Comments on: BBC1 Six o’clock News launches a “stunner”

By: Daniel Jackson

Daniel Jackson — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:50:07 +0000

In a way it is a good thing it wasn’t adopted in Britain then. While the rest of the world would be using the metre, the British and other English speakers would be calling it a standard. Would the prefixes have ever been considered and applied at a later date if Wilkin’s system had been adopted? Maybe elsewhere in the world, but I doubt the Britain.

At least with the present history, we experienced an evolution from the metric system of the 1790s to SI in the post 1960 era. I don’t think that evolution would have occurred if Wilkin’s system was adopted in Britain first.

By: Phil Hall

Phil Hall — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:55:45 +0000

I am inclined to agree with Agnes Quarrier that we were daft not to take it up.

As I undersand it though, it was traders who didn’t want the openness and honesty of a universal system of measurement that was clear and simple, preferring instead the obfuscation and dishonesty of imperial.

It is no co-incidence that the modern rebellion against metrication came from the retail sector!

By: Daniel Jackson

Daniel Jackson — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:07:45 +0000

Ghosh is wrong when he says Britain and America used imperial at the time the French started using the metric system. America never used and still does not use imperial. Britain didn’t start using imperial until the mid-1820s.

In fact, the British Weights and Measures Association was formed in the early 1800s to fight against the outlawing of British units that were being replaced by imperial. They despised imperial then.