derek wrote:

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 19:07:23 +0000, PoP wrote:


On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:24:03 -0000, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:


Oh god. Don't get me started on imperial measurements. How many cubits in a
bushel? Give me a break. I can't believe I have to go to France to get a
decent tape measure without those grocer's apostrophe loving "middle
england" units getting on my tits.

Maybe I'm an old fogey, but I prefer inches, 1/8ths and 1/16ths to
millimetres any day.

I know I'm 6 feet tall. I'm not so sure if I'm 1.72m tall though

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't
guaranteed to reach me.



The whole British Imperial System was eminently workable.

A Rod, Pole, or Perch. was the standard width of a Victorian terraced
house in London. and equalled a standard number of bricks.

It was also equal to the length of a farm hands staff used for
"encouraging" teams of oxen pulling a plough, conveniently to hand
when measuring the amount of ploughing done.

The "old money" system conveniently divided the pound into 1/10ths, (2
shillings) and 1/8ths (half crown) 1/20th (shilling) and 1/40thcoins.
Leading to a ready made scale of inflexible price points which
discouraged inflation. Eg bananas 2'6 per pound (not 12.5p per 454
grammes), a 2oz bar of chocolate 6d.

You can't whack it.

The chocolate price stayed the same for many years 'till some stupid
government tried to put a luxury tax on it which would have made it
7 1/2 pennies so the manufacturers altered the weight and that was how
inflation started in the '60s.

DG


Love it. Rose tinted spectacles.

My father used to work in forex stuff, and had many pre computer tricks
to decimalise teh pound, there being 960 farthings in one, on trick was
to count the farthings up, and add one for every 6d, so 10/6d would be
..5, for the 10 shillings, plus .024 for the 6d in farthings. Plus one
becuase it was more than thruppnece and less than a shilling, to the
requirted three decimal places

Giving .525 old pounds.

Also, you could divide the pound exactly by one (£1), 2 (10/-), 3
(6/8d), 4 (5/- or a crown, 5 (4/-), 6 (3/4d) 8, (2/6d or haf a crown)
and 10 (2/- or a florin).

This making exact distribution of the quid that granny gave the kids for
christams an exact science in all families of less than 7 children...