A piece furniture in my home needed some repair work recently. It is a recliner, whose parts are manufactured in China. The chair had broken a bolt and needed replacement. At first I assumed any bolt would slide in as a support, but it soon became apparent that only a specific bolt would do, obviously the bolt was metric sized.
This got me to thinking-- how many products require metric for servicing? Anything thats imported will be designed and manufactured in exclusively SI/metric, as well as serviced. This forces all repair industries to maintain dual inventories. This must be a heavy cost burden on the suppliers and they probably see the benefit of completing metrication. I bet this will really push conversion, especially since more and more products are imported. This is some great progress and an area that many consumers are unexposed to. Sure they still buy gas in gallons food in lbs, but how are the scales calibrated? What kind of equipment checks and services them? Its all metric behind the scenes. So my question for the other posters is: What do you think is the biggest driving force behind metrication today and how long do you think it will take for a "critical mass" to be achieved, where theres far more metric than not. It appears already underway. Once you attain that critical mass the pieces begin falling into place on their own. Market forces will make metric compulsory. -- Bernard Rachtmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Faster than the air-speed velocity of an unladen european swallow
