When consulting a reference book from 1896, we came across an article about imperial measures which provides a timely reminder that, even in its heyday, this ‘system’ was not as straightforward as some would now have us believe.
Category: History
Surprise choice for transport
This was the headline in a back number of a trade magazine that recently came to our attention. So who was this choice, why the surprise, and when was he or she chosen for transport?
50 years of Celsius weather forecasts – time to kill off Fahrenheit for good?
Fifty years ago, on 15th October 1962, British weather forecasts switched over from the Fahrenheit scale to Celsius. Fifty years on, some parts of the British media inexplicably cling on to Fahrenheit measures, and the UK Metric Association (UKMA) says it’s time to kill off Fahrenheit for good.
[Press release issued on 15 October 2012]
Continue reading “50 years of Celsius weather forecasts – time to kill off Fahrenheit for good?”
A curious situation involving Liberty
We mark Mr Wiggins’ success in the Tour de France and Mrs Obama’s visit to London with a story that links our nearest continental neighbour with our former colonies across the pond. Those of our readers who are looking for an article about the greatest international sporting festival and the international system of measures which makes it possible must wait until next week.
The report that led the UK from one muddle to another
On 15 July 1862, the Select Committee on Weights and Measures of the UK Parliament published a report recommending the adoption of the metric system in the UK. That was 150 years ago. It was also less than forty years after the coming into force of the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which should have provided Britain and Ireland with ‘correct and uniform’ standards of measures. So what had gone wrong in the intervening years, and what then happened to the Committee’s recommendations?
Continue reading “The report that led the UK from one muddle to another”
A metric time line for the UK
Metric Views has attempted to produce a timeline showing progress in the British Isles towards the adoption of a single, simple, rational and coherent measurement system. This article takes the story up to 1980 – the events of the past thirty years will be the subject of a further post later. Readers’ suggestions for additions and amendments are welcome.
Fire hydrant signs – a successful metric conversion
Metric Views looks at a successful but unsung project that took place during the early years of the UK’s metric transition. We speculate what might have occurred had this job been the responsibility, not of local government, but of the UK Department for Transport (DfT), and we draw attention to a paradox. Continue reading “Fire hydrant signs – a successful metric conversion”
US customary measures: friend or foe of British traditionalists?
In the early years of the twentieth century, both US customary (USC) and metric measures were seen by some in Britain as threats to the survival of the Imperial system. The end of Empire saw metric supplant Imperial, while USC has endured. Could it become the saviour of the few Imperial measures that survive in the UK, despite the differences between the two systems?
Marathon myth
With the London Marathon being run today, it is timely to remember the metric origins of the marathon, and to puncture the myth that it is a race measured in imperial units.
Goodbye Imperial. Hello British weights and measures
We, the public, are encouraged by some politicians, by the DfT and by elements of the media to pick and mix our measurement units – to use both imperial and metric. So why has imperial as a system fallen from favour among those resisting change, and been replaced by a hybrid?
Continue reading “Goodbye Imperial. Hello British weights and measures”
Metric Views 