Nope, euros. This is France.
Carleton Who took the picture and bought the beer From: Jeremiah MacGregor [mailto:jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com] Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2009 01:38 To: carlet...@comcast.net; U.S. Metric Association Subject: Re: [USMA:43460] RE: Mistaken blather from a correspondent on another list This picture is very interesting. Ken asked a few weeks back how one can tell the difference between a 500 mL glass and one that is 568 mL. If the chalk board did not say so, would the British tourist know they were getting a 500 mL pint and not a 568 mL pint? Most would insist it was a British pint because that is what they are use to when they hear the word pint. It even looks like they are pricing it in pounds instead of euros. Jerry _____ From: Carleton MacDonald <carlet...@comcast.net> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Saturday, March 7, 2009 5:05:56 PM Subject: [USMA:43460] RE: Mistaken blather from a correspondent on another list Such as this sign, noted outside a café in Lourdes, France, in June 2005. Carleton From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 14:38 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:43446] RE: Mistaken blather from a correspondent on another list On 2009/03/08, at 4:53 AM, Norman & Nancy Werling wrote: I haven't participated in these exchanges (arguments?) within the USMA email list. However, I had never became conversant with the terms just mentioned such as "fifth" even though I am now age 73. I guess it meant a fifth of a gallon. Anyway I just checked three cold bottles of wine in our refrigerator and find that two are 750 ml and one is 1.5 L. There is absolutely no reference to any fluid ounces, gallons, quarts, or any obsolete measures from Imperial (so-called English) or equally antiquated U.S. Customary volume. Norman Werling Dear Norman, I think that the history of bottle sizes goes something like this: * In the UK the bottle was designed and made to be a sixth of an Imperial gallon. This made it possible and convenient to account for beer or wine production in terms of two gallons to the dozen. Dozens were, and are, a convenient packing format for bottles. One sixth of an Imperial gallon works out as 26 2/3 fluid ounces (Imp) or 757.682 millilitres. * When these bottles were exported to the USA the amount they contained worked out to be 757.0824 millilitres or close to 1/5 of a (wet USA) gallon and still containing 757.682 millilitres. * As metrication became more common in the UK and in the USA, the amount of the contents in wine or beer bottles was quietly rounded down from 757.682 millilitres (UK) or 757.0824 millilitres (USA) to 750 millilitres. * The current trend in downsizing is to round down the 750 mL to 700 mL. This is common in Australia for spirits like gin, whiskey, and brandy but I don't know whether this trend has begun yet in the UK or the USA. * These days much beer is sold in a little under half the amount (375 mL) of the full size traditional large bottle (757.682 mL). Rounding down in this size is currently to 355 mL and to 330 mL bottles and cans. I suspect that the marketers have 300 mL in their sights as all they need is an unregulated period when they can adjust bottle and can sizes to suit themselves. On another related issue, I have watched over the years a trend in the UK and Australia to provide quantities of beer in glasses that can only hold the advertised amount when filled to the brim of the glass. This trend began in about the 1940s. Prior to that the practice was to provide a glass that held about 10 % more than the advertised quantity to allow for a 'head' of froth. I have an old beer glass that is labelled 11 ounces (Imp) that was used in Australia to provide half a pint of beer of 10 ounces (Imp). A current beginnings of a new trend that I have seen in Australia and in Singapore is to provide beer in a 500 millilitre glass that can only hold 500 mL if filled to the brim. These new pints (and yes I have seen them advertised as 'pints') mean that the glass when filled to the brim hold about 440 millilitres of beer and about 60 millilitres of froth to fill the 500 mL glass. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeremiah MacGregor <mailto:jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com> To: U.S. <mailto:usma@colostate.edu> Metric Association Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 10:58 PM Subject: [USMA:43395] RE: Mistaken blather from a correspondent on another list Sorry, I didn't think about the wine and spirits. Yet even though they come in metric sizes I have never heard an average Joe refer to them by their metric size. It wouldn't surprise me if the vast majority of Americans who consume alcohol are totally unaware that the sizes are metric. The standard 750 mL bottle is always referred to as a fifth. So as far as the consumer is concerned, the metric is hidden. Has anyone ever heard or seen the metric size used by someone they encountered? As far as consumables are concerned I believe I am correct when I say that even though there is metric on the packaging, it is usually in the 2-nd position and oblivious to the consumer. It would be an interesting test to go into a super market and conduct a survey of different shoppers. Hand them a package of any dual marked product and ask them to read the contents stated on the label. Chances are very high that they will read off only the English measures and ignore the metric as if it was not there. Even with the long existence of the 2 liter soda bottle it is highly likely the average consumer has no idea that the liter is a unit of volume and in their mind it is a description of the bottle shape. The use of metric units by the federal government does not affect consumers. Most people are unaware that the government operates in metric and might even consider it un-patriotic if they found it to be true. A Pilot's job is not consumer related. But consumers do fly in the planes and never on a domestic flight have I ever heard the use of metric units by the flight crew when addressing the passengers. I have on an occasion heard the pilot stutter when giving temperatures figuring that he was quickly trying to convert the metric to English. I don't think anyone else figured that out. When the government adopts metric it is with the belief that the general public is not ever to know. Even with the American automobile industry fully metric, how many Americans do you think actually know this and accept this? Jerry _____ From: John M. Steele <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>; jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com Sent: Friday, March 6, 2009 10:15:56 PM Subject: Re: [USMA:43389] RE: Mistaken blather from a correspondent on another list Well, *The government forces the wine and spirit industries to use metric sized bottles *The government forces all foods and "consumables" to be dual labelled in Customary and metric *The government supposedly procures its supplies in metric and requires construction of Federal buildings to be metric (I believe there are significant loopholes that somewhat dilute this.) *The government forces the airlines to accept a mixed mess of units in the aviation weather product known as METAR. The temperature and dewpoint are degrees C, but everything else is Customary. On the other hand, they don't do much to finish the job, or ensure children get an adequate metric education, and other government agencies (EIA) refuse to supply information (energy usage) in metric units to industries that have already voluntarily converted (automotive). --- On Fri, 3/6/09, Jeremiah MacGregor <jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com> wrote: > From: Jeremiah MacGregor <jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com> > Subject: [USMA:43389] RE: Mistaken blather from a correspondent on another list > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> > Date: Friday, March 6, 2009, 9:03 PM > But so far the government hasn't really become involved > to a point that affects consumers. Whatever metric we > encounter comes from the free choice of people. For > example, did the government force any industry to go > metric? Yet, there are those who have freely chosen to do > so. Pat Naughtin 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 services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
