Do you think I am crazy?

[David M]

I didn't know about those military items. What form of killing needs such precision? 1/6400 seems a very curious unit, partly derived from halving successive units, in the way inches were used and partly from decimals. It corresponds to projecting a patch of light about just over 1Km wide on the Moon, more than adequate for a nuclear strike. I'm very curious, although this has nothing to do with Arca-Swiss cameras.
In the context of the cameras, Metric seems to be a trademark, rather than a specification. There are scales on the camera.
"Metric", meaning measure, occurs in other contexts, such as biometric and barometric.

I wonder if the origin of this conversation lies in a conflation of the metric system and the decimal system? The original revolutionary metric system included decimal years of ten months with secular names for the months like Hot or Foggy and a decimal day, hour, minute and second. They did propose a system of angular measurement with 100° to the right angle. These proved either unpopular or unworkable. The Unites States has retained many units imposed on it by the Tyrant George III. I cannot explain cups for cooking.

I do agree about setting apertures, particularly in recessed boards. Does anybody know of a solution to that little problem?

 

[Keith Haithwaite]

The Unites States has retained many units imposed on it by the Tyrant George III. I cannot explain cups for cooking.

Think about it David. Bear in mind that from the outset that what would become the USA was made up of almost entirely immigrants speaking a variety of different languages, so how do you communicate?

For example, if you wanted to show someone a recipe for a pecan pie and you had no common language how would you do it?

1 cup sugar
1 1⁄2 cups corn syrup (I use 1/2 dark and 1/2 light)
4 eggs
1⁄4 cup butter
1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1⁄2 cups pecans, coarsely broken

Okay, you would have to use the pointing method to show the ingredients but everyone had a drinking vessel and spoons of some sort ........... .

 

[David M]

Keith,
Fair enough. I can see how that would work. American cooks seem manage the system well enough. A good deal of my own cooking uses those universal measures "some" and "enough".
Curiously, I've just been measuring sugar and water to make a syrup. I found it easier to weight the sugar and then weigh the water on top of it, all in the same vessel.
We seem to have travelled a long way from elegantly controlled tilt on a beautiful Swiss camera...

 

[Keith Haithwaite]

We seem to have travelled a long way from elegantly controlled tilt on a beautiful Swiss camera...

Indeed we have.

Hmm, if you accidentally added too much water how would you get out the excess with removing some of the sugar? I use the Northern measurements of "a bit o' this" and a "touch of t'other" mixed with a good measure of 'elbow grease'. I'll shut up now before I get told off.

 

[David M]

Elbow grease makes pastry tough, but makes meringues light.
I add most of the water quickly, then when there's only a few ounces to go, I slow down. If I overshoot (which I haven't done yet) the layer of water above the sugar is still plain water and I can scoop some out. Otherwise, I'd note the overshoot and add the right amount of sugar. Then I add elbow grease. A very versatile ingredient.

 

[KenS]

Think about it David. Bear in mind that from the outset that what would become the USA was made up of almost entirely immigrants speaking a variety of different languages, so how do you communicate?

For example, if you wanted to show someone a recipe for a pecan pie and you had no common language how would you do it?

1 cup sugar
1 1⁄2 cups corn syrup (I use 1/2 dark and 1/2 light)
4 eggs
1⁄4 cup butter
1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1⁄2 cups pecans, coarsely broken

Okay, you would have to use the pointing method to show the ingredients but everyone had a drinking vessel and spoons of some sort ........... .

Keith...my mentor's recipe for fixer was a gowpen or... was it gowpin of the powder to half the old paint-can of warm water?

Ken

 

[Stephen Batey]

I can't recall the source, but over 50 years ago I recall seeing that a cup was a quarter pint (aka 5 fl oz). The reason metric took over is, I suppose, because it's far more precise. The imperial measure is just a whole number (5 fluid ounces) and no-one can estimate its precision; whereas in metric it's 142.065cc and there we have three significant decimal places to prove that it's more precise

I note that US has bigger fluid ounces than here in the UK, proving yet again that everything in America is bigger, although confusingly (to me) the Google converter seems to indicate that the US fluid ounce is larger and the US pint smaller. All of which makes me wonder about the ease of measuring water volume by weight that I used long ago, so very simple when a fluid ounce of water weighed an ounce.

 

[David M]

It's all very confusing. There are twenty Imperial fluid ounces to the Imperial pint. US schoolchildren are taught "A pint's a pound, the world around." In the world around, "A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter."
There is a similar confusion with Imperial ounces and Troy ounces.
The metric system uses the same units with standard names everywhere (despite the pointless vandalism of meter for metre) and they all relate to each other. So, as we all know, a kilo is a litre (at NTP, etc) Perhaps an added attraction is that all metric units use base ten and will work on calculators.
British currency used to be counted, in effect, in base twelve, for pennies in a shilling and base twenty for shillings in a pound, with the addition of counting in base twenty-one for guineas. Pennies were divided into two halfpennies (pronounced ha'penny) or four farthings. The pound was also divided into half-crowns, 2/6d or one eighth of a pound, and florins, equal to two shillings, one tenth of a pound. And there were sixpenny and threepenny (pronounced thrup'ny) coins. Apparently foreigners found it tricky, but the natives seem to manage perfectly well. In retrospect, it was a joy to watch change being counted backwards into your waiting palm.