Nick,
I don't know if you remember but, 1973 was the year that the Untied States off
icially changed to the metric system.
At that time I worked in the Engineering Department for a Fortune 500
company. As a result of the offical change-over we redesigned many unique
parts we only used internally, changing the threads, diameters, etc. from SAE
to Metric. We called the local scrap dealer and turned thousands of dollars
of perfectly good parts into scrapmetal. I was appalled at the wasted money
(maybe they needed a write-off?) The function of the new and old parts was
the same. I wondered how many other companies did that and how much this cost
our economy.
Anyone else remember this?
The Automotive industry didn't take such a drastic approach, at least from my
experience. Automobiles began to gradually have more and more metric nuts and
bolts on them. Even my '76 Valiant (which I bought new) had a mixture of
metric and SAE.
R. Johnson - Dallas
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