On 2011/06/26, at 02:21 , Martin Vlietstra wrote:
> Many years ago I collected the serialized version of Churchill’s “History of
> the English Speaking People” and had them bound. I consulted one of the
> supporting articles and the writer assets that English replaced French as the
> language of court during Chaucer’s time.
>
> Fast-forward 300 years.
>
> George I and George II were both born in Germany and as far as I can recall,
> neither spoke English, so George III was the first **Hannoverian** to speak
> English as a mother tongue.
>
> French is still often used as the official language of diplomacy – although
> English has surpassed French as the working language in the BIPM, official
> documentation (eg the SI brochure and resolutions of the CGPM etc) are
> officially issued in French and English is a translation.
Dear Martin,
Thanks for these historical details. I will not investigate the use of French
any further except to say that whenever French was discontinued as the Court
Language of England after the 1066 invasion it left behind all the French words
currently promoted by the BWMA. I suppose that it doesn't matter too much what
language the Royal Court spoke given that it left the legacy of all of these
old French measuring words. However, that said, the main political forces and
alterations to the weights and measures of England came with the 1215 Magna
Carta, and the laws of 1272 and 1297 during a French speaking period of the
Royal Court of England; about 100 years before Chaucer's time.
So in summary the history of measurement for the UK went like this:
In the late 800s, Alfred the Great promoted decimal measurements for his now
united kingdom that was in so many ways the beginnings of England as a nation.
Alfred intended that the decimal measures used in England at that time would be
supported financially by his government; he proposed to supply relatively
inexpensive rods (about 5 metres) and wands of about a metre (1007 mm) and that
the lengths of these would be be maintained by government officials. In short,
it appears that he was promoting an honest, simple, decimal measuring system
and he meant that the government should support it intellectually and
financially.
In 1066, England was invaded by Guillaume le Conquérant (William the
Conqueror). Guillaume brought with him the French measuring words that he had
used previously in France: Pieds du Roi, pintes, bousseau, livra, and so on.
These were new to England and not part of the Alfred the Great decimal measures
then in use in England. Importantly, there was no method of government support
for these new French measuring words so, as always without government control,
they soon simply became words that could be used to promote "freedom of choice"
in measuring. "Freedom of choice" in measurement always means that anyone who
has any power at all over their customers devises definitions of measuring
words to suit themselves - a big boisseau for buying and a little boisseau for
selling became as common in England as it was in France. "Freedom of choice"
also applied to all other measures; as an example you might recall that
"freedom of choice" produced some 60 000 different mass and weight measures in
France just before the 1889 revolution when people demanded "Un roi, une loi,
un poids, et une mesure" (one king, one law, one weight, and one measure). Also
users and promoters of "freedom of choice" in measurement soon developed new
measuring methods that had not been used previously; the so-called metric
martyr, Janet Devers' use of her own kitchen bowl for selling fruit an
vegetables comes to mind.
Thirdly, Bishop John Wilkins made a major step toward measurement honesty when,
in 1668, he invented the "universal measure" that became the "decimal metric
system" that everyone in the world now uses for all activities every day. The
"decimal metric system" is now so ingrained into all of our cultures that it is
now impossible to use the old French measuring words without referring to their
metric system definitions - and this is true not only for both the UK and for
the USA but also for the rest of us, even for Liberia and Burma.
It is my contention that the BWMA deliberately discards the first and third
parts of the measurement history of the UK to promote the French words brought
to England by William the Conqueror in 1066. They do this in the full knowledge
of the complexity of these French words with their multiple, and difficult to
use, conversion factors (16 1/2 metric feet per rod, pole, or perch is not one
of my favourites!) and all the difficulties that the people of the UK -
including all school children - have to face before they can reject all of
these old words in favour of the simplicity of the decimal metric system. I
sometimes put it like this:
SHOW the COST
English metric system Old French words
Simple Complex
Honest Obscure
Open Secret
Worldwide
Territorial
And cost there is to using old measuring words. You might recall that the
Confederation of British Industry surveyed their members and then estimated
that using the metric system reduced their overall turnover by about 9 % and
increased their net profits by some 14 %. Keep in mind that a transition to the
metric system can be done in as little as a single day - but by using old
French measuring words and their conversions you can delay this easy upgrade to
200 years or more.
Overall, I cannot support in any way the apparent behaviour of the BWMA in
their attempts to delay the implementation of Bishop Wilkins plan for honest
measurement in the UK by exclusively promoting the old French measuring words
and ignoring the actual decimal history of measurement in the UK.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin LCAMS
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see
http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
Hear Pat speak at:
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped
thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric
system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each
year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides
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