"that is where the lard begins to stink", an old Dutch saying.=20 There are many feet. And miles. I look at 19th century map of The Netherlands, and there are 7 scales on bottom. From German&Dutch to Luxemburg miles. And all have their own feet. But, the good news: there is only 1 meter. Worldwide, forever. Since more than 2 centuries. Thanks to the French revolution.
So let us build models, read the plans and convert the odd time and place related units to meter and build models using that unit. It is correct that HO scale is 3,5 mm/ft. That mm is unambiguous. It is
1/1000 , 0,001 m. That ft is not so. It is the current foot, exactly
12=D725,4 mm. So even if you use feet, by international standards it is defined NOW in terms of meter. But aware, as you stated. Feet were nowhere and never alike.
"Gyproc"; that's a new one on me. Apt. (Everyone 'round heah' calls the stuff by its trade name, Sheetrock, which bugs me. Don't hear it called "gypsum wallboard" or equivalent anymore.)
No, *you're* wrong and *he's* right (gawd, it pains me to say that, but it be true); read my lips very carefully: THE UNITED STATES HAS NOT ADOPTED METRIC MEASURES. WE HAVE NOT BEEN "METRIFIED".
Officially, yes, the "standards are in place", whatever the hell that means. *Practically* speaking, we continue, FOR THE MOST PART, to use our old "customary" units (with some exceptions, most of which have already been noted here). So please recognize reality and stop insisting on winning your pathetic semantic argument, or whatever the f*ck you insist on proving to us here.
It was (more than likely) a Brand Name and the product is still called that here today. Very similar to the Kleenex name referring to any facial tissue.
It's what you get when you're the country that invented machine tools. Joseph Whitworth invented the lead screw and made the first one by hand. After that it was used to make others and the standard remained a long time.
Nice.
Probably not. In those days it was probably Whitworth threads with Imperial dimensions.
A 2x4 is actually 1.5"x3.5". It used to 1.75"x3.75" when I was younger, and before that it was true 2"x4". Sometime in the 1950s IIRC 2"x4" was redefined as the size of the rough sawn lumber, which made the milled lumber smaller. Etc.
There was real shamozzle when Canada switched to metric. The gummint bureaucrats believed that going metric meant changing standard sizes. They redefined the 4x8 sheet (of plywood, wallboard, etc) as
1200x2400mm, which is of course wrong. That made the sheet material just enough different from the original size that carpenters had a hell of a time using them when renovating, or when building walls with the standard 16" centre to centre spacing of the studs. The gummint changed the standard back to its proper size (1219mm x 2438mm) pretty quick.
But the gummint still uses A4 paper, even though one of the metrically specified standards translates exactly into the 8.5"x11" letter paper which everybody else uses. A4 is no more a "metric" size than any other. Our paper sizes go back to the late middle ages and the introduction of printing.
2kg? That's a monster. If that were so, we would see a lot of 2kg (4lb) loaves. The hevier bread (pumpernickel, for example) are smaller in volume, actually, so that their weight is about 1lb (half a kilo.)
Yes, Greg, but you're unusual. Most people never convert. Some people do it as part of their work or hobby, but not nearly as often as the touters of metric believe.
Thanks for the correction, but it doesn't change my point.
IOW, the original container was too small. So?
Yup, and they do so because it's convenient to have different sizes. But oddly enough, the latches and locks are all spaced such that a car built to take up to a 53' container will also take 48' and smaller ones.
Awkward, shmawkward. Different size containers acn still be stacked safely. I've seen 53' containers stacked on top of 48' ones, two 20's on top of one 40' or vice versa, etc etc. The standards are in the latches and locks. Besides, I notice that most widely used containers are actually owned by Asian shippers. Odd, that they are more than willing to build containers of those awkward US sizes.
Not so, 110-120V is still used in many parts of the world outside the US, as anyone who like me has had to buy one of those converters knows. What's worse than the voltage differences is the difference in plugs. there are at least 4 different standards.
Once again, you're not reading carefully, Greg. If you need a milling machine, then you use the units that its internal measuring (setup) devices use. Or else you use external measuring instruments to set it up. Etc. Your choice. The fact that you desire to model antique locomotives merely means that you have to do what people never have to do: convert units. IOW, in order to satisfy some desire or need, you have to put up with more or less shit along the way. That's life. So?
I use inches when framing (last summer I built a lean-to garden shed on my house). I use HO scale feet when scratch-building. I use millimetres when kitbashing plastic buildings. I use table spoons, teaspoons, cups when cooking. Etc. Why? Mostly the result of familiarity with my measuring tools, and/or availability of standard sized materials, etc. IOW, as much as possible, I make it convenient for me. I see no reason to switch it all to a single measuring system, just because someone else wants it all to be a Single Logical System. So I'm crotchety and unreasonable. That's my right as a human. Systems should serve us, not the other way round, a principle that engineers and ideologues repeatedly refuse to accept.(For the record, I started out to be an engineer.)
Vice versa I've seen. Twenty's on top of anything but a 20?? I've never seen an attachment point at the twenty foot mark on any 40' (or longer) container.
On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 03:54:52 -0800, I said, "Pick a card, any card" and David Nebenzahl instead replied:
That doesn't make sense. The standards were set in place in 1970. Since then, it is legal to sell or trade using metric measurements. Just because it never caught on due to choice doesn't mean the standards aren't there. Shouting about it only confirms more clearly that you haven't a clue.
I don't wish to prove anything to you. Ever. Teaching a pig to sing only annoys the pig.
Ray ol buddy, there are many things in this world I dislike. Most countries keep their nasty habits at home under the covers. (Australians' extreme racism, for example) The US is big enough and influential enough to impose it's ugliness onto the rest of us. We all have our ugly sides - NZ turning sheep daggs into garden fertilizer is a bit nasty, if you happen to live beside the fertilizer plant.
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