Michael, The French can be sophisticated but also very unsophisticated. That is also true for the British and all other peoples on this planet. If we were really that sophisticated, we would measure the power of cars in kilowatt, and not in horse power as is done only too often yet.
The British did away with the ridiculous fiscal horse power for road tax in 1947, I think. The French did away with the 'cheval fiscal' just a few years ago. A Ferrari with a 300 kW engine had something like 35 fiscal horse power! The monstrous Napoleonic Customary system of 1812 was a very unsophisticated French invention and as The Netherlands was part of France between 1810 and 1813 attempts were made to impose it on The Netherlands. The metric system was literally pushed to the brink, until deliverance came in 1837, after a desperate struggle by friends of the metric system in France from about 1800 to 1837. British scientists like Lord Kelvin and others have contributed enormously to the development of the metric system in the second half of the 19th century, working within the British Association for the Advancement of Science. This should never be forgotten. The British did not ' invent' FFU, as FFU-like systems were universal before the metric system came. In fact, before 1790 the British had the most unified and the best standardized system of weights and measures in Europe. The 'Encylopedie' by Diderot c.s. used British units as default ones to compare other units with and this was a very rational thing to do *then*. Weights and measures in France and Germany were extremely diverse, we would call them chaotic in terms of today's standards. Two years before you joined this list, I found out about the depths to which some French people can sink in this matter. The *French* road map and itinerary website Maporama used US/UK ifp units as the default in all languages! Not very sophisticated indeed! http://www.maporama.com I corresponded with them about what they were doing. If you would like to read this correspondence I can send it to you in a Word attachment. I was furious when I read an itinerary between the Dutch cities Den Helder and Maastricht in the Dutch language in YARDS and MILES! Maporama has changed its defaults since then to metric and to their own language - French. Other languages and measuring units can be personalized. The BWMA and other opponents can not use this mainland European French site in their propaganda now. They had not found it yet. Last but not least, I can not see what is wrong with present day English money. Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael-O" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, 2003-08-13 19:17 Subject: [USMA:26569] Re: M$ > CONCLUSION: > > French were always more sophisticated than English. > > Have you ever seen English money, then you undersand why only this nation could have invented the FFU. > > bye > > John Woelflein wrote: > > Look at this Quebec web site and the use of M$ in the link: > > > > http://www.mtq.gouv.qc.ca/fr/index.asp > > > > Never saw that one before. > > John Woelflein
