On 2007/11/26, at 6:32 AM, James Frysinger wrote:
Pat Naughtin has seen them here quite often as well, but he's a
"metric tourist" over here, so his eye gravitates to units with
which he's familiar. Non-metric people who live here rarely "see"
what we see. Actually they do see those metric units, but they
don't notice them and the experience does not register.
Dear Jim,
What you say about my biased eye is quite true but it does not tell
the complete story.
I am also aware that the old pre-metric measuring words are only a
thin veneer that hides the overwhelming use of the metric system in
the USA.
As we both know it has not been possible to use the words such the
'inch' and the 'ounce' without using the metric system since Thomas
C. Mendenhall (the Superintendent of Weights and Measures for the
USA) declared that a prototype metre and a prototype kilogram were
the nation's 'fundamental standards'. Since 1893, all measures — let
me repeat that with emphasis — all measures in the USA have been —
and still are — fully metric. The USA Secretary of the Treasury
legally declared that the metre and the kilogram were the
'fundamental standards of length and mass' for the USA sometime in
the 1890s.
While it is true that I see metric measurements all over the place in
the USA because of my biased eye; it is also true that I see many,
many, examples of old fashioned pre-metric measuring words that are
all really metric measures in disguise.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin helps people understand how to go about their
metrication upgrade– quickly and easily – by helping them avoid
mistakes that he has made himself, or that he has seen made by others
during his more than 35 years of involvement with metrication
matters. Contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Pat specialises in the modern metric system based on the
International System of Units (SI), but he is mostly concerned with
the processes that people use for themselves, their groups, their
businesses, their industries, and their nations as they go about
their inevitable metrication process. See: http://
www.metricationmatters.com/
Pat Naughtin is a highly knowledgeable metric enthusiast, who is also
a writer, professional speaker, editor, and publisher. He spoke in
many places in the USA in 2005 and his most recent speaking tour, in
2007, included Singapore, Paris, London, Toronto, Washington,
Tennessee, Colorado, Idaho, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Recent
clients have been the United Kingdom Metric Association, The Canadian
Metric Association, the United States Metric Association, NIST in
Washington, Google in San Francisco, and NASA in Los Angeles.
