On 06/16/2012 09:41 AM, gene heskett wrote: > On Saturday, June 16, 2012 12:31:47 PM Peter Blodow did opine: > >> Dave, >> funny thing is that European lathes in those days you were describing, >> many still working today, were equipped with inch lead screws, so that >> in order to cut mm threads they have to use a 127 teeth gear in the gear >> case to drive the lead screw. This way, our industry wanted to become >> compatible with the British and American manufacturers for export.... >> And although we are using metric units here in Germany since the late >> 1880ies, we still buy heating and water pipes, fittings etc. in inch >> measures..... When I sometimes bring my timber to be cut to our local >> sawmill, I specify 3/4 inch or one inch boards to be made out of it, >> although they will be measured as 20 or 25 mm boards. >> By the way, how come that in this mailing list everybody speaks in >> inches - you were writing about the metric revolution? >> >> Peter >> > Peter, I was all on that hay ride for as long as it lasted. But when the > gas stations that first put in pumps that measured liters made note that > their monthly usage pumped into the customers tanks dropped to 10% because > folks would just drive on down the street where they could buy gas by the > gallon, a unit they had used all their lives, that effect brought the > metric conversion of the US to a screeching halt. The rest of the system > did go metric, but that today is entirely the effect of all the > manufacturing having been exported. Had they put dual displays in the gas > pumps for a few years, so folks could see at a glance what they were > paying, they might have been able to let the gallons displays gradually > fail, but some numbed nuts bean counter apparently wouldn't consider that > idea. Instead, we took very careful aim and shot ourselves in both feet. > > I suspect real estate was also to be a holdout, hell, nobody around here > has a clue what a hectar is, not even me. > >> Dave schrieb: >>> I was in engineering college from 76 to 81 and remember some >>> discussion about this. Fortunately there was not too much to >>> discuss >>> as they had already decided that SI was the way to go and we had >>> recently selected "new" books. At the same time the "metric" >>> revolution was in full swing and they were changing out all of their >>> machine tools in the school shop so they >>> would all be metric. They were removing manual machines that were >>> setup in inches and replacing them with machines setup in millimeters. >>> Many of the machines were old so I was happy to see them go and be >>> replaced with new machines. >>> The school was very unique in that they encouraged students to use the >>> machines and the facilities after hours. They had a shop supervisor >>> who was paid to stay late most weekday nights. Even the garage was >>> available, so we could put our cars on the lifts to do repairs and >>> modifications. When I wasn't chasing girls, I "lived" at school. >>> :-) >>> >>> Dave Some places decided that they could increase the effective price by 10-20% by going metric because the customer wasn't smart enough to do the conversion. Ha! That crashed quickly. So much for greed. I do believe that if we (US) had used metric on signs for the interstate hwy system and provided incentives for selling gasoline and diesel using liters we'd be metric today. Instead we have a mixed system where international companies, eg. aerospace and automotive are metric and almost everything else is english/imperial. I once had a GM manufactured car that was part metric and part english; now that was a pain. Logic and politics are rarely in the same room.
Dave >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> ------ Live Security Virtual Conference >> Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and >> threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. >> Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the >> latest in malware threats. >> http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ >> _______________________________________________ >> Emc-users mailing list >> Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > Cheers, Gene ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
