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Category Archives: History
Marathon facts
As an alternative to Budget gloom, one of our regular contributors, Martin Vlietstra, provides some topical information about the marathon.
Posted in History
9 Comments
‘User-Friendly’ metric
One of our readers, John Frewen-Lord, asks why popular resistance to the simplicity of metric measures is now limited to a few English-speaking countries. With change in the air, he makes a few suggestions to help the stalled metric changeovers. … Continue reading
Posted in Education, General, History, Views from abroad
18 Comments
Our Christmas Cracker
The traditional Christmas cracker usually contains a joke, a paper hat and a toy, and goes off with a bang. Metric Views, in its cracker, has an anecdote about a Christmas Fair, links to two radio programmes, and a video with … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, History, Media
20 Comments
Is this the UK’s oldest kilometre sign?
A sign showing kilometres on the route of the first ’London’ marathon had its anniversary this week. For a century, it has pointed the way for anyone trying to retrace the steps of the original runners towards the finishing line at White City in London, where the 1908 Olympic … Continue reading
Posted in History, Road signs
6 Comments
Metric, a truly natural system
At the time of writing NASA scientists are eagerly awaiting the results of soil sampling from their latest Martian probe Phoenix. Crucial to that experiment is confirmation of the presence of water. That precious substance essential to all life both … Continue reading
Posted in Education, General, History
3 Comments
First Emperor showed the way – 2000 years ago
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the splendid (Chinese) First Emperor exhibition at the British Museum. Apart from the terracotta warriors, what impressed me the most was the way that Qin Shihuangdi imposed standardisation on his vast empire – … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer affairs, General, History, Law, Myths
4 Comments
Visionary sci-fi writer uses metric
The late Arthur C Clarke who died this month (March 2008) wrote what may be regarded as his most memorable non-fiction article in 1945. He was the first person to propose the use of satellites in geostationary orbit to form … Continue reading
Metric and the decline of UK manufacturing industry
Metric Views’ attention has been drawn to an article recently posted on the “Weekly Gripe”. This links the decline in the 1980′s of the UK’s engineering and manufacturing industries to their failure to embrace metrication in the decade before.
Posted in History, Technical
9 Comments
Metric and Wilkins compared – not quite deja vu
A feature of the metric system, which distinguishes it from customary systems, is the use prefixes for decimal multiples and submultiples as well as the use of symbols for units. These were not part of Wilkins’ proposals of 1668. Roddy … Continue reading
Posted in History, Technical
2 Comments
BBC1 Six o’clock News launches a “stunner”
New research suggests that the principles of the metric system may have been outlined originally in England. The BBC launched this discovery on an unsuspecting British public during the Six o’clock News on 13 July. Here is the transcript of the broadcast … Continue reading
Posted in History, Media
3 Comments