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A barleycorn question. Was the Traffic song "John Barleycorn Must Die" actually a plea for metric shoe sizes?

Speaking of the metric system, did anyone catch Nate Bargatze on SNL doing a skit where George Washington tells his soldiers his dream for the country? His dream being our very own system of weights and measurements?

 
Speaking of the metric system, did anyone catch Nate Bargatze on SNL doing a skit where George Washington tells his soldiers his dream for the country? His dream being our very own system of weights and measurements?


I've seen this like I see all SNL skits now; on YouTube.
 
I vaguely recall a history lecture somewhen back in the fog of the 70s, in which the story of the Founders' adoption of the metric system was dependent upon the cross Atlantic voyage of the a big shot metric guru carrying the physical reference standards. As the story goes, he was waylaid by Barbary pirates and held until it was too late, the die was cast, and the country adopted the English system.

Now, dammit, I have to go look it up.
 
I vaguely recall a history lecture somewhen back in the fog of the 70s, in which the story of the Founders' adoption of the metric system was dependent upon the cross Atlantic voyage of the a big shot metric guru carrying the physical reference standards. As the story goes, he was waylaid by Barbary pirates and held until it was too late, the die was cast, and the country adopted the English system.

Now, dammit, I have to go look it up.

As an Auto Tech I was PO'd that we did not adopt the metric system under Nixon or Ford or? So, I had/have way too many sockets & wrenches in my toolbox. Oh Well (PartII)

But then 30 years later my wife brings home some surplus European woodworking Magazines and in an article I see something like, "As the board is 19CM (7.48031in) wide, center the router bit at 9.5CM (3.74016in) and my head exploded.
 
As an Auto Tech I was PO'd that we did not adopt the metric system under Nixon or Ford or? So, I had/have way too many sockets & wrenches in my toolbox. Oh Well (PartII)

But then 30 years later my wife brings home some surplus European woodworking Magazines and in an article I see something like, "As the board is 19CM (7.48031in) wide, center the router bit at 9.5CM (3.74016in) and my head exploded.
That’s it!!! It is a conspiracy between the tool suppliers (Matco, Mac Tools, Snap On, et al) to sell more tools. Mu ha ha ha… we can make the suckers buy double of everything.
 
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That’s it!!! It is a conspiracy between the tool suppliers (Matco, Mac Tools, Snap On et al) to sell more tools. Mu ha ha ha… we can make the suckers buy double of everything.

Double?

Ha, a friend's father gave me a bunch of Imperial Wrenches when he retired and then moved south. Short squat wrenches that might make it nearly impossible to over-torque any nut.

Progress?
 
As an Auto Tech I was PO'd that we did not adopt the metric system under Nixon or Ford or? So, I had/have way too many sockets & wrenches in my toolbox. Oh Well (PartII)

But then 30 years later my wife brings home some surplus European woodworking Magazines and in an article I see something like, "As the board is 19CM (7.48031in) wide, center the router bit at 9.5CM (3.74016in) and my head exploded.
Yeah, many pro sheet goods are thickness spec'd in mm, but L and W spec'd in inches. Some, like Corian, were once in fractional inches, but switched to mm.

I worked on a job with a great custom cabinet shop in Ketchum that had switched all of thier work to metric. I've mulled that with envy, but our customers want to see drawings in inches - which is another kind of pita because builders and architects work in feet, inches. So 8'1", while we millwork guys work entirely in inches to avoid errors.

I recall the attempted conversion, Nixon or earlier? Seemed to me the resistance came from the teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, pint, quart folks. The remnant of that is the replacement if the fifth/quart/half gallon spec for booze with 750ml, 1L,1.75L spec. Jeeze!
 
Yeah, many pro sheet goods are thickness spec'd in mm, but L and W spec'd in inches. Some, like Corian, were once in fractional inches, but switched to mm.

I worked on a job with a great custom cabinet shop in Ketchum that had switched all of thier work to metric. I've mulled that with envy, but our customers want to see drawings in inches - which is another kind of pita because builders and architects work in feet, inches. So 8'1", while we millwork guys work entirely in inches to avoid errors.

I recall the attempted conversion, Nixon or earlier? Seemed to me the resistance came from the teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, pint, quart folks. The remnant of that is the replacement if the fifth/quart/half gallon spec for booze with 750ml, 1L,1.75L spec. Jeeze!
Wasn't that the Carter administration, re: metric ?
 
As an Auto Tech I was PO'd that we did not adopt the metric system under Nixon or Ford or? So, I had/have way too many sockets & wrenches in my toolbox. Oh Well (PartII)

But then 30 years later my wife brings home some surplus European woodworking Magazines and in an article I see something like, "As the board is 19CM (7.48031in) wide, center the router bit at 9.5CM (3.74016in) and my head exploded.
Reminds me of some GM metrics of that period.....
Bolts with metric heads and standard threads instead of retooling to have metrics threads in transmission cases, etc.
 
Always loved converting metric to inches on prints for machining operations on manual knee mills. Not.
 
Reminds me of some GM metrics of that period.....
Bolts with metric heads and standard threads instead of retooling to have metrics threads in transmission cases, etc.

I never realized that they did that, but it may explain why I thought some metric tap & die kits were missing sizes.

I was once working on a Tremec prototype manual transmission and needed a couple of longer bolts for the rear mount. The bolt size was baffling me as we had nothing in the cribs that matched the diameter. Went down to Acme Nut & Bolt, showed the guy what I had, and asked if they had a couple of bolts 30mm longer. He measured them and said, "You must working on something made in Mexico." At first, I thought, 'What an odd thing to say.' But while he was rummaging around in the racks I realized that the trans had been shipped up from Mexico. He found the bolts and as I was paying, I asked how he knew it was a Mexican project. He said something like, "The entire known world can bolt stuff together with standard M16s, but the Mexicans have to use a different pitch, robble robble, robble!"
 
“The movie Casablanca premiered in New York City 75 years ago today, in 1942.

Unlike most movies, Casablanca was filmed in story order rather than out of sequence, because the screenplay was only half done by the time filming began. Ingrid Bergman wrote in her autobiography, My Story (1980): “We were shooting off the cuff. Every day they were handing out dialogue and we were trying to make some sense of it. Every morning we would say, ‘Well, who are we? What are we doing here?’ And [director] Michael Curtiz would say, ‘We’re not quite sure, but let’s get through this scene today and we’ll let you know tomorrow.’” She didn’t know which man her character ended up with until the final scene was filmed.

The movie was filmed almost entirely indoors, because a Japanese submarine had been spotted off the coast of California and everyone was worried that Japan might attack the mainland.”
 
Double?

Ha, a friend's father gave me a bunch of Imperial Wrenches when he retired and then moved south. Short squat wrenches that might make it nearly impossible to over-torque any nut.

Progress?

Would have come in handy for me a while back. I had to cut a combination wrench in half to get it short enough to remove the high pressure hose off the power steering pump on my truck. Even at that I could only turn it 60° at a time. Tried using a crowsfoot on a wobbly on the end of a 12" extension and failed miserably.
 
Would have come in handy for me a while back. I had to cut a combination wrench in half to get it short enough to remove the high pressure hose off the power steering pump on my truck. Even at that I could only turn it 60° at a time. Tried using a crowsfoot on a wobbly on the end of a 12" extension and failed miserably.

One of the diesel Techs I worked with at Ford had a set of Crow Foot Pipe-Wrench Swivel Sockets. I borrowed them more than a couple of times. I think they were specially made for diesel fuel lines but they came in handy for other tight spots.
 
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