• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Measurements

  • Thread starter Thread starter V70PDB
  • Start date Start date
I got insulted by a man/boy in a suit at a weights and measures exhibition in Brum when on a visit there, they were showing many of the ways people get fiddled by dodgy traders.

This young man was rabbiting on and on about car dealers and I was standing next to him, I told him that I was a car dealer and had been for many years, he said "We get a lot of trouble from people like you."
I told him he'd better take a little more training and a bit less prejudice before speaking to strangers.
 
They tried to be top dog in all matters Viv, when I had the garage they had a turf war going between them and the fire service about who should be in charge of the forecourt safety, petrol pumps, signage, fire extinguishers, etc.
They also wanted to run the food care side that was the job of the local council health inspectors so we'd get two inspections on both forecourt and shop, two different inspectors covering the same ground and with different opinions of what was right and wrong. A real pain.
 
Wouldn't mind owning this. Nice little item.

Being priced at just over £20 plus over £40 postage (from the US - rip off) - shall give it a miss. According to the eBay listing, Wm Tabberer was a Birmingham manufacturer. Unusual name. Viv.
image.jpeg
 
I've just read this thread from start to finish and found it fascinating. I often find myself reading old maps with rods, poles and perches measurements. When exactly did we go metric? Was it to do with becoming 'part of Europe' with the Common Market? I wish I'd paid more attention.

I still grapple with metric but my husband only thinks in metres and millimetres (doesn't do cm's). If I want to visualise a metre I think of a yard and add my index finger length. I understand that children are taught in centimetres as a millimetre would be too small for them.

I have started cooking in gms and mls as it's far more accurate that lbs and ozs but I don't like it as much. Mind you I always thought that a teaspoon / tablespoon measurement depended a lot on the size of the spoon. At least you know where you are with 5ml and 15ml.

By the way - I loved the 'feel' of those red exercise books!
 
pen i am as wise as you as to when and why but i know one thing...when i go into a proper butchers i still ask for my meat etc in pounds and ounces...always have always will and no one bats an eye...guess im just too old fashioned in me ways:D

lyn
 
Living in Crete, if I want to use measurements it has to be metric as they don't know anything else locally, but I still have to do a conversion in my head as I'm darned if I can visualise metric. It just ain't natural!

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Living in Crete, if I want to use measurements it has to be metric as they don't know anything else locally, but I still have to do a conversion in my head as I'm darned if I can visualise metric. It just ain't natural!

Maurice
Click to expand...

Maurice I would have thought Crete etc , would still be measuring in the old cubit wasn't that what built the Parthenon and the pyramids ?
 
As a former Maths teacher I have spent a large part of my life teaching the metric system but still cook using lbs and ozs, think of my height in ft and ins and my weight in st and lbs.
The biggest problem is that we were supposed to go metric but then left some things as they were eg mph, pints of beer, gallons of petrol, shirt collars are still in inches (as far as I know) and so on.
 
pjmburns said:
As a former Maths teacher I have spent a large part of my life teaching the metric system but still cook using lbs and ozs, think of my height in ft and ins and my weight in st and lbs.
The biggest problem is that we were supposed to go metric but then left some things as they were eg mph, pints of beer, gallons of petrol, shirt collars are still in inches (as far as I know) and so on.
Click to expand...

oh dear jan no wonder i am confused:D you are correct about the shirt sizes..still in inches:rolleyes: is it a bit late to teach me the abacus:D

lyn
 
Alan,

Petrol is roughly twice the price that it was when we moved over here in 2005. Most of it tax, of course.

Phil,

Cubits went out a while ago :-) but in 2009 there were still people pricing in drachmas, though the rate was rubbish.

Janice,

My maths ability is still good, though most of my retirement is spent doing simple arithmetic. I can still work out a square root by hand - like riding a bike, it is something you remember. The problem is in visualising metric quantities without spending time doing the conversion into imperial measurements as I'm sure you are aware. It has become a much more unfriendly world now... need I say more?

Maurice
 
It could be worse. At Bournville (in the late 1960s) I once saw a recipe which involved oz, lb., minims, gallons and grams. this arose i think when two recipes were combined.
 
I first recall metric being used was around 1969 when we did technical drawing at school. It was all a bit half hearted, and not consistent across all lessons.

I got into it properly at College and have to say it did make life easier. Working up 39 and a half yards at 17/6 1/2D a yard did get complicated, to me at least. We did have lookup tables, and small mechanical calculators that sat on the desk, not in the pocket.

I still used both and can switch between either, but now find 6 and 13/16ths” a bit of a faff.
 
The lengths are easy enough Maurice if you remember 100mm/10cm = 4 inches 150mm/15cm = 6 inches 300mm/ 30cm is a foot or near as dammit. :)
 
I recall the Ford Motor Company saying that going metric would save them 6 million dollars a year back when it was proposed in the late fifties.
 
The post by Morturn reminds me of those invaluable "Ready Reckoners" that were essential for many workplaces.
iu


iu
 
Eric,

I remember when my cabinetmaking company was making cabinets for Ampex in the States, we used to get drawings from them with a tolerance of 1/64th of an inch. I had to remind them that some timbers can shift as much as 2 & 1/2% with extremes of humidity, so their tolerances were meaningless - produced by engineers who had never worked with timber before! Don't take any notice of the drawing - it's only a guide! :-) :-) :-)

Maurice
 
Radiorails said:
The post by Morturn reminds me of those invaluable "Ready Reckoners" that were essential for many workplaces.
iu


iu
Click to expand...
I had forgotten all about these, pre computer/adding machine ways of life along with logarithms and slide rules, how easy the young have now got it. Discounts and percentages made easy.
Bob
 
In my very first job, one of the little things I had to do at the end of each month was to get the weight tickets from our weighbridge office for the lorries that had taken away our scrap metal. I then had to work out the invoices we sent to the scrap merchants multiplying tons, cwts and qrts by the price per ton to get the sale price in £sd. I did not actually do the multiplication, I took the figures to a comptometer operator who converted everything to decimal. multiplied it out and converted it back to £sd. I wonder how many ladies on this forum used to be comp operators, a job for women which no longer exists in offices.

A picture of a comptometer. I see this is a decimal version. I remember them with shillings and pence keys.
220px-Comptometer_Model_WM.jpg
 
Bob Davis said:
I had forgotten all about these, pre computer/adding machine ways of life along with logarithms and slide rules, how easy the young have now got it. Discounts and percentages made easy.
Bob
Click to expand...
A lot cheaper than present day computers/phones etc. and what is more they were rarely stolen, became obsolete or simply useless due to failure or batteries and were not reliant on a paid for system like the internet!! :eek:
 
DavidGrain said:
In my very first job, one of the little things I had to do at the end of each month was to get the weight tickets from our weighbridge office for the lorries that had taken away our scrap metal. I then had to work out the invoices we sent to the scrap merchants multiplying tons, cwts and qrts by the price per ton to get the sale price in £sd. I did not actually do the multiplication, I took the figures to a comptometer operator who converted everything to decimal. multiplied it out and converted it back to £sd. I wonder how many ladies on this forum used to be comp operators, a job for women which no longer exists in offices.

A picture of a comptometer. I see this is a decimal version. I remember them with shillings and pence keys.
220px-Comptometer_Model_WM.jpg
Click to expand...
We used to have young ladies who could fly through a bill of quantities with the old comptometer, have not seen one for years, who remembers the teleprinter?
Bob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top