We had a very dense fog one night going home in the works bus. I ended up standing on the step telling the driver how far from the kerb he was while he had his head out of the side window to see the white line. We were doing no more than 10 mph. I got off at the last stop, I don't know how he got back to the garage or how long it took him.
In my young days it was referred to as Centigrade, which is a more accurate definition (100 grades from freezing to boiling).
Like Fahrenheit, Centigrade has now been dumped in favour of Celsius. Why can`t they leave things alone, for goodness sake.:fingerdrum:
Yes, "Centigrade". Indeed, for example, on the aircrafts, the Captain pilots have always used to say (the italians pilots): "Ladies and Gentlemen, here's your Captain speaking, we have started our descent to London where we expect to land in 15 minutes. Weather in London is partly cloudy and the temperature is 14 DEGREES CENTIGRADE". So, "CENTIGRADE" and not "CELSIUS". But nowadays, many people use to refer to it as "Celsius", meaning that the capital "C" is for "Celsius" rather than "Centigrade"... Are they right ? Are they wrong. To be honest, I don't know. Sure enough, the Celsius scale is a centigrade one. So, Celsius and Centigrade are considered synonimous. On my opinion, a centigrades scale is more convenient than others. It names the freezing point "zero" and the boiling point "100" and then names 1,2,3,4,5, ecc all the degrees that are in between. Much more confortable, on my opinion. For the same reasons, I prefer the decimal system of units rather than others. For example, why should you use inches, feet, yards, miles or what have you ? Is it not better using centimetres, decimetres, metres, kilometres, etc ? You have 1 kilometre, you add three "0" and you have 1,000 metres, you add one more "0" and you have 10,000 decimetres, you add one more "0" and you have 100,000 centimetres. It is easier. Isn't it ? Again, why pounds instead of kilos ??? Are not multiples-of-ten scales more comfortable than others ? Are they ? The decimal numeral system has been a great invention thanks to the arabs. Long ago, the italian's ancestors - the romans - use such symbols as X for 10, V for 5, M for 1,000. Just immagine how difficult arithmetic was by using theese symbols.... :-))) THANKS AGAIN TO THE ARABS, END OF DIGRESSION AND ... ... ENJOY YOU ALL YOUR DECIMAL/CENTIGRADE SYSTEMS... ;-)
In MY young days we still worked in fahrenheit which was a crazy scale to use. Celsius came up with the nice easy to use centigrade scale though he had freezing at 100 degrees and boiling at 0 degrees and this scale was later inverted. The problem with the centigrade scale was that it could be interpreted as an angular measure - 'grades', so in the 50s, though it took a while to catch on, the scientific community adopted Celsius as the name for the scale. It follows with scientific tradition though, as the name of the discoverer or 'inventor' has been attached to the scale. When I was a kid radios were calibrated in metres or Kilocycles or megacyles. These days MegaHertz (MHz) and KiloHertz (KHz) are used in recognition of Heinrich Herz's work on electro-magnetic waves.
Bang on the nail maksim!!! Without the arabic 0 (zero) which is only a place value indicator and not a numerical quantity, we'd be stuffed.
I prefer the old Imperial measurements. They kept your brain more active. There was none of this 'stick a nought on the end, stuff'. It wouldn't surprise me if they invented some sort of electronic thingy to do the calculations for you
And next thing, mark my words, will be something that does the job of the copiers. The Banda (oh the hit I get from the fluid) or the Gestetner (the correction fluid is great when sniffed, and the indelible op-art inky stains on shirt cuffs and tie are real cool). Doubt if it will ever happen though. Thank goodness
For "romantic" reasons I'd prefer the old Imperial measurements either. They also remind us of the "gold era" of Britain (for example, the various eras such as georgian, victorian, the industrial revolution and all the litterature genres based on them, going through Orwell, Sir arthur Conan Doyle, etc.) So we could be stick on them in the same way as we are stick on the red phone-boxes, the black taxi-cabs, the five o' clock tea, etc. In one single word: "TRADITIONS". That's actually what makes Britain and London such fascinating turistic places with all the money income involved in it. Tourism can be considered as an important british "industry", after all. Expecially as far as London is concerned. It would be disappointing, expecially for all the tourists, if England would give up with all its wonderfull traditions. The tourist would be the most disappointed if that should happen. That's for sure. But for practical porpuses, the internetional measurements should be preferred... So, the heart would suggest us: "the old Imperial measurements". Brain would suggest us: "the international measurements". That's a dilemma... In the same way as: "To be or not to be, that's the question..." ;-)
Yes, you can't beat the Gestetner . Typing the film and carbon is an art as well as fixing it to the machine and spreading the correct amount of ink. There can't be anything that would replace it. Not forgetting the excellent exercise for the arm when turning the handle and the skill in getting the speed just right for it to be ultra efficient. Then, of course, comes the Addressograph. What a superb piece of machinery with its capability of repeating the printing of addresses ad infinitum. Irreplaceable!! :yess:
