
I hate to say this but Chesterfield, love it though I do, is still firmly wedged in about 1950 in this respect. I went to get a pane of glass from a local independent shed makers. My request for a pane 45x65cm was met with blank incredulity, as if I was the first go ask in cm for 20yrs. A short time later I was buying veg on the market and asked for a kilo of something, the guy looked genuinely shocked. My job is selling oil and grease by the litre and kilo, and many of my customers still ask for gallons.

In reply to Welsh Kate:

Of course I'm serious!

Another advantage of Imperial and returning to £sd is that Johnny Foreigner is totally baffled by it all. It would help us considerably in overseas trade negotiations to be able to buy in £s and sell in Guineas.......

In reply to Lion Bakes:

Take money:

10p is only divisible by 2 and 5

12d is divisible by 2,3,4 and 6

Whats a Kg!?

In reply to Trangia:


Having never used imperial for anything other than journey distances, vital statistics and buying weed, I can objectively look in at imperial measurements and say they're batshit. More divisible but consistent is what you want. Base 12.

In reply to Trangia:

K means a 1000. So a kg is 1000g. A km is 1000m. A m is 1000mm. A l is a 1000ml.

I can see your argument for divisibility but I don't get why the systems are all different. 12 inches in foot, 16oz in a lb, but 14lb in a stone etc.

A system based on powers of 10 is easy to convert.

I also understand that the USA has units with the same name as ours that are different quantities.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

How about base 360.

In reply to jon:


You are right. Most professionals, particularly Solicitors, used to charge in guineas - much more upmarket!!

In reply to Trangia:

I believe a cricket pitch is still one chain in length.

In reply to Trangia:


Its about 1/50 cwt

In reply to Trangia:

Rule Britannia!
Two tanners make a bob,
Three make eighteen pence.
And four make two bob.

Or something like that.

In reply to Trangia:

I could see this helping to raise the standard of numeracy in the country but I'd like to stick with metric for the lab, it's already difficult enough when you have chemicals described as being x% w/v, y molar, and z% v/v. I'd hate to find myself trying to convert something from Pico molar into ounce/pint.

In reply to gethin_allen:


Once we've left the EU there won't be any labs. Problem sorted.

In reply to Trangia:





10d is only divisible by 2 and 5

12p is divisible by 2,3,4,6

What's a lb?

In reply to Trangia:

Besides decimalisation has nothing to do with the eu. First decimal coin the florin came out in 1849 and the rest was driven by the commonwealth in the 60's

In reply to marsbar:


Why yes - that's thirty times more divisible again. Change from a pound would be a nightmare though.

In reply to Lion Bakes:

I know. Just seems like an opportune time to revert to £sd. It's not that difficult to understand and would ease bill splitting after a meal out with mates and bring back some lovely terms like tanner, bob, half a crown, thru-penny bit

When I was a lad in the 1950s we never used the term "florin", although that was the official name for a two shilling coin. We just called them "two bob bits"

In reply to Trangia:



I called 'em florins.
I can remember spending a farthing too, on a Blackjack, which was a little chew with probably a little golliwog's face on it.

I can feel myself drifting back...back... to Black and White TV, vinyl 78's and Rugby League scrums having a purpose.
You could say what you liked to anybody and there was no law against it.

I think we should revert to Imperial then there'd be some point to making primary school children learn the twelve times table, something the genius Gove reintroduced in the name of rigour.

In reply to Offwidth:





That's rather good Offwidth. Is it original?

In reply to Trangia:

Seeing as the metric system has been successfully used to give us our most accurate description of time, the universe and everything in it surely it's OK for weighing out whethers originals or whatever it is you used to use it for?


When's Woolworths coming back that's what I want to know?

In reply to Trangia:

I'm told that the decimal form is now used much more widely than good old-fashioned ounces, halves and quarters.

Which, if true, is a great pity.

In reply to Trangia:

How is dividing by random amounts of 12, 14 or 16 easier than dividing by 10. Only a Briton could back a backward system.

In reply to Trangia:

"When I was a lad in the 1950s... "

I remember when we went decimal, I remember the confusion on the part of our elderly friends and relatives, the difficulties it caused me at school moving from one system to another. I don't remember - but assume - that it cost us a fair amount of money to move from one system to another, mint new coinage etc.

I don't want to go back to the 50s. I don't want to use 1" to 1 mile maps, I don't want our country, that's facing an uncertain economic future, to waste more money by reverting to a system that we haven't used for nearly half a century. I study the past, I don't want to be part of it, thanks!

In reply to ByEek:

What about the Russians?

In reply to Trangia:
It has taken a long time but I have finally started measuring in metric but once you get down to fine measurements I still revert to imperial.
10 thou means something to me and I can visualise it.
X hundreds of a millimeter just doesn't work for me.

In reply to Trangia:




I'm not sure if that works as a reason to go back to imperial.

12p is also divisible by 2,3,4 and 6, and 5 too.

In reply to Trangia:

Back to empire next.

In reply to Trangia:

Surprised no-one has cited this foot-note from Terry Pratchett's Good Omens:

NOTE TO YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS
Two Farthings = One Ha'penny. Two Ha'pennies = One Penny. Three Pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea.
......the British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.

In reply to thebigfriendlymoose:

One pound £ was a quid, a sixpence a tanner

In reply to Trangia:
obviously this is another of your piddling taking wind up thread's?

numbers can by divided by any number to give an answer.

I assume you meant to say the answer must be a whole number?

If that's what you meant then your answer in your post was incomplete........

In addition, when we are trading with our biggest market, surely it makes sense to continue with the status quo,ie the pound?

In reply to Trangia:
Pre decimalisation Wrexham lager was 1 shilling and 10 pence a pint, after the event it was 10np.( new pence) that's 2 old pennies dearer overnight. These are the important issues of the day and now we have brexited can I claim a refund.?

In reply to Trangia:


I'm told that you can still invoice in guineas. Now that would be fun.

In reply to Removed UserDeleted bagger:


You still bid in guineas at pedigree sheep sales The auctioneer keeps the spare shillings.

In reply to Removed UserDeleted bagger:


Racehorse are still sold in guineas - just look at the prices for yearling in sales by the likes of Tattersalls - all in guineas.

In reply to Trangia:

If dragging us back into the past is also going to involve un-inventing calculators, barcode scanners etc. and going back to mental arithmetic and ready reckoners maybe.

In the USA you can buy tape measures marked in 'decimal feet' - ie: instead of inches, the feet are subdivided into tenths of a foot. Because if you're using a calculator it's a lot easier to, say, work out the area in square feet of a rectangle 5.5' x 3.8' than it is to do 5'6" x 3'10".

In reply to Trangia:

Reinstate the Baker's dozen!

In reply to Trangia:

What is a dolla,a pony and a monkey in monetary terms?

In reply to thebigfriendlymoose:





You missed out crown! Mind you, if you are including farthings ( which weren't legal tender at time of decimalisation) then you could also include a whole bunch of stuff - half farthings, third farthings, quarter farthings, 2d coins, angels, sceats........

In reply to felt:


What about them?! They are fully metric and have been for a very long time.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:


What!
You never bought a pint?

In reply to Pete Pozman:

Yes, but only in the sense that lists exist and these are some of the more romantically obscure I selected to entertain UKC.

In reply to Offwidth:

Good effort. You are a poet.

In reply to Pete Pozman:

There once was a climber called Pete
Who's posts could be really quite sweet
Ofwidth's not a poet
As well he does know it
But he does know his metres from feet.

In reply to Trangia:

Bring back the Imperials, hell yes. The new First Order are pretty rubbish aren't they?

The Imperials had the best accents (Grand Moff Tarkin, General Veers) and some pretty sweet uniforms. Plus At-ATs. Apart from the ruthless psychopathy and being blown up in assorted space stations etc.

b

In reply to DerwentDiluted:


Ah, that's because you asked for it in cm, which as any builder/engineer/tradesman etc will tell are only used for measuring curtains.
In the modern world building materials are all cut in mm, in fact you don't even need to specify, "450 x 650" is all you needed to say. Get with it grandad

In reply to Trangia:


Not a problem for me, I'm always getting told off by my family for converting today's prices back to old money:-
" 12 shillings for a tiny chocolate bar, no chance!"

In reply to DerwentDiluted:



No, I always ask for 568ml.

In reply to Jim C:



Oh,you're one of those are ya,my dads one of those too. He's been doing it all my life and I've still got no idea what he's on about.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Many support a backward system.

In reply to Trangia:

Very funny sketch on radio 4 Fri lunchtime. About a meeting between Celcius and Farenheit discussing their temperature scales. Punch line being, who wont move to the new scale?

Americans

I was awaiting the entry of Kelvin, but alas no

In reply to Wsdconst:


Does he tell you how much he could buy for a ten Bob note ?
( that's one of my favorites , my dad used to tell me that one, but he could have a night out at the dancing, a fish supper, and still had change

In reply to DerwentDiluted:


Thanks! tickled my udders that did

In reply to Trangia:

Cant be bothered reading the whole thread. Have we done the metric foot yet? An engineer pal from the states tells me they use this bizarre unit. A foot with 10 inches. Madness.

In reply to Offwidth:


You've firkin missed something out!

In reply to johnjohn:


Firkins (and kilderkins for that matter) are still commonly but beer duty is paid in litres. And the beer barrel is still used as a unit of measurement to some extent (36 gallons), though hectolitres are more common.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:


"In a handle"

In reply to Trangia:

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the acre yet as its still one of the most commonly used imperial measurements. Any property for sale with a decent bit of land will have it quoted in acres on the estate agents details.
Its one we should all be familiar with as its the amount of land ploughable in one day by a man and an ox, that's to say 4840 square yards of course, or 160 square rods if you prefer.
And if you still can't remeber that the easy way to think of it is its the area enclosed by sides measuring a chain by a furlong.

In reply to Jim C:



Yeah, I've heard that one many,many times

In reply to pec:


I will check with my wife on how much ploughing is done next week.
( she is off to a ploughing match, but it's with horses, ( not an of ) and they are probably more interested in the quality not quantity. )

In reply to Trangia:


This thread has to be some sort of joke. Have you ever tried to read an American engineering text? Seriously, if you're feeling nostalgic for the 50s the music was pretty good and we made some really pretty aeroplanes but could we maybe keep it to reminiscing over that sort of thing.
Jk

In reply to jkarran:

When the Potteries went metric the pint-weight cabs (liquid density) behave 1L. We work in kg/L and I had a minor panic when someone was doing 1:1 from a pint can before realising that although called a pint can, it's 1L.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:


Why is it my weed comes in imperial but my coke and smack is metric? Can one read something into the political leanings of the respective users/dealers?

In reply to Offwidth:

Bravo!

In reply to johnjohn:
Now I feel foolish. A colleague of mine in the 1970's introduced the firkin furlong fortnight base unit system of engineering measurement following frustration with all the changes he had faced over the years.

In reply to Trangia:

Totally agree. The quicker we get back to proper pints like in the old days the better. Those new metric straight glasses are awful. I much preferred the old imperial jug shaped ones.

In reply to Trangia:

And wtf has this to do with the EU?

And it's all British anyway. A British Association committee in the 1860s that included William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin)(Ulster), James Clerk Maxwell (Scotland) and James Prescott Joule (England) 'formulated the requirement for a coherent system of units with base units and derived units' and laid other foundations for the later work of BIPM and the Congresses. Indeed, the work of Thomson and his colleagues only found its way fully into the system at the 10th CPGM in 1954. Only nine years later, in the Weights and Measures Act 1963, the British scrapped their old system and based all measurements (including legacy use of the old units) on the SI system.

The original BIPM standard metres and kilograms were made by Johnson Matthey & co of London.

I believe that during only five of the last thirty years has the Director of the BIPM in Paris not been British.

It took the British about one hundred and fifty years of farting around and looking like complete f3ckw1ts before they eventually decimalised their currency.

Get a f3cking grip.

In reply to Trangia:
And why don't we quote volume in terms of elephants?

In reply to Trangia:

Wonderful to see folk getting worked up about this, must be a contender for best Brexit troll.

My tuppence worth: florins were what people called them in Berkshire or even Newton Mearns. Where I came from they were two bobs.

In reply to Lion Bakes:


Because every measurement would have to be accompanied by a statement about no elephants being harmed in the taking of this measurement.

In reply to Jim Fraser:

Not to mention having to keep a 'standard' elephant locked up in Paris

In reply to GrahamD:

The main advantage of pounds shillings and pence is that you could split a quid, or any multiple thereof, between 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 or 10 people.

You can only split a decimal pound between 2, 4, 5 or 10 people.

In reply to Fredt:


Yeah but, speaking as a Yorkshireman, why would I want to do that?

In reply to Fredt:



And how often is it actually necessary to split exactly 1 pound exactly 6 ways ? I doubt in my life I've ever had to do it !

In reply to Dave Perry:


A pound is still a quid. But what can you buy for 6p these days?

In reply to Fredt:



Why is being able to divide 12 so important if you need to split the bill of £143 7 shillings and 46p between 7?

In reply to pec:

650" is something different entirely...

In reply to ByEek:


That'll be £20, 13s and 2d

In reply to Trangia:

I only had it revealed to me, in my late 40s, why we were subjected with times tables up to 12, because of money, all that wasted time and effort.
I'm sticking with metric because it makes my knob sound really big.

In reply to Trangia:

Does anyone really wish to return to a world of things being measured in fractions of inches?*

T.
* put your own knob gag here.

In reply to ByEek:

Do people still refer to a pound as a quid anymore?
I'm not sure I've heard anyone refer to a quid recently. I'll keep an ear out for it from now on. I was surprised when the introduced decimal that people stopped referring to tuppence thruppence etc and now its just two P or three P etc., But maybe I just don't notice.

6p won't get anything much, if at all these days.

In reply to Dave Perry:

As sixpence (half a shilling in old money) is two and a half pence in the giddying post-decimalisation world, it'll get you less than you think.

T.

In reply to Fredt:


Obviously! ?????

In reply to Trangia:
Does that pub in Bethesda still charge you in pounds shillings and pence?