[News] Johnson to bring back Imperial units to honour the queen
- Thread starter Harry Wilson's tackle
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Is a horse that lives for ten years decadent?
- Thread starter
- #83
If that's all the time it lives for, then yes, obviously.
It is actually a bit of the lyric from 'Facts Facts' by 'MX80 Sound'. A tremendous track, and I feel I should post a link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpwZPNIUG-w
- Apr 19, 2018
- 2,134
In the same way he used the story about making cardboard buses to influence search engine results away from him standing in front of the Brexit bus, and Rees-Mogg slouched in Parliament to manipulate search engine results about himself lying in Parliament and elsewhere, I wonder if this announcement is to somehow change search engine results about the partying in Downing Street. Imperial units for alcoholic drinks being dominant in stories about Johnson instead of alcoholic drinks in his house or something (he's already said he's going to re-introduce the crown symbol to beer pint glasses, which seems like a similar tactic).
KZNSeagull
Well-known member
16 Ounces in a pound and 14 pounds in a stone comes from the International Wool trade in the middle ages
But why 16 and 14? And why the word stone?
In the 15th Century, Calais had the monopoly on wool exports from England so they used to take full advantage - they ruled that bundles of wool from England did not have to be unpacked, so many contained large rocks and stones to make up the weight, so I would like to think it comes from that but I doubt it! Stone obviously comes from an actual stone, but I wonder who decided which stone to use? Was there a master stone that everyone had to use?! Perhaps someone smashed it and it broke into 14 pieces? Who knows.
studio150
Well-known member
But given Johnson wants to reset the UK to 1965 or earlier, this will have to be done by mental arithmetic.
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
[tweet]1531179035904167936[/tweet]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)
The name "stone" derives from the use of stones for weights, a practice that dates back into antiquity. The Biblical law against the carrying of "diverse weights, a large and a small"[7] is more literally translated as "you shall not carry a stone and a stone (אבן ואבן), a large and a small". There was no standardised "stone" in the ancient Jewish world,[8] but in Roman times stone weights were crafted to multiples of the Roman pound.[9] Such weights varied in quality: the Yale Medical Library holds 10 and 50-pound examples of polished serpentine,[10] while a 40-pound example at the Eschborn Museum is made of sandstone.[11]
The English stone under law varied by commodity and in practice varied according to local standards. The Assize of Weights and Measures, a statute of uncertain date from c. 1300, describes stones of 5 merchants' pounds used for glass; stones of 8 lb. used for beeswax, sugar, pepper, alum, cumin, almonds,[16] cinnamon, and nutmegs;[17] stones of 12 lb. used for lead; and the London stone of 12+1⁄2 lb. used for wool.[16][17] In 1350 Edward III issued a new statute defining the stone weight, to be used for wool and "other Merchandizes", at 14 pounds,[nb 2] reaffirmed by Henry VII in 1495.[19]
In England, merchants traditionally sold potatoes in half-stone increments of 7 pounds. Live animals were weighed in stones of 14 lb; but, once slaughtered, their carcasses were weighed in stones of 8 lb. Thus, if the animal's carcass accounted for 8⁄14 of the animal's weight, the butcher could return the dressed carcasses to the animal's owner stone for stone, keeping the offal, blood and hide as his due for slaughtering and dressing the animal.[21] Smithfield market continued to use the 8 lb stone for meat until shortly before the Second World War.[22] The Oxford English Dictionary also lists:[23]
Edit to add this:
The 1772 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica defined the stone:[12]
STONE also denotes a certain quantity or weight of some commodities. A stone of beef, in London, is the quantity of eight pounds; in Hertfordshire, twelve pounds; in Scotland sixteen pounds.
The Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which applied to all of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, consolidated the weights and measures legislation of several centuries into a single document. It revoked the provision that bales of wool should be made up of 20 stones, each of 14 pounds, but made no provision for the continued use of the stone. Ten years later, a stone still varied from 5 pounds (glass) to 8 pounds (meat and fish) to 14 pounds (wool and "horseman's weight").[13] The Act of 1835 permitted using a stone of 14 pounds for trade[14] but other values remained in use. James Britten, in 1880 for example, catalogued a number of different values of the stone in various British towns and cities, ranging from 4 lb to 26 lb.[15] The value of the stone and associated units of measure that were legalised for purposes of trade were clarified by the Weights and Measures Act 1835 as follows:[14]
In 1965, it could be done by mental arithmetic, and often was!
We haven't quite been using both systems in tandem. We use imperial for some and metric for most others. There is no reason whatsoever to reintroduce pounds, shillings and pence other than a vanity project no doubt driven by the right honourable member for the 17th century!!!
Brok
🦡
- Dec 26, 2011
- 4,373
Roman numerals are a little tricky to add up, as well.
My grandparents used to own a fishing tackle shop (within walking distance of that lot up the road’s ground). My grandmother used to write every transaction in a cash book. At the end of the week, she’d run a pen down the entries, just the once, not separately for each column, and write the total in the ‘total weekly takings’ box. Astonishing mental arithmetic.
Terry Butcher Tribute Act
Well-known member
- Aug 18, 2013
- 3,673
Exactly. Incredible quite how much noise this minor change has generated from the usual sides howling with disgust which probably suits the Gov't just fine.
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Pounds, shillings and pence aren't really part of this debate. We changed to new pence (100 to the pound) years before we joined the EEC, and we kept the pound sterling anyway, so there's nothing to re-introduce.
Even if we did go back to £sd, such has been inflation in the last 53 years that the smallest value coin would probably be the florin (two shillings, or 10 pence) - or maybe the one shilling (five pence) - so effectively there would be no 'd's involved in £sd.
Your Mum
Well-known member
- Dec 22, 2016
- 484
..your mum
I think this has got the minister for the 18th century written all over it rather than Johnson. That said, the PM appointed him.
Super Steve Earle
Well-known member
I quite often add up my supermarket weekly shop in my head, just for fun.
- Jan 30, 2008
- 831
If it is born under a clear night sky presummably that makes it a starling?
Regards
DF