Puzzled by a imperial tape measure

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Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
I think there's debate over most things in cricket :)

My father, as an Irishman trying to explain cricket to a very young and very puzzled Irish boy, said; "The English, not being a very spiritual people, invented cricket to teach their young men a sense of eternity"

Don't know where he got that one, but I've never forgotten it!
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,109
2,847
66
Pembrokeshire
Rods, poles, perches - do they teach nothing in School these days?
Measurements that gained us an Empire as opposed to Jonny Frog's metric system that only gained them ...Hollande :)
 

Blaidd

Nomad
Jun 23, 2013
354
0
UK
5 1/2 yards also called a pole or perch ( as well as a rod, already mentioned). (Just for completeness :)
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
I think it might be for measuring cords of wood. No idea what it's called.

Those units are usually on a stiff, folding scale (similar to a carpenter's rule but scaled differently) rather than a tape tough. I remember my grandfather using those to scale the loads when he used to but pulpwood off the trucks.
 

oldtimer

Full Member
Sep 27, 2005
3,186
1,801
82
Oxfordshire and Pyrenees-Orientales, France
You make me feel very old. When I left school in 1959I started to learn surveying and chains and links were still being used.

I subsequently trained as a primary school teacher. The head of my first school where I started work in 1969 told me not to teach imperial measurements because the chnge to the metic system was imminent and he pointed out that the children would need to know only metric systems. Yesterday the young man at the aquatic supplies shop kindly converted my fishpond size from litres to gallons without being asked, and the hardware shop assistant told me a tarpaulin size in feet although the only marking was in centimetres.

It fascinates me how these old measurements have hung on despite the efforts of a whole generation of teachers.

Got to go now as I have to drive a couple of miles to meet a friend for a pint.
 

MartiniDave

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 29, 2003
2,355
130
62
Cambridgeshire
Only yesterday one of our machinists asked me to order him a piece of 3 inch by inch and a quarter aluminium bar, 1 meter long. Made me shake my head and smile to myself!
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
......It fascinates me how these old measurements have hung on despite the efforts of a whole generation of teachers.

Got to go now as I have to drive a couple of miles to meet a friend for a pint.

Wait until air traffic control assigns you FL250 for your altitude. It's still based on feet.
 

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