We at UKMA are deeply saddened to learn of the death of UKMA’s longest-serving patron, Dick Taverne, Baron Taverne of Pimlico. He was a man with a stellar career both in politics and outside, and was an avid supporter of UKMA and its cause.
Continue reading “Obituary – Dick Taverne, Baron Taverne, KC”
165 years ago, in his opening address at the London meeting of the International Statistical Congress, held on 16 July 1860, Prince Albert drew attention to the measurement muddle prevalent at the time, and was in no doubt that the muddle would have to go.
Words from his speech were included in the 1862 Report From The Select Committee On Weights And Measures, dated 15 July 1862.
Continue reading “Prince Albert and the measurement muddle in the 1860s”
The English bishop John Wilkins was not the only one who developed a decimal-based measurement system that predates the metric system. Anders Bure, a Swedish mathematician and cartographer who lived from 1571 to 1646, developed a different decimal system that used the Swedish foot as the base unit. He tried to introduce this system of weights and measures in Sweden in the seventeenth century. Georg Stiernhielm, a Swedish civil servant, linguist and poet who lived from 1598 to 1672, later recommended this system should become the standard. This system was used between 1855 and 1889. Then Sweden changed over to the metric system on 1 January 1889.
Continue reading “The old Swedish decimal measurement system”Martin Vlietstra attended the St Cross Centre for the History and Philosophy of Physics (HAPP) one-day conference in Oxford on Saturday 7 June 2025 and has written a report about the conference for Metric Views.
Continue reading “Report on Measure for Measure Conference”Today is exactly 150 years since the Metre Convention was signed by 17 nations. This treaty established the use of the metric system internationally and created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) and the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM), organizations with different roles, to co-ordinate international efforts to standardize measurements.
Continue reading “Happy 150th anniversary to the Metre Convention”As we once again enter the Celsiheit season, that uniquely British time of year, where temperatures become so warm that some assume that a switch to the larger numbers of the old Fahrenheit scale is required, the BBC has dashed any hope that 2025 might be the year when Fahrenheit is finally consigned to the history books of UK weather forecasting.
Continue reading “Are UK weather forecasts a form of gaslighting?”
The St Cross Centre for the History and Philosophy of Physics (HAPP) is holding a one-day conference on the history of measurement at the Mathematical Institute in Oxford on Saturday 7 June 2025 from 10.30 am – 5.00 pm BST. Participants can register to attend in person or online. Everyone is welcome to attend. Registration to attend this conference is free but booking is required to attend the conference in person or online.
Continue reading “HAPP one-day conference on the history of measurement”In a follow up to an article last year, about the occasion in 1904 when Parliament came close to fully-adopting the metric system, we consider one of the possible consequences of this failure.
How are speedometers designed to accommodate the change from mph to km/h? In this article I will examine a variety of techniques and at the end of the article I will propose a 21st Century solution.
Continue reading “Speedometers and Metrication”HM Government looked at the case for and against the use of dual unit road signs as an intermediate step in the metrication of road signs in the second half of the 1960’s. Three different methods for dual unit sign conversion were evaluated and some technical issues related to dual unit signs were discussed. The findings and illustrations from the National Archive papers are presented here.
Continue reading “Official thinking on dual unit road signs in the 1960’s”
Metric Views 