norbitonflyer
Established Member
And we still talk about a ship sailing across the Channel, even if it is powered by bunker oil.
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Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now
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I hope they didn't teach you that a mile is 10 furlongs!
We had that discussion already!
Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now
I’m much older, and my first language is metric but I have conversational imperial. There won’t be many people under 60 who weren’t taught exclusively in metric. I’m sure that’s right. I’m 64 and I was taught, for example, 1,760 yards in a mile, although chains only came along with my railway...
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If we're going back a long way then how about the BBC TV interlude films. Probably the most famous was the potter's wheel, of the kitten with a ball of wool. Probably more of interest here are the transport related films, i.e. London to Brighton in 4 minutes, (this was remade sometime in the '80s in colour with MK1 EMUs), West London Air Terminal to Heathrow in ? minutes, and various chill type films such as a slow boat on the River Ouse.
Mcr Warrior
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Or Lee Marvin's iconic rendition of "Wand'rin' Star", taken from the 1969 film "Paint Your Wagon", where he didn't actually sing as such, it was essentially a low-pitched, gravelly baritone growl.
WesternLancer
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I think the bbc has a page with all or many of these available to view.
EYFanatic
Member
Mars Climate Orbiter. NASA used metric and Lockheed used Imperial for calculations
Specifically, software that calculated the total impulse produced by thruster firings produced results in pound-force seconds. The trajectory calculation software then used these results – expected to be in newton-seconds (incorrect by a factor of 4.45) – to update the predicted position of the spacecraft. Whilst the common belief is that it was destroyed on entry, there is the possibility that the craft skipped off the lower atmosphere and entered heliocentric orbit
The difference between aerobraking and lithobraking.
Off topic diversion, but it highlights the main difficulty in going to Mars: the atmosphere is thick enough to kill you, but too thin to help you much.
Same age… same thing here!
I think our generation are pretty much bilingual when it comes to weights and measures!
I remember very well that loose sweets and pick n mix were sold by the “quarter” everywhere until 2000 when most shops switched to “per 100g” with no corresponding reduction in price!
You will still find some independent shops still selling sweets “per quarter lb/ 113g” though! ☺️
Also, while schools taught exclusively metric for a time in the 70s and 80s, since the National Curriculum was introduced in 1988 the maths curriculum includes modules on imperial measures for “imperial measures that are still
in common usage” and approximate metric conversions.
This is limited to:
Gallons, Pints, Fl Oz
Stone, Pounds and Ounces
Miles, Yards, Feet and Inches.
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ic31420
Member
Manual Chokes on cars and the knack / skill of feeding it back in as the car warmed.
Carphones I remember my dad getting one in his C reg Vauxhall Cavalier. The neighbours all came and took turns to sit on the drive and phone their wives in the house.
Rabbit Phones
2 star and 4 star petrol and attended petrol stations
Tiger Tokens
One that came up at work was portable gas fires and the smell and sound of them, particularly as the gas bottle ran low
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
I recently been discussing g/oz with my little lad.
I recently ordered my lad 4oz or sweets in a shop and he pulled them up for lazily weighing out 100g rather than the fuller 112g.
Albeit because he though he was being diddled out of 12g
Carphones I remember my dad getting one in his C reg Vauxhall Cavalier. The neighbours all came and took turns to sit on the drive and phone their wives in the house.
Rabbit Phones
2 star and 4 star petrol and attended petrol stations
Tiger Tokens
One that came up at work was portable gas fires and the smell and sound of them, particularly as the gas bottle ran low
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
I recently been discussing g/oz with my little lad.
I recently ordered my lad 4oz or sweets in a shop and he pulled them up for lazily weighing out 100g rather than the fuller 112g.
Albeit because he though he was being diddled out of 12g
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Cross City
Member
Ordering things in imperial measurements should be illegal. I include pints in that opinion.
Pure outdated nonsense.
Pure outdated nonsense.
Portable gas fires still exist, though they create a fair bit of moisture. In reality to be used safely properly a window should be open, kind of negating their use. Very few people would leave a window open though.
Talking about chokes on cars, I remember my Gran having a manual one on her F reg Volvo 340 GLE, there was an orange light on the dash to remind you it was in use. Of course a lot of small engined devices (pressure washers, lawn mowers, strimmers Etc.) still have a choke. It can be tricky sometimes to know if an engine has cooled enough to need the choke or not.
Talking about chokes on cars, I remember my Gran having a manual one on her F reg Volvo 340 GLE, there was an orange light on the dash to remind you it was in use. Of course a lot of small engined devices (pressure washers, lawn mowers, strimmers Etc.) still have a choke. It can be tricky sometimes to know if an engine has cooled enough to need the choke or not.
You’re entitled to your two Euro-cents worth… ;-D
Cross City
Member
At the risk of ensuring the wrath ofIf I had my way if would be Euros tbf
other members… card-carrying member of the European Movement here!
And World Cup coin collections etc from Esso
I noticed the following in a different forum concerning a matronly schoolteacher in the 1960s.
"Miss Mair was having problems with her Renault, Jim Rankin the garage owner couldn't understand what the problem was so he said he would accompany her on a drive. "show me exactly what you do" he asked her. Maimie pulled out the choke-and hung her handbag on it... (The handbag had been hung on the extended choke knob so that she could dig out her lipstick. She then proceeded to apply the said lipstick using her rear-view mirror.)"
D6130
Established Member
Was that by any chance the Miss Mair who taught at Hermitage Academy....and Jim Rankin the garage owner in Helensburgh? (Sorry Mods.... somewhat off-topic, I know!
).gg1
Established Member
The newest car I've driven with a manual choke was a base model 1992 Escort, by that point I think they were quite rare on new cars.
Friend of ours ran a garage many years ago and sold a new Renault 5 turbo to a chap. He soon brought it back saying it was down on power. The car was checked and no fault found. This scenario repeated itself a couple of times and finally our friend asked the owner to take him out and demonstrate the problem.
Turned out the owner was changing up the gears before the turbo had a chance to run up.
Now the garage owner had a hobby of racing touring cars so he offered to take the owner out and show how the car could perform.
Half an hour later a very pale owner agreed the car had lots of power and handled very well.
Killingworth
Established Member
My first car had no heater, wind down windows that stuck, wipers that staggered across the windscreen and needed 'winding up' with a starting handle. 0-60? Only down hill with a following wind. It would now be considered a classic car but the rust got it. (Bought for £50 and passed to brother 2 months later- then got another rusting car 9 years younger.)
My mother told of her father getting his first company car. No side windows at all.
My mother told of her father getting his first company car. No side windows at all.
I remember 3 star and 5 star as well, my father acquired a Rover 2000 TC in the early 1970s and it had a sticker next to the fuel filler demanding only 5 star be used.
D6130
Established Member
Kids bouncing around on Spacehoppers....or have we had them already?
Yeah - featured a while back on Robert Ryan's 'Helensburgh Memories' Facebook page.Was that by any chance the Miss Mair who taught at Hermitage Academy....and Jim Rankin the garage owner in Helensburgh? (Sorry Mods.... somewhat off-topic, I know!
gg1
Established Member
Another car related one, buying vans for conversion to cars.
In the 50s purchase tax on cars was significantly higher than on vans. To get around this many small vans were designed to be easily convertible to estate cars by replacing the rear side panels with windows and bolting a rear bench seat to the floor. A fair few years before my time (I was a late surprise), but my dad took advantage of this when buying his first car.
In the 50s purchase tax on cars was significantly higher than on vans. To get around this many small vans were designed to be easily convertible to estate cars by replacing the rear side panels with windows and bolting a rear bench seat to the floor. A fair few years before my time (I was a late surprise), but my dad took advantage of this when buying his first car.
On the subject of fuelling cars, do some drivers still put 'shots' of additives such a redex or equivalents into their tanks before filling?
Cross City
Member
A few days before an MOT I will, otherwise no.
I drive a 4 year old Seat Ibiza so it's probably unnecessary, but it can't hurt.
I have a filthy diesel. Not ULEZ/CAZ compliant etc. Mostly the high rev, high temp driving keeps things running clean, but a couple of weeks before an MOT I do stick a bottle of Redex DPF cleaner in. Admittedly I also inherited about a dozen bottles from my father in law so it's not costing me anything. But err.. better safe than sorry?