Progress of British Metrication

Publisher’s version / Version de l'éditeur:

Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1968-04-01

READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE.

https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/copyright

Vous avez des questions? Nous pouvons vous aider. Pour communiquer directement avec un auteur, consultez la première page de la revue dans laquelle son article a été publié afin de trouver ses coordonnées. Si vous n’arrivez pas à les repérer, communiquez avec nous à PublicationsArchive-ArchivesPublications@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.

Questions? Contact the NRC Publications Archive team at

PublicationsArchive-ArchivesPublications@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca. If you wish to email the authors directly, please see the first page of the publication for their contact information.

NRC Publications Archive

Archives des publications du CNRC

For the publisher’s version, please access the DOI link below./ Pour consulter la version de l’éditeur, utilisez le lien DOI ci-dessous.

https://doi.org/10.4224/20358736

Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at

Progress of British Metrication

Legget, R. F.

https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/droits

L’accès à ce site Web et l’utilisation de son contenu sont assujettis aux conditions présentées dans le site LISEZ CES CONDITIONS ATTENTIVEMENT AVANT D’UTILISER CE SITE WEB.

NRC Publications Record / Notice d'Archives des publications de CNRC: https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=4454dd14-2d3e-4e81-844c-f9207b7a9ddd https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=4454dd14-2d3e-4e81-844c-f9207b7a9ddd

'f

IE C1HlN ][ CAlL

NOTE

-=--1

PREPARED BY _{R. F. Legget} CHECKED BY _N.B.H. APPROVED By _R.F.L.

PREPARED FOR

DATE April 1968

General Distribution

SUBJECT _{PROGRESS OF BRITISH METRICATION}

In view of the increasing interest in Canada in the metric system and the existing indications of the probability of the metric system coming into use in North America far in advance of all previous estimates, the following notes were prepared to record impressions and information gained during a recent visit to Great Britain of the progress being made in British metrication. They are based on discussions with senior officers of the British Standards Institution held during a brief visit to London in early February, 1968. Talks were also held with some of those re-sponsible for the implementation of the metric conversion in industry.

It may be said that, in general, although there is little outward evidence of any change in systems of measurement in Great Britain (apart only from the universal use today of degrees Celsius instead of degrees Fahrenheit) steady progress is being made. Much of this is still in the planning and development

stages but already the first completely metric house has been completed. This is tangible evidence of the keen interest that has already been developed in the conversion program and of

the general determination to see that the program is carried through on schedule. Accordingly, it seems almost certain that by 1975 Great Britain will be using the metric system completely, by 1973 the large construction industry of Great Britain will have completed its conversion, and by 1971 decimal coinage will be in use.

2

-It is advisable to note that although the term ttmetric system" is used for convenience in this Note, and although the main change to be made is in the use of metres instead of yards etc. for measurement, and kilogrammes instead of pounds etc. for weight, the British conversion is actually to the coherent S. I.

Units. The S. I. system is explained in Canadian Building Digest No. lOO. It is the system to which all national conversions will now, almost certainly, conform.

Standard Time

One of the most signifil:ant changes took place just after the writer's visit to London when Greenwich Mean Time was offi-cially abandoned in place of the equivalent of European Standard Time which is one hour ahead of GMT. This transition took place very easily since it was the equivalent of converting to Summer Time for the whole twelve months of the year. Probably for this reason there was little protest about the change despite the fact that GMT has been standard time throughout the world for so many years in both scientific and navigational circles. The argument was that it was necessary to change in order to put British business offices on the same time basis as European business offices. This is a reflection of the fact that all the changes to be described really relate to Great Britain's desire to enter the Common Market. In this particular case, the

argu-mEmt seemed to the writer to be rather weak. This was clearly brought out in a singularly delightful editorial in the New York Times of all places (Appendix A). The change has been made, however, so that there is now a six-hour difference between Canadian and British time.

Decimal Coinage

The next part of the change will be a conversion to decimal coinage. To those who know Great Britain well this is quite the most surprising of all the changes to be made since Great Britain has appeared to be wedded to pounds, shillings and pence indefinitely. The decision has, however, been made. The first decimal coins were produced by the Royal Mint and exhibited to the press during the writer's visit to London. The change will be made officially on 15 February 1971.

This part of the conversion is under the direction of the Decimal Currency Board which has been described in the press as a very conservative body. As is well known, there have been great arguments as to whether ten shillings or the pound should be the new major unit of money and the decision reflects the conservative approach of the Board. Correspondingly it is alrnost inconceivable to this writer that a new system of coinage should actually include, as the official title of new coins, such a term as the "New Penny." This, however, is the name and it appears on the new coins.

1t

Metrication

Because it involves the entire industry of the country, this is naturally a far greater program than those already mentioned. It was initiated in 1965 as a result of requests from industry to Government. (This fact is often forgotten but helps to explain why the Government is not financing the change-over, leaving this to industry.) There is a special directing committee in the Ministry of Technology but most of the technical work is being done by the British Standards Institution. The Government grant to BSI has been sub-stantially increased for this purpose, to such an extent that about 45% of the total income of BSI now comes from the public purse.

To my surprise, there appear s to be no over -all ma ster program. This is apparent by the fact that there has been no basic decision as to when the retail trade should be converted but it is not being changed first as was done in the case of Japan and India. Since my return to Canada there has been public criticism of lack of action regarding the conversion of the retail trade even by officers of BSr. This is clearly one of the vital questions and it will be

interesting to compare the experiences of the United Kingdom and Japan-India in approaching this problem from. what are almost opposite directions.

4

-Several important pieces of British legislation have to be changed to permit the conversion, the Weights and Measures Act in particular. Clearly this matter must have high priority in any national program.

The educational aspect of the conver sion is also extremely important and must be timed well in advance of the actual change in industry and retail trade. For example, the Universities of Great Britain will be using the metric system for all under-graduate work as from 1969. Examinations using SI units will be set from this time. The school programs are more de-centralized but great efforts are being made to get the use of the metric system introduced into all school curricula as quickly as possible.

In general, there is to be no straight "arithmetical conversion.It

The change to metric is being used, to the maximum extent possible, to rationalize sizes (naturally when this can be done) to convenient metric sizes. Even more' important is the fact that many companies are already finding that they are able to reduce the variety of sizes of products that they produce, with significant economies.

Understandably, it has been found that a great deal of publicity work must be done to develop local interest throughout the country and to gain support for the activities of local metrication committees, without which the Job could not pos sibly be done.

While this is true for the United Kingdom, despite the concentration of activity in London, it will clearly be of absolutely vital importance in Canada.

At the centre of things, there is a Standing Joint Committee with members from the Confederation of British Industries, the Trade Unions, and BSI. Some of the matters dealt with by this Committee are education and training (in which the Ministry of Education is playing a vital part) and labour (in which the Ministry of Labour has a leading role). The next level of activity that has to be considered is the active participation of the Council of Engineering Institutions through which all members of the

engineering profession can be reached. C. E. I. is converting its examinations to metric units for regular use by 1971. Finally, there is a special subcommittee of the Standing Committee to deal with publicity.

Discussion of the work of the Committee emphasized the important role that local technical colleges can play in the

training of those who will have more to do with the actual use of the metric system - technicians in general - than anybody else. Discussion also raised a point that will be of such importance in Canada - namely the help that is being obtained from all those who have come to Great Britain from other Euro-pean countries and who are, therefore, already familiar with the use of the metric system.

A typical case was mentioned in which the As sistant Chief Designer of a great engineering company is a Czecho-slovakian. The change to metric has been no problem for

him and he has already been able to simplify design procedures through his company. This showed the value of such ItCase Histories." It was indicated to me that, despite the pressure upon BSI staff, they still hope to be able to prepare a record of typical case historie s that they will be able to share with other countries (such as Canada) that still face the problem of changing over.

The Building Industry

There has been great surprise because of the British building industry taking the lead in metric conversion. It was thought that it would be one of the last main industries to

change. Their leadership is described in the attached Appendix B which has been is sued, by DBR, to the trade pre s s of Canada as a progress statement.

The remarkable progress they are making is to some extent assisted by the fact that the UK government controls 50% of all construction, either directly or indirectly. Despite this, the work of the Central Planning Committee in getting accep-tance of a complete program for change to be completed by 1973 is still a remarkable achievement. It was done by having a first class chairman and a relatively small committee of really key people. The committee met every week for as long as was necessary and soon gathered support from all the major parts of the industry.

6

-Once the general prograIn was published, the British governInent then is sued its own stateInents cOInInending and agreeing with the prograIn through the respective Ministries who undertake construction work, such as the Ministry of Public Building and Works and the Ministry of Housing.

Although SOIne questions are being raised by Inanufacturers of building Inaterials, it seeIned clear to the writer that the ob-jective of a cOInplete change to Inetric by 1973 is still a goal that is going to be achieved by the building industry of Great Britain. This certainly will constitute a challenge to Canada's construction industry when the dIne COInes.

Books and Journals

Another of the special aspects of the British Inetrication prograIn, as it Inust be of any plan to convert to Inetric, is the change-over in books and journals. The Royal Society convened a special Ineeting of Editors in DeceInber 1966 to consider this aspect of Inetrication. As a result, a sInall but useful paInphlet was published by the Society in January 1968 - "The Royal

Society Conference of Editors - Metrication in Scientific Journals. n

The paInphlet reports two Inain recoInInendations of the Conference:

-1) That the systeIn of units known as S. I. be adopted in all scientific and technical journals; and

2) That, in order to keep to a IniniInuIn the difficulties that will inevitably arise during the period of

transition, the change-over should be effected as quickly as possible.

The paInphlet adds that liThe rate of change -over towards cOInplete Inetrication will vary froIn journal to journal, depending on the subjects covered and the extent to which the Inetric systeIn already holds sway. In certain branches of science and engineering

editors Inay decide to proceed to their target along the following route (with equivalent values given in parentheses):

non-metric (51) (Stage l) 51 (non-metric) (Stage 2) 51.II (Stage 3)

It is significant that, in the U. S. A., the American Society for Testing and Materials has already converted most of its

extensive serie s of Standards (almost 4000) to Stage 1. This example is being followed by other U. S. engineering societies but, as yet, very little advance in this direction is yet to be seen in Canada.

International Paper Sizes

The International Organization for Standards (ISO) has long been advocating the use of international paper sizes, first produced in Germany before the war. The most familiar sizes are A4 and AS which correspond closely to our existing quarto and octavo. The great advantage of the A sizes is that, when folded repeatedly, each smaller size that is so developed has exactly the same ratio between the short and the long side, i. e. l:

[2.

One of the most significant aspects of the British change to metric is the fact that, despite the wonderful variety of paper sizes that the British government has been using for so long, they have completely converted to the international A sizes, A4 now being used universally for official British correspondence.

Industry is now doing the same, one of the first of the great industrie s to convert completely to international sizes being Imperial Chemical Industries. It is, therefore, fortunate that we already have a committee looking into the possible use of these sizes in Canada since this particular conversion can be achieved without "going metric.It

APPENDIX A

LONDON ON PARIS TIME

For at least a sentimental minority, Britain's desertion of Greenwich Mean Time comes as an even more shattering blow than the devaluation of the pound. Inflation - whether of the creeping or galloping variety - has taught everybody the hard way that the value of money depreciates. Yet until last month one could cherish the belief that at least one constant remained in this dynamic world, that Britain was and always would be the time capital of the globe. But now London is on Paris time, and only the clock at Greenwich's Royal Observatory remains unchanged.

It is all too plain what lie s at the end of the road once-proud Albion has now begun to tread. The businessmen who pressed for this change insisted they had to have the same office hour s as their colleague s on the Continent <;0 that

tele-phone calls across the Channel would be sure to find recipients. By the same logic, British schools should stop teaching English -except as a convenience for those unfortunates planning to trade with the United States - and substitute French, thus assuring a common language for those important phone calls. Moliere and Racine, of course, could replace Shakespeare. From there it would be but a small step to decree that tea must give way to vin ordinaire. And then it would be but a formality to have Charles de Gaulle replace both Queen Elizabeth and Harold Wilson, as he has already replaced Joan of Arc. But perhaps there is still time to turn back. Greenwich time.

FROM: The New York Times, Monday, 4 March 1968.

•

THE METRIC SYSTEM AND THE U. K. BUILDING INDUSTR Y by Robert F. Legget Director DBR/NRC OTTAWA April 1968

THE METRIC SYSTEM AND THE U. K. BUILDING INDUSTRY

by

Robert F. Legget

The fact that Great Britain has embarked upon a complete conver sion to the metric system is still not very widely appreciated in Canada. By 1975, feet and inches, pounds and stones will all have ceased to be legal in the land with which they have been so long

associated. On 15 February 1971, now only three years away, pounds, shillings, and pence will be replaced by decimal coinage. This is an almost unbelievable change, but the first decimal coins have already been made at the Royal Mint and displayed to the public. And degrees Fahrenheit have already disappeared from the British scene, degrees Celsius, or Centigrade, having been used for official weather reports, for example for some years.

This revolution in public systems of measurement will inevit-ably affect Canada. South Africa has already announced that it has just embarked on a similar ten-year program of conversion; it is reported that Australia will probably follow suit before long. Canada and the United States of America can therefore look forward to being a foot-pound island in a metric world before many years have passed. About 90 per cent of the world's population live in metric countries. This one fact makes it inevitable that Canada eventually will have to follow suit. Export trade is the economic life-blood of Canada, now the fourth trading nation of the world. With over 75 per cent of inter-national trade already conducted in metric units, Canada cannot afford

•

It is generally assumed that Canada will have to follow the lead of the United States in this, as in so many other matters of business and economics. This is a very questionable assumption, however, especially in view of Canada's links with the United Kingdom and of the importance of this country's export trade, proportionately far more significant than that of the United States. But even in the U. S. A. the Ford Motor Company has already let it be known that it is going to convert to metric measurement, although without yet saying when. Clear indication of U.S. thinking on this matter was the decision of the American Society for Testing and Materials five years ago to ihclude metric units in all its many Standards. Progress in giving metric units in addition to foot-pound units, when necessary, in the 27, 500 pages of the ASTM Book of Standards has been exceptional; metric units will soon be found in all ASTM documents. Other engineer-ing societies have followed suit, but the ASTM example has yet to be followed in Canada.

The construction industry of this country may think that

IImetricationl' is a long way away and so is something that need not be considered seriously for a long time. The appearance of metric units in ASTM documents is surely just one indication that this view may be mistaken. The lumber industry of Canada is already giving serious consideration to the implications of the metric system since such a

large part of its production is exported to Europe, soon to be completely metric with the British conversion. And it should not be forgotten that

3

-that so m.any of those working in construction. both in the design office and on the job site, have com.e to Canada in recent years from. m.etric countries. Their experience in using feet and pounds will prove to be a fine advantage when the Canadian conversion does com.e, an advantage that is alm.ost unique to this country.

What has the British building industry done in the face of the great conversion program. of Great Britain? It was generally assum.ed that it would be the last of the m.ajor industries to com.plete its change to m.etric. Instead. it is going to be in the forefront of all British industries to go m.etric. its industry-wide plan calling for com.plete change by 1973. The first all-m.etric building in Britain is already in use, proof indeed that this great industry is not dallying in the face of the national decision. How has this quite surprising program. been achieved? The following is a brief outline of the m.ore significant events. All the docum.ents to be m.entioned are available for consultation in

the DBR/NRC Library in Ottawa and are available for purchase at the addresses noted in the accom.panying list of publications.

It was on 24 May 1965 that the President of the Board of Trade gave the following written reply to a question raised in the British House of Com.m.ons: "The Governm.ent are inlpressed with the case that has been put to them. by the representatives of industry for the widest use in British industry of the m.etric system. of weights and m.easures. •• (and) consider it desirable that British industries on a broadening front should adopt m.etric units. sector by sector •.• (hoping) that within ten years the greater part of the countryr s industry will have effected the change. tI It is to be noted that it was industry that approached

procedure as is sometimes imagined. That statement was the starting point of the conversion program.

The British Standards Institution had been asked by the Government to act as the focal point for the change-over to metric. British Standards must necessarily be the technical ｦｯｾ､｡ｴｩｯｮ upon which the industrial use of the metric system is based. Accordingly, all four thousand British Standards are now being reviewed, revised, and changed to metric units - a vast operation in itself, but only a part of the technical background to the change in industry. The side benefit of having a complete up-dating of all British standards will be obvious.

Before the end of May 1965 the B. S. I. Building Divisional Council had appointed a special Metric Panel (Construction Industry) under the dynamic chairmanship of the late Mr. E.J. Cook, a Director of the well-known contracting firm of Richard Costain Ltd. and himself a civil engineer. This was a small group of only eight members -from the Ministry of Public Building and Works, the British Building Research Station, the industry and the design professions. It reported to the widely representative Building Divisional Council of B. S.1.. with about fifty members. By March 1966 the Panel had a printed Question-naire ready for circulation (B. S.1. PD 5767). This was sent to over two hundred collective and representative organizations. The document contained the necessary information about the units to be used; its

5

-was provided for use in indicating the expectations of those who replied as to what was possible in their own' particular part of the industry. To assist with answers to the Questionnaire, a special public meeting was held in April 1966 at which members of the Panel were available for questioning.

A two-thirds response was achieved (132 complete replies being received by B. 5.1.) even though replies were required by 6 May 1966. less than two months after the distribution of the document. By 25 August of the same year the Panel had assessed the replies received and had prepared a draft prograrn for conversion which was circulated in mimeographed form, with only two months again, allowed for study of the draft and the submission of replies. Again. a healthy response was received. The proposed program was meanwhile being considered also by the Building Divisional Council. On the basis of all the comments received. the Panel prepared its final Programme. and with the approval of the Council this was published in ｰｲｩｮｴｾ､ form in February 1967

(B.S.l. PD 6030). The program is again in the form of a bar chart; this shows the change-over substantially complete by the end of 1972. with all residual changes complete by the end of 1973.

Explanatory Notes accompany the chart to explain the significance of the change with reference to such matters a13 Building Products.

Measuring Instruments, Contract Documents and Works of Reference. A companion document (B.S.I. PD 6031) was issued simultaneously. A Guide for the Use of the Metric System in the Construction Industry. and it is exactly what the title ｩｮ､ｩ｣｡ｴ･ｳｾ It explains the units that are to be used, gives complete listings, of conversion factor s, and concludes

with an admirable section on basic design data with appropriate tables. The Government quickly indicated its own agreement with the program and announced that it " ••• will adhere to it in its own work, and will advise and encourage other authorities in the public

sector to do the same." This is the program that is now being imple-mented through the British building industry, with progress to date satisfactory and no insuperable difficulties yet encountered.

The following is a particularly significant quotation from the official Programme: "The change to the metric would not be meaning-ful unless it implied a change to metric thinking as opposed merely to the translation of present values into exact metric equivalents. By integrating the change with a reappraisal of product design and per-formance, the period of metric change also provides the opportunity to advance building technology." This statement will show, in part, why it is that industry is paying the costs of conversion, the Govern-ment's assistance being in the general technical level, as through the greatly expanded services of B. S. I., the government grant to which has been substantially increased.

Equally significant is the combination of the change to metric with a wholesale adoption of modular coordination of building products and building design. DBR/NRC has been promoting the use of modular coordination in Canada for most of the last twenty years and has issued many publications in this field, : so that there is no need here to explain in any detail this application of "common sense" to the dimensioning of building products in multiples or fractions of the basic module, and the corresponding development of building designs on the basis of a four-foot

•

-grid. Since the basic module is 4 inches, which is almost exactly the same as 10 centimetres, conversion is no great difficulty for products that are already modular. The Department of Industry is now also actively promoting the use of modular coordination in Canadian building so that these combined efforts could result in a minor step in preparation for the change to metric dimensions that must one day 'corne to Canadian building.

Throughout this note, the term "metric system" has been used and this is common usage in so far as units of length and weight are concerned. In actual fact, however, Great Britain is converting to what are now known as S.1. Units. These are the units adopted as

the ｓｹｳｴｾｭ･ International by the Conference International des Poids

et Mesures, developed by its working committee, Ie Comite Inter-national des Poids et Mesures (of which Dr. L. E. Howlett of N. R. C., Canada, is the current President). There are six basic units for length, mass, time, electric current, temperature and luminous intensity (the metre, kilogram, second, ampere, degree Kelvin and candela). All six units are "coherent, " a term that is fully explained in Canadian Building Digest No. 100 on "The Metric System, If copies of which are available without charge from DBR/NRC. Canada already uses three of these units (the second, ampere and candela) and should soon use S. 1. degrees, leaving conversion involving only length and mass.

This, then, is the present status of the quite remarkable change that is taking place in British industry generally, and in the British building industry with special vigour. DBR/NRC is keeping in close

•

time to time for the information of the Canadian construction industry. Inquiries will always be welcomed by the Division, which is

maintain-ing in its Library (the Library of the industry, always open durmaintain-ing working hours for use by any from the industry) a complete file of reports and publications that bear upon the change to metric.