For the last twelve years of his life Geoffrey Howe was patron of the UK Metric Association. Robin Paice, who was Chair of the Association for most of this time, remembers him.
Category: History
Geoffrey Howe, Lord Howe of Aberavon, 1926 to 2015
The editors of Metric Views note with great regret the death yesterday of Lord Howe.
Lord Howe was a Patron of the UK Metric Association from its foundation, and campaigned in Parliament for over a decade for the completion of the UK’s metric transition. An outline of his work to bring to an end the mixture of, as he said, “two confused, competing systems” of measurement will be the subject of a future Metric Views article.
The flip side of SI
Charlie P, a regular if occasionally critical contributor to MV, promised he would on his return from holiday give his thoughts on “the flip side of the SI as far as the average man in the street is concerned”. These now appear below. They are of course not endorsed by the Editors of MV, but may provide food for thought.
New breakthrough for the kilogram
In this article about new scientific developments to redefine the kilogram and remove its link to a physical object, Ronnie Cohen writes about recent reports about a new scientific breakthrough in getting the most accurate estimate of Avogadro’s constant to date, which can help to redefine the kilogram. These reports have been published in the last few weeks and you can find a list of sources at the bottom of this article.
A day at the National Museum of Measurement
The summer holidays are in full swing, so John Frewen-Lord provides us with some light reading for a lazy day, plus a reminder that it is back to school in a month. Now where are my sun glasses?
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‘Think metric’. A customary way to success
We look at the metric changeover in the UK construction industry, and some of the posters that were part of it.
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Changing standards and definitions, including several best forgotten
After the controversy of recent weeks with bashed bridges, furlongs and novel signs, we turn to something deadly dull – the definitions of length, mass (or weight) and capacity (or volume) and their relationships.
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Signs of the past in Southend-on-Sea
There has been an exchange of views on Facebook recently about alterations to signs in Southend-on-Sea carried out by “activists” over a decade ago. This has provided an opportunity for Metric Views to restate the legal position and to discuss other related issues.
Metric Malta
Malta is one of four EU countries which, within living memory, did not have metric as their primary system of measures. A recent holiday in Malta prompted a look at its transition to the metric system from traditional measures.
Waterloo 1815 – what if?
We speculate on the consequences if there had been a different outcome at the Battle of Waterloo.
Metric Views 