Posted on 11/05/2012 2:14:59 PM PST by null and void
A ha'penny was almost exactly one cent. A pence was almost exactly two cents. A thruppence was a little more than a nickel. Sixpence was a smidgen more than a dime. A shilling was a little less than a quarter. A florin was close to a half-dollar.
It got a little weirder when the higher denominations came in, but our ancestors could still cope. A half-crown? Right around sixty cents. A crown? Less than $1.25. And, a British Sovereign plus two bits was almost exactly five dollars.
In Newfoundland - yes, the Dominion of Newfoundland - one Newfie cent was fixed by law at exactly one ha'penny. So, a Brit shilling was exactly twenty-four Newfie cents. A florin was N$0.48. A crown was exactly N$1.20. And a Sovereign plus a twenty-cent Newfie coin was exactly N$5.00.
I have a Newfoundland gold coin with face value N$2.00. In small letters, it says: "Two Hundred Cents - One Hundred Pence." The funny thing is, the gold value of the coin is well over £100 now.
Real 2 X 4s? Then they must have been unmilled. Milling takes a quarter-inch off each of the four sides, leaving the standard 1 1/2" X 3 1/2" dealie.
I have seen real, unmilled 2 X 8s: a full two inches thick. Needless to say, they were hammered into place a long, long time ago.
The good old French Revolution; the real birth of communistic revolution and a failure that collapsed in on itself.
There was actually a time when the British government issued a half-farthing. First issued in 1828; ashcanned in 1869. Believe it or not, the Brits even issued a third-farthing around that time. Both were intended for use in British colonies: Ceylon and Malta respectively.
A 1/3 farthing coin? Egad, that was a terribly small denomination.
I've actually used it that way, when times were harsher than they are now.
The thing you didn't mention about unmilled 2x4s is the gritching splinters. They are not happy-happy, joy-joy making kinds of things.
The floor was worse.
/johnny
The Canucks use it in curling.
Vehicle wheel (and tire wheel fitment) sizes are all in inch. Even in Europe and other ‘metric-only’ areas.
The Europeans tried to introduce metric-sized wheels and it turned out to be an expensive total failure in the market place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_TRX
Their draftsmen don’t like it much either. Toyota, Nissan and VW all send their blueprints in standard increments, not metric.The parts themselves are in metric, and will have screws, nuts, and bolts in metric. They will be done to standard measurements though
Metric might be more convenient for SI units and scales in manufacturing of widgets smaller than breadboxes, but for land and real estate and most Civil Engineering projects, even if shown in metric or soft metric, most US projects are still designed in English/Imperial units.
While Metric allows for easy base 10 mathematical operations, the English system has a penchant for multiples of 3 and 4, allowing easier intuitive trade transactions.
Other elements of the Imperial/English system were based upon agricultural and commonly used hydraulic basis of design. HVAC is based upon ‘tonnes’ of ice cooling. Miles, although originally equivalent to 5000 ped (feet) from the Roman Army, became associated with 8 furlongs in the days of Queen Elizabeth (5280 ped/feet) allowing real estate to be composed of sections and townships and ranges, distinguishing local areas of governance manageable by horseback and footraffic.
There are advantages to units of weights and measures divisible by thirds and quarters. Areas may be subdivided rather than simply bisected. Divided parcels tend to fall more orderly for municipal planning functions for utility networks.
Even today, US pipelines tend to be designed in inch diameters, even if measured in centimeters or meters. 2.54cm = 1 in, and one will find 4” diameter lines and 10.16cm dia lines, but rarely 10 cm dia lines.
Ergonometrics tends to favor the Imperial/English systems of measures.
For myself, I still favor the Imperial/English system of measures for construction, though if engaged in nanotechnology or interplanetary travel, the metric system has its advantages.
Albert Champion Spark Plugs.
Don’t mess with a 12 ga.
That from an age when money slowly increased in value over time. How's that for a vignette?
Speaking of low denominations, the early Republic saw the Mint issue a half-cent coin. Despite its small monetary value, it was about the size of a quarter. The switch from the large cent to the small cent in 1858 put the kibosh on the half-penny. The original large cent was more than an inch in diameter.
27-29 millimetres for all you metric guys :)
No wonder so few people complained about the 1/4" shave-offs of milled boards...
The metric system’s forte is that it has a much better grasp on the concept of mass.
Yeah, but pretty much every Canadian knows what 454 g means. And there are lots of grocery items that are sold in exactly that weight.
The beer in my fridge is exactly 341 millilitres per bottle. Care to guess what that translates into?
“And for some reason my 10 MM wrench is constantly missing!
“Ha, I’ve ended up with a plethora of 10 mm wenches and sockets.
A ripoff?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.