Forum: Author Hangout

Metric

Switch Blayde 🚫

I'm watching a series on Netflix called "Midwife." It takes place in London in the late 1950s. The accents are so strong that I have subtitles turned on. But even with subtitles, there are words I've never seen. I don't know if it's slang, Scottish words (I believe one character is from Scotland), or words from that time period that aren't used anymore.

I digress, but I wanted you to understand how regionalized it is. In the episode I watched last night, there was a heavyset girl (who happened to be pregnant but no one knew) who was being fitted for a costume for the Christmas nativity performance in the church. She said she was "40 inches at the hips."

Why inches?

Replies: Dominions Son Keet

BlacKnight 🚫

The U.K. didn't go metric until the mid-1960s.

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

The use of inches is period correct.

https://www.britannica.com/science/British-Imperial-System

In Imperial units

…units of measurement of the British Imperial System, the traditional system of weights and measures used officially in Great Britain from 1824 until the adoption of the metric system beginning in 1965. The United States Customary System of weights and measures is derived from the British Imperial System. Imperial units…

Keet 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Why inches?

Because both the US and the UK use inches for clothing sizes? For example jeans are still almost universally measured in inches.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Keet

For example jeans are still almost universally measured in inches.

Most UK clothing seems to be manufactured in Asian sweatshops, and they're sized in both Imperial (for Brits) and continental (for the riff-raff on the wrong side of the English Channel).

AJ

Replies: Keet richardshagrin

Keet 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Most UK clothing seems to be manufactured in Asian sweatshops, and they're sized in both Imperial (for Brits) and continental (for the riff-raff on the wrong side of the English Channel).

Last week I bought 2 pairs of Lee jeans here in the Netherlands. The size on the label was in inches only, no other metrics. I guess it depends on where they come from although nowadays even US/UK brand jeans will probably be manufactured in Asia like you mentioned.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Keet

although nowadays even US/UK brand jeans will probably be manufactured in Asia

It's true in the U.S. That's why when you buy a shirt one sleeve is longer than the other.

I didn't realize U.K. wasn't always metric. Thanks, everyone.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

I didn't realize U.K. wasn't always metric.

No country on the face of the Earth has always been metric. The metric system is relatively young as systems of weights and measures go.

France was first, at the tail end of the 18th century, as the metric system was developed there.

Most of Europe, and a good chunk of South America went exclusively metric in the 19th century. Most of the rest of the world converted after WWII.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication#Chronology_and_status_of_conversion_by_country/region

richardshagrin 🚫

@awnlee jawking

(for the riff-raff on the wrong side of the English Channel).

"Why is the English channel called La Manche?
In this case the stretch of water between France and the UK is actually looking like a sleeve thereby the name La Manche. ... La manche reflects the shape of the water between France and England. It looks like a sleeve ( la manche). The brits decided to call it the English Channel."

Replies: QM

QM 🚫

@richardshagrin

It's only called La Manche by the barbarians on the other side of it from England. No one of true regard uses La Manche.

Replies: ian_macf richardshagrin

ian_macf 🚫

@QM

Fog in the Channel, Continent isolated

(mythical British newspaper headline)

Ian

richardshagrin 🚫

@QM

No one of true regard uses La Manche.

It may be part of Brexit.

Pixy 🚫

And the UK still isn't fully metric. We still use Imperial for lots of things, weights and measures, land size, road distance...

BarBar 🚫

Even after "going metric" it has taken more than a generation for everything to be universally adopted. I can't speak for UK but in Aus (metric in 1970), it's basically a case of the generation who first started learning metric in school are the flag for how far the conversion has gone. Older folk use a mixture of both depending on situation but many still think in feet and inches. That generation pretty much had to learn feet and inches outside of school so they could talk sensibly with their parents. The younger ones are now mostly metric but young people still occasionally talk about their height in feet and inches 50 years after "going metric"

Replies: Ernest Bywater

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@BarBar

it's basically a case of the generation who first started learning metric in school are the flag for how far the conversion has gone.

It's more than that, and will continue to be an issue for generations to come. I was taught metric and imperial while in school in the 1960s, so I can handle both well. However, the conversions are another matter. You're right about the younger generations having to learn imperial on the fly as my son, born in 1988, was only taught metric in school but has had to learn imperial to deal with thing I and others talk about.

Also, a lot of people in employments like historical building renovations and repairs, and others who have to deal with physical constructions built in imperial measurements, have to learn imperial to ensure that their work is compatible with the original.

Mind you, there is then the social inertia of fuel consumption being spoken of as mileage despite it now referring to how many litres to the 100 kilometres instead of the miles to the gallon. It's kind of like how people now butter their bread with margarine because they don't use butter.

Replies: ian_macf awnlee jawking

ian_macf 🚫
Updated:

@Ernest Bywater

how many litres to the 100 kilometres

That's one metric I have never got used to. Personally (as a Brit who migrated to Australia in 1973) I still think in kilometres per litre, having converted from miles per gallon..

I no longer think of my weight in stones or height in feet and inches, regular medical checkups are solely in kilograms and metres/centimetres, so that's the way I think of them.

Ian

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

Mind you, there is then the social inertia of fuel consumption being spoken of as mileage

In the UK, pricing of automotive fuel was changed from per gallon to per litre at the behest of the government and fuel companies who wanted to circumvent disquiet at how high the price per gallon had risen.

AJ

solitude 🚫

If reading a story by a Brit, watch out for

* fuel consumption being measured in miles per gallon (mpg) even though fuel has been sold and priced by the litre for decades;

* Gallons and pints being bigger than in the USA - "a pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter". Of course this means the mpg of a car in the UK is 25% better than can be achieved in the USA.

* People still think of their weight in 'stones' and pounds: 1 stone is 14 pounds. 11 stones (154 pounds) is about 70kg. A lady might boast "I've lost a stone and a half on my new diet".

Radagast 🚫

So she lost a stone of scones, as opposed to the British parliament losing the Stone of Scone.

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫

@Radagast

Well, the Stone was only ever stolen by the Brits...

Replies: ian_macf

ian_macf 🚫

@bk69

I think you mean

> stolen by the English ...

Ian

richardshagrin 🚫

So England is still in the Stone Age.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@richardshagrin

So England is still in the Stone Age.

No, it's England, they are in the Henge Age.

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Forum: Author Hangout

Metric

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