When did metric take over?

In the late 1700's, each state of our newly formed country had their own measuring system. Thomas Jefferson, who was secretary of state, wanted to standardize the system. He became intrigued by the new French metric system. France was to send a meter stick and a kilogram weight across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the ship got blown off course and the pirates of the Caribbean got a hold of the items. By the time it got sorted out, the new secretary of state, Edmund Randolph, was not interested in a national measuring system. We did finally adopt a national system. At least we don't have to deal with okshoofds, roedes, ons, or ponds. However, it might be fun, instead of ordering a pitcher of beer. You ask for stoop of beer. It's about 20 extra ounces.
 
Buy the insert repair kits as you need them. In the end you will have what you need.
 
Jake M said:
We're just using inches because too stubborn to realize that the other system is outdated, antiquated, and inefficient. We know better, but people don't wanna and you know...... How long ago did leadscrew handles go from having fractional inch divisions to just straight up base ten graduations?
Click to expand...

C'mon, man. Europe got destroyed by a couple really big wars. A huge part of their infrastructure had to be rebuilt. That made switching to a new system much easier.
In the US, there was still all of this manufacturing equipment on the floor and operating. You expect all these companies to throw out billions in infrastructure in order to switch to a new measuring system, but they were just "stubborn"? Instead of a huge investment that was still paying off?
Should I throw out the lathe I have an look for another to make people in other countries think I'm smart?

The original post isn't really about which system is "smarter". It is about sunk costs vs future costs. My advice would be to get the SAE sets. That old equipment is going to keep coming through. The metric repair kits will be more readily available in the future, as will replacement parts. The SAE parts will get more scarce as time goes on, and require repair instead of replacement.
 
I'm pretty well stuck on the U.S. system and will be happy to stay there. Like Winegrower I don't do conversions. in his example i would have picked up one of each. Whichever weighed different would tell me which to buy. My wife would have told me I was wrong anyway....
 
Nutfarmer said:
Buy the insert repair kits as you need them. In the end you will have what you need.
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I'm going away from.

There is a concept called normalcy bias where people think everything will always be as it is now.

Meanwhile our supply chains are a mess and my Sister's farm has equipment parts on order for months at a time. Are you positive you will be able to order what you need like you do today?

Most of the repairs I do are from Amish guys bringing in stuff they need fixed so they can finish chores. Once it was a shaft I needed to press bearings off of and make a new mounting bracket......so he could finish feeding hundreds of veal calves. If the issue was a stripped screw and I have to tell him I can fix it in a couple days when the thread inserts arrive, he will have to find someone else to do it. The calves can't wait.

The last thing I'll say is that I'm an old school prepper. You know....a crazy person who thinks the world is going crazy and I like to have what I think I'll need later when I cannot easily visit a grocery store or hardware. I have the money to put up some peace of mind on a shelf and use as necessary. It's not that much as I mentioned earlier in the thread. Most here would question my sanity for the bolt selection I have on hand.


If hard times come, which I believe they are getting worse, I have a great little shop and I cam market my skills directly to my community, as I do now. Look at Pakistani truck repair to see our future. They do much with almost nothing. I can put myself into a much better position.
 
Bone Head said:
I'm pretty well stuck on the U.S. system and will be happy to stay there. Like Winegrower I don't do conversions. in his example i would have picked up one of each. Whichever weighed different would tell me which to buy. My wife would have told me I was wrong anyway....
Click to expand...
The metric system and the decimal inch system are identical except for the base units.
 
Canada pretty much changed over in the 1980's. It was going on before that, but that's when it really took hold. Cars were a mix back then and my 1983 Mustang has both metric and standard fasteners, although more metric than standard.

What you get and how much of it more depends on where something was made more than which country is metric or not. Even then, most stuff is metric these days. Buy one of the big three cars and you're likely to find they're all metric rather than standard (or a mix).

Me? I'm in that "transitional" generation, where we started in standard and ended in metric. Really messed a lot of us up in school back then with the back and forth of learning two measurements and then trying to abandon one of them altogether. My tool box has two sections: metric and standard. I've basically got twice as many tools because there's two systems out there and you never know wheich you are going to need. Thank goodness BSW had essentially gone by the wayside before I needed to start buying tools.

Still, I'll take metric's base 10 system over some nebulous value like "how wide the king's thumb was" any day of the week.....
 
Last edited:
I like both systems. Use metric the most in everyday life, because all of our road signs are in Kilometers, gas is in Liters. I still measure most things in Imperial. At work I measure in both but its just 1 click of a button and the computer program converts it either way anyways.
Metric is best because its always better when the ladies want to know your Baloney Pony is 7.62 centimeters long than 3 inches.:rolleyes:

Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top