Tyre pressures
- Thread starter allen-uk
- Start date
Like most engineers of my generation, I still interchange between metric and imperial depending on my particular situation. For most practical matters, it's of little importance and a concrete base for a large garden shed will be sufficiently accurate for its purpose regardless of the methodology employed.
When it comes to fine and/or accurate work, theodolites, dumpy levels, lasers, internal and external micrometers do the job and feeler gauges and vernier calipers are also useful instruments. Fortunately, by and large, most of us will never have need of such tools to mend our bikes and our biggest challenge in mix-n-match issues is probably deciphering wheel rim and tyre/tube nomenclature so that we avoid picking up the wrong item in Halfraud's.
For a long time it seemed as if political correctness ordained that everything in our lives was destined to become metric and decimal but thanks to those wise people in Brussels, we really don't need to go that way at all and following the monumental judgement of the European Court a few years ago, our market traders are perfectly free once again to advertise and sell their wares in the same quantities as did their forebears. Recently, I was really pleased to walk through a street market with several greengrocers, all of whom had their fruit and veg marked up in pounds and stones.
Sadly, the chap from the north-east who campaigned to have that option but was prosecuted more than once by trading standards, failed to live long enough to see the re-introduction of the old terminology. He was vindicated, not by any court in the UK, but by the court central to the EU that so many in this country love to condemn for not having certain vested British interests at heart.
Overheard recently in Travis Perkins: Youthful yard boy - 'Ow much d'you want then?' Builder - "About 'alf 'undredweight oughta do it!' Yard boy - 'Ow much?'
Tom
When it comes to fine and/or accurate work, theodolites, dumpy levels, lasers, internal and external micrometers do the job and feeler gauges and vernier calipers are also useful instruments. Fortunately, by and large, most of us will never have need of such tools to mend our bikes and our biggest challenge in mix-n-match issues is probably deciphering wheel rim and tyre/tube nomenclature so that we avoid picking up the wrong item in Halfraud's.
For a long time it seemed as if political correctness ordained that everything in our lives was destined to become metric and decimal but thanks to those wise people in Brussels, we really don't need to go that way at all and following the monumental judgement of the European Court a few years ago, our market traders are perfectly free once again to advertise and sell their wares in the same quantities as did their forebears. Recently, I was really pleased to walk through a street market with several greengrocers, all of whom had their fruit and veg marked up in pounds and stones.
Sadly, the chap from the north-east who campaigned to have that option but was prosecuted more than once by trading standards, failed to live long enough to see the re-introduction of the old terminology. He was vindicated, not by any court in the UK, but by the court central to the EU that so many in this country love to condemn for not having certain vested British interests at heart.
Overheard recently in Travis Perkins: Youthful yard boy - 'Ow much d'you want then?' Builder - "About 'alf 'undredweight oughta do it!' Yard boy - 'Ow much?'
Tom
Yes, Gnat it is. Strange though, rather like Gnu (wildebeest).Surely that's "Gnat's Cock"?Not to be confused with mosquitoes, ants, or the far larger measurement of "Bees Knee"?
Makes one wonder why we don't have Gnewts, since wildlife seems attached to that silent G.
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Brilliant!
Reminds me of when I asked for a 5" masonry hole borer in my local tool hire. Older guy peered at his range and said, we only have them in millimetres. I immediately said 127 mm, which they did have.
Clearly he had no idea of how to convert on the spot and equally clearly the hole borer manufacturer worked to inches in having that exact mm size.
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For large units the Wales is still in common usage. Although the Belgium is also popular.
That paints an inaccurately pro-EU picture of the case.
Steve Thoburn was convicted by Sunderland Magistrates' Court in 2001.
His appeals in this country were denied, as was his petition to the European Court of Human Rights.
He died in 2004.
The matter was dealt with by an EU directive in 2007, but it was no vindication of Thoburn, or anything to do with him directly.
The EU disliked his challenge to their authority just as much as our bureaucrats and courts did.
Although unconnected with him, the 2007 European Commission permission to use imperial weights indefinitely was a vindication of the courageous stand in favour of commonsense that he and many others made.
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I was taught how to make small adjustments but not how to spell.Surely that's "Gnat's Cock"?
Education = a tomato is a fruit
Knowledge = not in a fruit salad
Knowledge = not in a fruit salad