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Can't see it on my mobile.
Light Sphere, is that the new name to replace light bulb?
- Thread starter ericmark
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That really surprises me since, as you say, you certainly should have been taught primarily in metric, if not eventually SI.
I left secondary school in 1967 and for the several years of that education was taught (certainly in Physics and Chemistry) throughout O-level and A-Level courses in metric - initially 'CGS' and then later 'MKS' (that changed between my O-Levels and A-Levels).
You may have had 'stick in the mud teachers', but the exam boards were surely setting exams in metric by your time, which must have been a bit of a problem if you hadn't been taught about that!!
They are the same.
"In 1930, the British Standards Institution adopted an inch of exactly 25.4 mm. The American Standards Association followed suit in 1933.
By 1935, industry in 16 countries had adopted the "industrial inch" as it came to be known.
In 1946, the Commonwealth Science Congress recommended a yard of exactly 0.9144 metres for adoption throughout the British Commonwealth. This was adopted by Canada in 1951; the United States on 1 July 1959; Australia in 1961, effective 1 January 1964; and the United Kingdom in 1963,effective on 1 January 1964.
The new standards gave an inch of exactly 25.4 mm, 1.7 millionths of an inch longer than the old imperial inch and 2 millionths of an inch shorter than the old US inch." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inch
Today I did take some photographs, of Light Globes - all specified in Lumens
Supermarket:-
Hardware Store: -
Then I noticed the Signs above in the Hardware Store, which I had not looked at previously !
With no reference to "normal" Incandescent lamps - no longer sold here.
Only to "Halogen Lamps", some of which are still sold her.
As I wrote yesterday:-
Surprise, they have actually done better than this !
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Well "we have to go metric every inch of the way" is one motto.
Actually when I left school I started as a 16 year old apprentice (You could legally leave school at 15 back then but Grammar Type Schools you were contracted to that extra year - not totally enforced, if you were of the mindset you wanted to leave at 15 they just didn`t want you at school anyway).
At school we were taught in imperial units but in the later part of the secondary schools we were made aware of the metric system as they called it.
Sometimes referring to SI units.
I remember Oz going decimal in money - 14th Feb 1966, as we saw the jingle on school TV progs, we were a bit later on.
quotes like "Ohh we have had £ s d for thousands of years, they should wait till all us old folk have died of before they change it!" abounded. LOL.
I remember so much talk of "New Pence" that years later folk were still using the phrase but one rememberable glitch was folk using the term "One New Pence" instead of One New Penny or One Penny.
One penny, two pennies, three pennies (or thruponce) , eeh I remembers it all so well.
I suppose that to some the distinction of pennies and pence became a bit like the TV Programme being differentiated from a Computer Programme by adopting the American Program solely for computers. That idea had good merit meethinks.
In industry, everything was, pretty much, based in imperial but we were taught "metric" in duality alongside so we came fully conversant in both and their equivalents.
After many years as a Electrician, what amazed me was the number of Plumbers and joiners who still worked in feet and inches and often were quite lost with millimetres and metres.
Actually when I left school I started as a 16 year old apprentice (You could legally leave school at 15 back then but Grammar Type Schools you were contracted to that extra year - not totally enforced, if you were of the mindset you wanted to leave at 15 they just didn`t want you at school anyway).
At school we were taught in imperial units but in the later part of the secondary schools we were made aware of the metric system as they called it.
Sometimes referring to SI units.
I remember Oz going decimal in money - 14th Feb 1966, as we saw the jingle on school TV progs, we were a bit later on.
quotes like "Ohh we have had £ s d for thousands of years, they should wait till all us old folk have died of before they change it!" abounded. LOL.
I remember so much talk of "New Pence" that years later folk were still using the phrase but one rememberable glitch was folk using the term "One New Pence" instead of One New Penny or One Penny.
One penny, two pennies, three pennies (or thruponce) , eeh I remembers it all so well.
I suppose that to some the distinction of pennies and pence became a bit like the TV Programme being differentiated from a Computer Programme by adopting the American Program solely for computers. That idea had good merit meethinks.
In industry, everything was, pretty much, based in imperial but we were taught "metric" in duality alongside so we came fully conversant in both and their equivalents.
After many years as a Electrician, what amazed me was the number of Plumbers and joiners who still worked in feet and inches and often were quite lost with millimetres and metres.
Really??
Completely at odds with my experience in the sarf of England.
SI units were taught to me in the mid 60s onwards... and I graduated from University in 1975 where it was exclusively metric/SI iirc !!
Plenty of imperial oddities abound even today though.
BBC TV studio floors had 'foot' markings at 300mm intervals, for instance.
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I remember when one would buy a bolt 10mm x 6 inches. Since I work on heritage railways, we still use imperial sizes, Coris is the odd one out, their engines all built this century, there do use some of the original track bed, but will soon have their own deviation.
I note on milestone the local town is called Pool. But the miles seem the same as English miles, so milestone not that old. I was surprised to see US and UK miles are the same, for years I thought US miles were shorter.
I can remember the spigots on the wall for lamps, not sure if oil or gas, likely oil since on the wall, so low enough to remove and fill the lamps. We also had spigots on the push-bike for the front lamp, only the post office bikes had a spigot for rear lamps, but trains had multi spigots, so the pattern of lights would identify the type of train, I note the lamps being moved end to end of trains, wonder why they have lamps, as very few night trains run, did for the beer festival few weeks back.
I remember in the 80s ordering a head lamp as all the other electricians were telling me bulbs grow in the ground, and I got a head lamp minus the bulb. Did not make that mistake again.
Some names don't matter, fusebox, distribution unit, consumer unit, for example. Although I note Part P seems to call it a consumer unit, which seems odd, as a consumer unit is technically a distribution unit, but not the other way around. The one which would catch me out is ballast.
I note on milestone the local town is called Pool. But the miles seem the same as English miles, so milestone not that old. I was surprised to see US and UK miles are the same, for years I thought US miles were shorter.
I can remember the spigots on the wall for lamps, not sure if oil or gas, likely oil since on the wall, so low enough to remove and fill the lamps. We also had spigots on the push-bike for the front lamp, only the post office bikes had a spigot for rear lamps, but trains had multi spigots, so the pattern of lights would identify the type of train, I note the lamps being moved end to end of trains, wonder why they have lamps, as very few night trains run, did for the beer festival few weeks back.
I remember in the 80s ordering a head lamp as all the other electricians were telling me bulbs grow in the ground, and I got a head lamp minus the bulb. Did not make that mistake again.
Some names don't matter, fusebox, distribution unit, consumer unit, for example. Although I note Part P seems to call it a consumer unit, which seems odd, as a consumer unit is technically a distribution unit, but not the other way around. The one which would catch me out is ballast.
Do not choke on a ballast
As you know, it's other bits of the Building Regulations, not "Part P" which mentions 'consumer unit'.
However, unlike BS7671, the Building Regs do not define 'consumer unit', so I suppose are probably relying on 'common usage' of the term, which would encompass any DB in a domestic environment, even if it did not fulfill BS7671's definition of a 'consumer unit'.
Were that not the case, then replacement of a DB which did not qualify as a consumer unit would not be notifiable (in England)
Very interesting. I wasn't aware of much of this, especially that even the USA agreed and adopted this definition.
I also see it as beneficial to us all, as until I heard this I assumed that measurements of length on both sides of the Atlantic were noticeably different! Measurements and instructions we see on t'internet, perhaps most of which seem to come from America who also still use inches, can be regarded as accurate for our use here in God's Country!
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I was also under the impression USA length in inches, feet, yards, and miles was not the same as ours, maybe led astray as the spanners were clearly not the same. Nor were the threads.
I was still in my apprenticeship when metric came in, and back then tradesmen had to provide their own tools, so metric resulted in requiring a whole new set of spanners, but still needed the old ones as well. We had to provide our own up to an inch, larger, the firm provided.
Before I stopped working, I was banned from bringing in my own tools, all tools had to be provided by the firm, so they had control of the quality, which was required by their insurers. It also means the firm calibrated the tools where it was required. We would have to send out crimp pliers to be calibrated on a regular basis. I hated carrying 4 sets of crimp pliers, on for 1 mm² orange I think, one for 1.5 mm² red I think, then 2.5 mm² blue and 6 mm² yellow we did not have any for 4 mm² don't know why, but at home I had a ratchet crimp pliers which would do all them sizes.
Where I volunteer again officially not allowed to use our own tools, I do use my own clamp meter, and own hedge cutter, my 40 volt battery hedge cutter is so much lighter than the petrol one I should use. And to date a blind eye has been turned.
I have also had to learn a whole new set of names, I have never heard of a ground frame before (the point operating levers when not in a signal box) but the main tool I use is called a paint brush, and that does not seems to have changed much.
I was still in my apprenticeship when metric came in, and back then tradesmen had to provide their own tools, so metric resulted in requiring a whole new set of spanners, but still needed the old ones as well. We had to provide our own up to an inch, larger, the firm provided.
Before I stopped working, I was banned from bringing in my own tools, all tools had to be provided by the firm, so they had control of the quality, which was required by their insurers. It also means the firm calibrated the tools where it was required. We would have to send out crimp pliers to be calibrated on a regular basis. I hated carrying 4 sets of crimp pliers, on for 1 mm² orange I think, one for 1.5 mm² red I think, then 2.5 mm² blue and 6 mm² yellow we did not have any for 4 mm² don't know why, but at home I had a ratchet crimp pliers which would do all them sizes.
Where I volunteer again officially not allowed to use our own tools, I do use my own clamp meter, and own hedge cutter, my 40 volt battery hedge cutter is so much lighter than the petrol one I should use. And to date a blind eye has been turned.
I have also had to learn a whole new set of names, I have never heard of a ground frame before (the point operating levers when not in a signal box) but the main tool I use is called a paint brush, and that does not seems to have changed much.
In at least one firm of Engineers (A massive national firm) in the 70s then tradesmen were encouraged to use their own tools to a large degree but could use the firms tools. Larger or less used tools then the firms only.
Those tools, especially measurement type, had to be checked and calibrated regularly by the firms own testing regime.
The firm would help anyone to afford the tools by purchasing them for the employee and then deducting from their wages at a low monthly amount too, no interest charges, in fact I think they even managed to lose the VAT somehow.
and the taxman allowed each employee a small tax allowance for tools too.
Those tools, especially measurement type, had to be checked and calibrated regularly by the firms own testing regime.
The firm would help anyone to afford the tools by purchasing them for the employee and then deducting from their wages at a low monthly amount too, no interest charges, in fact I think they even managed to lose the VAT somehow.
and the taxman allowed each employee a small tax allowance for tools too.
"Bye the Way",14 February 1966 was my 30th Birthday!
Here is the "Movie" version of that "jingle" in colour - which was not then yet available on Australian TV.
Other Australian "TV" information was like these
The fact that the UK wanted to keep the "Pound" - without splitting it into two Dollars - resulted in some "complications" with the coin conversion in that country.
The quite easy conversion of the Australian currency to Dollars in 1966 has been credited with the Australian public accepting so easily the "carefully planed" transition from "Imperial Measures" to "SI Measures" in that country, during the 1970s -
making Australia (possibly) the most SI compliant country on Earth!
(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Australia )
As Randy Bancroft (the Metric Maven) says at 9:28 in
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