Posted by Jon on September 16, 2004 at 20:10:09 from 151.121.50.1 user Jon.
In Reply to: Re: Ghastly Mess (was A Ransome Moment) posted by Peter Ceresole on September 16, 2004 at 18:46:25:
Peter Ceresole wrote:
And have you ever tried to do business in Imperial? Tons, quarters, hundredweights (112 pounds of course, not 100, that would be too easy) and pounds. And, God help me, ounces... I have. It's a total mess.
. . . to say nothing of stones . . .
. . . or surveyors dealing in rods, chains, perches, links, . . . What could be simpler?
And if I remember correctly the French revolutionaries did try a metric angular measurement system, which survives today as "grads" (400 grads to the circle), and was also used by the (US anyway) military, with equipment graduated into "mils" (my father still has, and uses, an Abney level, Army surplus, graduated thusly). They also tried a metric day, I believe (an idea frequently picked up by science fiction authors in their world-creations). So don't go blaming them because we didn't pick up all their ideas.