wrote in message
...
On 11 Mar 2006 21:36:15 -0800, "RicodJour"
wrote:

That's another idiotic thing about the measurement system we use. We
use 16d nails, the d stands for penny, and we ask for a 16 penny nail,
even though the letter designation is the wrong letter and the penny
hasn't had anything to do with the size of the nail for over a century.
A 16d nail is ~3.5" long, which is 8.89 centimeters, you'd just ask
for a 9 cm nail. Since the 16d nail doesn't relate to anything about
the nail _anyway_, they might keep the name and it wouldn't matter.
You'd still know it was roughly the right size.

Yes, i know it means penny, which you'd think would be "P" not "D",
but the guy was probably a real bad speller.


d is the symbol for penny. It started a long time ago in England. 16d nails
cost 16 cents per hundred. Smaller nails cost less per hundred so you get
8d, 6d, etc.

However, WHAT DOES penny have to do with a nail? Is that what they
used to charge per nail? (Which would be very expensive even today),
so I am going to take a wild guess that was the price per some
quantity of them.

It's funny, we learn all these things and never question them until
one day it slaps you in the face, like this just slapped me....

Mark