[USMA:35807] Re: London Buses

[Pat Naughtin]

Title: Re: [USMA:35786] Re: London Buses

On 24/01/06 4:34 AM, "Anon Anon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> routemaster specification

Thanks Terry,

Using the word 'specification' in my Google searches was the word that I missed.

It looks like the Routemaster bus was manufactured to metric specifications and then dumbed down to Imperial words for the use of the British public. In short, it looks like the Routemaster was a nominal '30 feet'.

Although it's difficult to wade through the conversion confusion and sundry obfuscation that conversion usually brings, it looks to me like the story goes like this:

The Routemaster used an  AEC AV590 engine with a 9.6 litre capacity or a Leyland 0600 diesel with a 9.8 litre capacity. These specifications were then dumbed down for the public as ‘engines rated at 115 bhp’.

The overall length of most of the buses were designed and built with an overall length of 9.1 metres. This was then converted to 358.2677 (post-1959 metric) inches, which were divided by 12 to give 29.8556 feet and this was the number that was rounded to 29 feet 10 inches, and then given the nominal name ‘30 feet’.

Most descriptions of Routemaster buses are given as ‘30 feet’ buses with a ‘engines rated at 115 bhp’, and by using only 115 bhp and 30 feet as specifications of the Routemaster for the public you foster the illusion  that (as I once heard in the USA), ‘English units are for the best in this all English units world’.

Cheers,

Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008

Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'.
You can subscribe by going to http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter

Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual – for writers, editors and printers'. He is a Member of the National Speakers Association of Australia and the International Federation of Professional Speakers. He is also recognised as a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. For more information go to: http://metricationmatters.com

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