At 10:39 AM 12/1/97 +0100, Steve Laifman wrote:
>We originally (Colonial days) used the "English System" for all our
>measurements and standards, except money (after the Revolution). Our
>original "American" monetary system is in units of 10, unlike the
>British system of the time of pounds Sterling, Guineas, and schillings
>of non-uniform intervals (like ounces, pounds, tons, feet, miles, etc.).
<<SNIP>>
>The British also made a decision in the 50's to convert their
>measurement system to the American standard in bolt sizes and standards,
>and the metric system in currency and other goods. My '52 MG was full of
>Whitworth bolts, requiring all special wrenches, sockets, taps, etc. All
>bolts and nuts were imported and expensive. In '55 the cars had American
>Standard fastners, for most stuff anyway. They also converted their
>monetary system in the 70's. They used the same names, but divided them
>in units of ten pence to the Pound, etc.
Well, the British currency was pounds, shillings (note spelling), and
pence, with further divisions of the pence into half-pence and farthings.
The Guinea was a currency of account only, 21 shillings instead of the 20
that went into the pound. It was a toney thing to paid paid in 'gs p.a.'
(guineas per annum) instead of 'pounds per year' clear up to 1970, though
the guinea was simply 105% of a pound and the actual payment was in pounds
sterling.
As to the measurements, during the Second War the UK and US unified their
thread sizes, hence 'UNF' and the like. However, both the US and UK found
themselves with large stockpiles of their old bolts, nuts, and fasteners
when the War ended, so these were consumed by using them up. I suspect a
discovery of a warehouse full of those bolts fitted for the hand crank
explains why the Alpine IV didn't have them and the V did.
Marc
msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
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