Imperial dimensions of British exceptionalism

The British retreat on metrication from the early 1980’s, starting with the abolition of the Metrication Board, is a symptom of British exceptionalism. Ronnie Cohen looks at this issue, or should we say problem?

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Decolonising science

Martin Vlietstra, an occasional contributor to Metric Views, considers Britain’s policy of retaining, for as long as it could, the use of imperial measurements in its Empire. He notes that the consequences continue to this day.

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Hong Kong – Imperial no more

Followers of Metric Views may have noticed that one of our regular contributors, John Frewen-Lord, has just returned from a visit to the far east. In this post, he passes on some observations relating one of the countries he visited.

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A bit of imperial history

Recent comments on the value, or otherwise, of retaining historic or traditional measurements in daily use have prompted thoughts on the swift rise of the imperial system of measures in the nineteenth century and on the muddle that has resulted from its inevitable decline in the twentieth.

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