>> for those who read French. And for those who don't (or whose high-school French is 30 years out of date) here's the Google translation. Awkward in places but readible...
Nat The United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Countries As of Magna Carta of 1215 England was to have a uniform system of measurement "That there is only one measurement for the wine in all the kingdom, only one for beer, only one for corn, and that this measurement is the quarter of London. And that there is only one width for fabrics, that they are dyed, of bore-hole or mesh, and that this width is two ells between the edges. And that it is for the weights as for measurements ". .... A jump of a few centuries to arrive in 1824, under the reign of George IV: Weights and Measures Act establishes the famous imperial system of Weight and Mesures. Coherent, if not very simple: three basic units, delivers it "to have weight" (pound avoirdupois, in summary front lb, of the Florentin will libbra), the yard (yd) and the second; two standards, that the yard, a brass rule with ends out of gold, and that of the book, a cylinder of platinum, deposited with the secretariat of the House of Commons; the gallon (gal), unit of volume, was defined like the volume occupied by 10 water books distilled at the temperature of 62� Fahrenheit. Why "imperial"? undoubtedly because it became immediately legal both in the United Kingdom and in all the countries of the British Empire. And why "avoirdupois"? because about the years 1300, the merchants of London had adopted a system of weight of use in France under the name of aver of peis; and that this made it possible to distinguish delivers it avoirdupois of the pound troy (lb (troy)), or delivers of Troyes, city famous for its trade fairs with the Middle Ages. France was not satisfied to invent the metric system, it also inspired the British system... But there was a challenger: the metric system Our British neighbors, faithful to their pragmatic and opportunist policy (and see wait...), supervised it corner of the eye since 1790, when the proposal made by Talleyrand cooperate with the establishment of the new system had been relayed with the Communes by Sir Riggs Miller. A beginning of flirt, which continued during a hundred and fifty before being concluded very naturally by the coupling: Weights and Measures Act of 1963 defined the yard like (exactly) 0,914 4 meter and the pound as (approximately) 0,453 592 37 kilogramme. Those which in England remain hopelessly hung to the imperial system are unaware of, or forget, that them inch and their book are nothing any more but subdivisions of the meter and kilogramme? It is understood that they are not very enthusiastic with the idea to see delivers it (sterling) to become a subdivision of the euro! The United Kingdom, member of the European Union of then 1973, decides the adoption of IF It is then the great time of the metrication: in a report/ratio (white paper) of 1972, the government takes note of made progress and "thinks that it is time to legislate to ensure the complete realization and ordinate of the process". Between 1970 and 1971, the industry of the electric cables, the aircraft industry, the manufacture of glass, became entirely metric. The Conference of the Commonwealth in 1973 recommends all to its members to adopt Si In 1974, the ministry for education restricted, with the profit of the metric units, the use of the imperial units in teaching; the year according to, the Post office becomes metric, just as the National Health Service. In the years which follow, it is the turn of agroalimentary industry, the coal sales, the bread. The metric units are only authorized in the examinations of end of studies. The gasoline starts to be sold with the liter. Even associations of old people are not opposed to the metric units. And in 1980, one "allows" the sale of milk the liter. But there is resistance, especially on behalf of anti-Europeans In the first months of the year 2000, certain newspapers made hot throats in connection with such or such grocer or butcher of deep Great Britain, refusing to sell French beans or chops of sheep differently than with the book; each cause generates its martyrs. More mediatized of these metric martyrs was certainly Steve Thoburn, merchant the four-season one of Sunderland, in the North-East of England: after - somewhat vigorously - having refused to convert its balances to post the weights in grams and kilogrammes, it finally had been imprisoned, then condemned to six months of prison with deferment. And at the expense of the lawsuit, some 60 000 �, covered mainly by many fanatics of old measurements. Will they cover the 500 000 pounds which Steve Thoburn, as a true martyr, needs to go in call? It there goes, says it, "because it must to the thousands of good English who ask him to continue his combat against the domination of Brussels". Does Australia adopt Si in 1970 Whole is perfect, then? Oh, there are of course still some failures, for example this merchant of carpet proposing a carpet of "4 meters by 10 feet"; the real transactions are always done, it is legal, on the basis of of the acre and square foot; with the cricket, the pitch is always long 22 yards; the screen of fabrics is given out of wire per inch; the majority of people, except the young people, still announce their size in feet and inches and their weight in stones; and the weight of the babies to the birth is always given in books - it is necessary well to be able to make comparisons with the babies of the preceding generations; in the stores of clothing, certain salesmen put a point of honor to be used the old system of measurement of the sizes; in much of cookbooks the receipts are given in books and ounces - the Australian kitchen never sought an international reputation. But let us not mislead there we, Australia made a success of its metrication perfectly. South Africa in 1973 Thus remarkable - and m�ritoire - success. Who does not escape excesses besides from the neophytes: in the building and public works, one does not use the centimetres, only the millimetres, because Si recommends the suffixes of 1000 in 1000; on the other hand one always indicates his size in centimetres: the statement in meters, centimetres, would point out too the feet, inches; one inflates the tires of his car only in kilopascals; and for good to dissociate Anglo-Saxon uses, the comma replaced the point like separator of the decimals. Canada is metric, but too near to the United States... The things then went very quickly: the government set up Metric Commission Canada, chaired by a director of Canadian Pacific Railway just reprocessed. The commission immediately fixed 1980 like limiting date to finish conversion. More than one hundred committees, representing each one a component of the company, were named to establish plans detailed for the passage to the metric one. One did not haggle over the means: on the initiative of the president of the commission, the walls were covered into 1972 of posters representing a pretty woman in bikini with the legend "one cannot resist to the girls whose measurements are 91-61-91"; of course the feminist movements obtained that the posters are withdrawn. The toothpastes were into 1974 the first products for human consumption to being labelled into metric. The degree Celsius replaced Fahrenheit on April 1, 1975 - the jokes are imagined. In September 1975 the rain started to fall in millimetres and snow in centimetres. At April 1, 1976 (still April first) it was the turn of the other weather data to be expressed in IF. The weekend of Labor Day the 1977 all panels of speed limit were changed on the Canadian roads (by a system of transfers - the road n� 1 7700 km is long!) the other road panels were changed into a few months. In 1979 the petrol stations passed the gallon to the liter. .... Officially, Canada is metric. In practice, the metrication exceeded the point of no return, but stopped in way. It will be able to go until the end only when the American elephant also completes its metrication to him. Some time will undoubtedly have to be waited. metrication genesis construction time Convention of the Meter the United States resistance conclusion -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John S. Ward Sent: Sunday, 2003 December 21 13:04 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:27901] Re: UK schools Hi Helen, Thanks for pointing that out. An internet search found this nice page by Louis Jourdan about metrication in the British Commonwealth, for those who read French. http://perso.wanadoo.fr/louis.jourdan/metrication/empirebrit.html John On Saturday 20 December 2003 16:23, Helen Bushnell wrote: > International comparisons of math teaching, curricular guides, and > histories of math teaching all contain dates for metric only > education. If you read French, another source is /La grande > m�trication/ by Louis Jourdan.
