JAY EMRIE wrote in a message to ROY J. TELLASON:

RJT> -=> Jay Emrie said to Greg Mayman
RJT> -=> about "PHILIPS TUBES (VALVES)!" on 12-24-02  22:45.....

RJT> JE> I never could understand why Great Britain stayed on the
RJT> JE> pound/shilling/pence bit for so terribly long.

RJT> GM> Same reason the US has stayed on miles/yards/feet/inches... pure
RJT> GM> cussedness and resistance to change 

RJT>Probably.    They *have* changed to liters in terms of soft 
RJT>drink bottles, but that's about the extent of it.  Some highway 
RJT>signs mention km, but not too often,  and it doesn't seem to be 
RJT>making much headway elsewhere.  Except that most of my car uses 
RJT>metric hardware...

JE> My 92 Ford Crown Vic is totally metric as is my 92 Chevy PU.

As is my 90 Acclaim,  but my 78 Dodge Pickup is totally SAE,  excepting for
one rear wheel cylinder that I changed out and found out only after the
fact that the bleeder valve had a metric size to it,  the only bloody
metric part on the whole truck!

JE> I have found that a number of states have KM on their signs - 
JE> mostly in reference to speed limits but no reference to MPH.

Oh really?  That wasn't the case the last time I traveled,  but where?

JE> The few that have Km in reference to distance do NOT have miles 
JE> also - very infuriating since very few if any American cars have Km 
JE> indicators for distance. The speedometers indicate miles traveled.

Indeed.  Though my car has both in the electronic gizmo,  at least.

JE> Quite a few years ago - in the late 70s, Sears started putting 
JE> metric tools on sale at very attractive prices. I saw the 
JE> handwriting on the wall and loaded up on metric tools.. Sure glad I 
JE> did now!

I haven't seen any great specials,  but do get what I need from time to
time when I encounter a size I haven't hit a need for before,  whether it's
SAE or metric.  I'm pretty well stocked up on 1/4" drive and 3/8"
drive excepting for maybe some of the bigger sizes,  in both normal and
deep sockets,  but have quite a ways to go with 1/2" drive stuff.

Anyhow,  I would tend to agree that cars are going that way.  Dunno about
too much else,  though.  Consumer electronics has definitely gone that way,
 for some years now,  with metric hardware all over the place,  by contrast
to the once-common 1/4" hex-head screws,  but that's about the extent
of it as far as I can see.  It sure doesn't seem to be penetrating into
other areas too much.

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