Do we need an expensive study to tell us what we already know, namely, that it is a lot of old wank. Reintroducing imperial weights and measurements will entail a fuckload of costs for no discernible benefit other than to make a few geriatric tory xenophobes feel special. By the time we get around to actually introducing it, most will be dead anyway.
2 Likes
Hopefully from 303s
3 Likes
The US still use it (or a version of it) to a degree. If weâre ever* going to become the USâs major source of, say, plywood sheets, or corn syrup, it might be handy to be trading in their units.
*We arenât, at least not in the universe you and I inhabit.
1 Like
I may be wrong but I believe that the American system while sharing our terms actually uses slightly different units of measurement. For example a UK gallon and an American gallon are not the same.
Maybe he has shares in Salter?
Indeed, If American cowboys had been in the UK they would have needed 8.32674 Gallon hats
3 Likes
Yup. Their fluid measurements generally arenât the same. They also differ in things like their preferred screw thread standards.
Surely they would round it off to 8 1/3rd
None of that metricised rubbish.
1 Like
Well I have seen US engineering drawings with inches and decimals of inches.
As Graeme said, I think some thread sizes were really weird
At a previous client they got their decimal inches and decimal feet mixed up and ended up with 1/10th of a foot instead of 1/10th of an inch. What a load of shiteâŠ. Theyâre pissing away our money on something even stupider than one of his bridges or is that how theyâll justify his next stupid bridge, by quoting it in yards and pounds?
UK imperial engineering drawings always used fractions IME
Machining tolerances in thous
I used to have quite a few imperial micrometers but gave them away. My Moore & Wright manual (non LCD) vernier calliper is metric and imperial.
In the 80s I was working with some quite clever hydraulic calculation programs.
Because it was used in the US and in Europe it would work quite happily in lbs/sq in or Kg/sq cm
In the pub one lunchtime a mate realised that it would work with anything as long as you speciifed a weight and an area.
He got it working in stones/acre.
The drawing office werenât best pleased when they looked at the calculation resuts.
3 Likes
Quite so Paul, you would have far more experience than me in that field 
My first job was in an Architectural practice. One week you would be producing an imperial drawing at 1/4" to 1ft and the next week you might be drawing in metric scale at 1:50
It was a good way to familiarise yourself with both systems.
The first surveying field course at college was measuring an unusually shaped fieldâŠ
using chains
2 Likes
2 Likes
I had an apprentice in the estimating dept once who said that he didnât know what to do with the drawings he was looking at.
He said âthis is a an old building and it says it is 1/4â to 1ft and I have only got a metric scale rule"
He was measuring cable runs so I told him to use 1:50
He looked really confused so I said that 1:48 was close enough to 1:50 for what he was doing.
He still didnât get it as he really didnât think in, or understand imperial units, he couldnât see that 1/4" to 1ft and 1:48 were the same thing
1 Like
Iâm sure I feel a separate thread coming here 
Iâve still got several imperial scale rules along with all of my drawing instruments from a time before drawing on a PC was a thing.
1 Like
Fuuuuucccckkkk!!! Reminds me of working on the suspension of a Rover P4 100; now my apprenticeship saw me working with Metric stuff eg: I need a 10, 13, 16, 22mm Socket and\or Spanner.
The âAuntieâ introduced me to fucking weird shit like âQuarter WhitââŠâ
What the actual fuck?
Having said that, Wheel and Tyre sizes are still in Inches, arenât they. 
When I worked with my old man (carpenter) when i was a kid he used to give me dimensions to cut. 18 1/4 by 1800 wouldnât be an uncommon ask. Looking back i think he did it deliberately to make me think about the implications of my cutting decisions. Measure twice, cut once may be a clichĂ© but itâs probably the best piece of advice you will ever get no matter what industry you are in.
1 Like