[USMA:36731] Re: Imperial units....in Argentina?!

[Stephen Davis]

Remek Kocz wrote:   "After all, US invented and popularized the television set, and back in the 40's and 50's, 99% of people didn't even know that something like the metric system existed. "   AHEM........!   On March 25, 1925, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave a demonstration of televised silhouette images at Selfridge's Department Store in London. But if television is defined as the transmission of live, moving, half-tone (grayscale) images, and not silhouette or still images, Baird achieved this privately on October 2, 1925. Then he gave the world's first public demonstration of a working television system to members of the Royal Institution and a newspaper reporter on January 26, 1926 at his laboratory in London. Unlike later electronic systems with several hundred lines of resolution, Baird's vertically scanned image, using a scanning disk embedded with a double spiral of lenses, had only 30 lines, just enough to reproduce a recognizable human face. In 1927 Baird transmitted a signal over 438 miles of telephone line between London and Glasgow. In 1928 Baird's company (Baird Television Development Company / Cinema Television) broadcast the first transatlantic television signal, between London and New York, and the first shore to ship transmission. He also demonstrated an electromechanical color, infrared (dubbed "Noctovision"), and stereoscopic television, using additional lenses, disks and filters. In parallel he developed a video disk recording system dubbed "Phonovision"; a number of the Phonovision[1] recordings, dating back to 1927, still exist. In 1929 he became involved in the first experimental electromechanical television service in Germany. In 1931 he made the first live transmission, of the Epsom Derby. In 1932 he demonstrated ultra-short wave television. Baird's electromechanical system reached a peak of 240 lines of resolution on BBC television broadcasts in 1936, before being discontinued in favor of a 405 line all-electronic system. America may have been at the forefront of more efficient, electronic television, but they by no means invented it.   One of the main contributors of the invention of television is covered in the above article, the person of Scottish (and therefore, a resident of the UK) persuasion is one John Logie Baird. :-)    Regards,   Steve. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: Remek Kocz To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 10:34 PM Subject: [USMA:36726] Re: Imperial units....in Argentina?! Not computer industry, but TV industry.  After all, US invented and popularized the television set, and back in the 40's and 50's, 99% of people didn't even know that something like the metric system existed.  The marketers are missing the obvious: using centimeters to categorize display size, will make it seem bigger.  They missed a golden opportunity with digital camera and cellphone displays which could have been given in either mm or cm.  Tires, BTW, are also sized by the inch across the world, since the US dominated the car industry.  Same goes for horsepower of a car engine, and for aviation instruments.  Remek On 5/6/06, Mike Millet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: You will find that even in fully metric countries such as Australia and others computer screen sizes are referred to in inches. I think it has something to do with the dominance the early US computer industry had on the world, and even though the manufacture of all computer parts is done in metric, that has stuck. I have occasionally heard screen sizes done in cm but it's very very uncommon. Mike On 5/6/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: One of my co-workers is from Argentina. One day, she was showing me an online Buenos Aires newspaper, and I couldn't help but notice the an ad for 17" computer monitors. Most of the specifications listed are in metric - but some Imperial units still managed to make it there - like degrees F for operational temperatures. I wonder if the 17" designation has any meaning to the customers, or if it viewed more like an arbitrary number (like women's dress sizes in the US)? The newspaper ad can be viewed here: http://www.lanacion.com.ar / and the product specs are here: http://www.deremate.com.ar/accdb/ViewItem.asp?Data=""> -- Scott Hudnall San Francisco, CA USA [EMAIL PROTECTED]   -- "The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?"