'The Metric Revolution'

[Username already in use]

Posting this in the vintage discussion because I found this story on the inside label of a vintage Thorsen socket set. I can only assume based on the 'Yankee Doodle' and the Red/White/Blue theme that this Thorsen socket set is from around the 1976 vintage (think bi-centennial). Metric was beginning to take hold and Thorsen thought to educate consumers on the how/why for.

The set as found, was mostly complete, missing a few pieces that the future owner, an avid Thorsen collector will be able to fill in, I'm sure.

The Yankee Doodle label specifies the set contents and has a note to 'turn card for "the Metric Revolution"

The reverse side educates consumers on the metric system and the U.S. standard of measures. There's a Metric Product check list which highlights the types of products that likely use metric fasteners. The list includes Foreign cars, mini-bikes, snowmobiles, 10-speed bikes, television sets, domestic compact cars, radios, electric appliances, motorcycles, and stereos. Also included is a metric conversion table.

And, for your reading pleasure, is the story of the Metric Revolution as told by Thorsen Tool Company.

I've been on a search lately for some good vintage USA made metric tools and was pleased as punch to find this set and the attached telling of the 'revolution'. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did.

 

[Buckgnarly]

That's awesome.... but we are still stuck in the stone age, at least those other 12 countries moved on!

 

[poncho62]

Here in Canada, we were converted to Metric around then.....Me being a bit older, learned both Imperial (That's what we call what you call US Measure) and metric in high school....It was tough. It's also expensive when you work on cars...Gotta have both sets of wrenches/sockets etc. Now, 40+ years later, I still do some things in Imperial and some metric......Speed limit signs are all metric of course, easy enough to grasp. The one thing I have the hardest time with is miles per gallon, metric is litres/100km. To me, thats weird. Pressures (PSI etc) are another thing I cant grasp in metric.
Our kids and grandkids were born into metric, so its much easier for them.

I find it interesting that the socket set drive size is still 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch....lol

 

[SuperCat]

I find it interesting that the socket set drive size is still 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch....lol

I never thought about that - thanks for pointing that out, I had a good laugh!

 

[B.Boru]

''''

 

[d42jeep]

I’m looking forward to being able to learn about the metric system!
-Don

 

[EVOLVO]

I worked as a Field Service Engineer for a Dutch marine propulsion company so of course everything was metric. It didn't take me long to realize how easy and simple the metric system is and how dumb we 'Mericuhns where for not switching when we had the chance. I'm 69 and I have a foggy recollection of the metric conversion debate sometime back in the fifties. The metric system lost and we got left behind dealing with inches.
I've had many discussions with my machinist friends about this and have often come up against those who still think the world will suddenly wake up and realize inches and feet is the best way, haha. As if!
Then I realized that we in America use the metric system everyday. It's in your pockets and wallets. Our money is base ten, the same as the metric system.

 

[jakemac]

Don't think of it as 5", go metric. 12.7cm is bigger, isn't it ?

 

[03.]

Advice from someone who lives in a country that converted to metric in the mid '70s and still has imperial screws and bolts available in every decent hardware.
It will cost your country a fortune and will never really happen, just be happy with what you have.

 

[Username already in use]

Don't think of it as 5", go metric. 12.7cm is bigger, isn't it ?

I can't be the only one that found this funny!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did.

I did! For several reasons, not the least of which is my novel-in-progress, which bounces back and forth in time between 1776 and 1976!

Did you happen to notice the stock number?! They left nothing out of the design theme, apparently!

I was in high school at the time of the Great Metric Conversion Campaign, and I can tell you, it was a weird feeling in my neck of the woods, which they call Pennsyltucky for a reason. The buzz surrounding it was not unlike talk of UFO's or a communist plot. And I'm not kidding. People, including my old man, were very skeptical, to say the least.

The subject of when it was introduced here in the US has come up before. I've had discussions with four.cycle, LesserSon, and DadsTools here and there on various threads.

Vintage Bridgeport Hardware and Manufacturing DOE wrenches with imperial sizes on one side of the shank and metric sizes on the flip side show up here from time to time as major headscratchers, because they were made as early as 1940, but they were made for export. Cleveland Twist Drill was also making reamers and other bits with metric markings in the 1940's, again, because they had foreign sales and foreign sales offices.

If you're wondering who the first major brand to offer metric was, I don't know for sure, but Sears & Roebuck first offered Craftsman brand socket drive tools, in limited assortments, in 1964.

Snap-on, always a good yardstick, was relatively late to the game in 1978.

See posts #52, #53, and #57 in the 'Auto-Kits' thread, linked here, and Post #491, #499, and #503 in the 'Show off your DOE's' thread, linked here for more.

By the way, is that a Steelers logo above the Thorsen logo? I wonder if they co-sponsored the campaign?

Don't think of it as 5", go metric. 12.7cm is bigger, isn't it ?

What's a good imperial/metric debate thread without a good ***** joke?

 

[Username already in use]

By the way, is that a Steelers logo above the Thorsen logo? I wonder if they co-sponsored the campaign?

Good eye. It's most of the Steelers logo. Just says 'STEEL'. Maybe they were sourcing their steel from Pittsburg steel factories?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

That's the old U.S. Steel/American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) logo. Thorsen was promoting their use of steel made in America. I should've figured that. The Steelers appropriated it later, I assume with permission. Edit: that was a bigger thing back then.

 

[d42jeep]

Here are a couple of early Bridgeport made DOE wrenches with metric markings. Plenty of size markings but no manufacturers logo.
-Don

 

[Mr. Tool]

Hey cool!

Thanks for posting and sharing!

 

[humber2]

Snap-on, always a good yardstick, was relatively late to the game in 1978.

I beg to differ, try 1938.

 

[6PTsocket]

Here in Ireland, we have Lidl (German) discount stores. They have twice weekly 'specials' on sale. Often there's tools . They used to use 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch as the drive sizes on their sockets sets. A while back the advertising leaflets started using 6.5, 9.5 and 12.5 mm to describe the different socket drive sizes. (I know these are not exact conversions)

Is nothing sacred anymore

Brian>

They're stuck with those oddball drive sizes becase the US was first to start making ratchets.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[6PTsocket]

Remnants of old systems hang on. In the UK they still weigh people in stone. I have heard distances given in miles. The World is stuck with US 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 drive sizes, no matter what they call it.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I beg to differ, try 1938.

I stand gladly corrected, humber! I do see the metric section, in the back with the Whitworth, oriented at foreign markets. I will have to go back and re-look at my notes on this. I remember doing a part numbers check on Collecting Snap-on; I must not have used enough variety in part numbers. Thank you.

EDIT: It looks like they went metric (other than special order) in stages, as early as 1960 for some wrenches and drive sizes, 1970 for others, and in a major way in 1973. I'd have to re-visit in a detailed way to get a better handle on it. Thanks again. There are a few other places I need to go correct this misreading.

 

[humber2]

The 1938 Export Catalog is quite the revealing document isn't it?

Introduction of metric and Whitworth tooling therein.

Having found sockets locally from 1937 but not earlier I suspect this also dates the introduction of SO to the New Zealand market.

 

[Gmonkee]

Any idea when Bonney started making metrics in contract tools?

 

[6PTsocket]

Any idea when Bonney started making metrics in contract tools?

Nope, but I had a nice set of black Bonney combo metrics issued to me at my gov't. job. I loved them. I should have bought a personal set when it was still easy and they reasonablly priced

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[Ji m]

Car and truck wheel sizes are still in inches,
even when the tires themselves are metric

225/50-17 is 225 milimeters wide, with a 50% aspect ratio on a 17" wheel.

Inches are never going away.

 

[gtae07]

I worked as a Field Service Engineer for a Dutch marine propulsion company so of course everything was metric. It didn't take me long to realize how easy and simple the metric system is and how dumb we 'Mericuhns where for not switching when we had the chance. I'm 69 and I have a foggy recollection of the metric conversion debate sometime back in the fifties. The metric system lost and we got left behind dealing with inches.
I've had many discussions with my machinist friends about this and have often come up against those who still think the world will suddenly wake up and realize inches and feet is the best way, haha. As if!
Then I realized that we in America use the metric system everyday. It's in your pockets and wallets. Our money is base ten, the same as the metric system.

There's really not much difference between the US and metric systems, honestly. Yes, metric is more convenient when converting between different units of the same type (e.g. two units of length), and certain physical constants and properties are more conveniently memorized in metric (like freezing/boiling point and density of water under standard conditions, etc)... but there's nothing inherently superior about a centimeter vs. an inch, a pound vs. a Newton, or Pascals vs. psi.

Just don't go working in fractions or trying to mix units (e.g. feet and inches). That way lies madness. Decimal inches are a thing, and using them is no different than using centimeters or millimeters. I do it all the time at work and we've never had an issue with it.


If you're going to try and "prove" the superiority of one system over another, be realistic about the advantages of each, don't try justifying yourself using obsolete units that nobody's heard of, and do things comparably in one system vs. another--that is, don't work all in centimeters in one and then feet/inches in the other. That's being dishonest.

 

[whateg01]

I have always found it funny, when visiting Canada, that there is such a mix in day-to-day life of metric and Imperial. You tell the temperature in degrees celsius, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Speeds are in kph, but in much of (at least western) Canada, roads are still laid out on a mile grid.

I do like that I can drive faster in metric than I can in Imperial, though! I was doing about 150 in France in a minivan!

Dave

 

[coljar]

My grandfather was born in 1900 and graduated from Michigan State Automotive School in 1919. He was a big advocate for the metric system his whole adult life.

 

[Ji m]

The Meter was supposed to be 1 ten-millionth the distance from the poles to the equator,
only the math used in the 1790's had that distance wrong,
I'll adopt the metric system when they fix it

At least the inch being based on the Kings finger tip or whatever is based on a real thing

 

[Username already in use]

At least the inch being based on the Kings finger tip or whatever is based on a real thing

You didn't read the OP. According to Thorsen, the inch is based on three round barleycorns laid end to end.

 

[jakemac]

At least the inch being based on the Kings finger tip or whatever is based on a real thing

You didn't read the OP. According to Thorsen, the inch is based on three round barleycorns laid end to end.

That must have been one ugly finger !

 

[notlob]

From '72-73 Craftsman Power and Hand Tools catalog.

 

[notlob]

There's really not much difference between the US and metric systems, honestly.

I would vehemently disagree, especially for work in the sciences, medicine, or engineering.

But that discussion was beaten to death decades ago.

 

[whateg01]

I would vehemently disagree, especially for work in the sciences, medicine, or engineering.

But that discussion was beaten to death decades ago.

I'm reminded that they are not the same every time I'm baking something and it calls for 1/2 pt of whatever and I have to try to remember how much of a cup or how many ounces that is. Or how many feet are in a half mile. Or how many pounds 193 oz is. Or....

Dave

 

[gtae07]

I'm reminded that they are not the same every time I'm baking something and it calls for 1/2 pt of whatever and I have to try to remember how much of a cup or how many ounces that is. Or how many feet are in a half mile. Or how many pounds 193 oz is. Or....

Dave

Stick with a consistent unit and you won't have that problem. Or to put it another way, just because a unit exists, doesn't mean you have to use it. Because that's where you trip yourself up, and that's where metric has the advantage. Baking and cooking is probably the worst example of the US system; you don't see that kind of silliness doing engineering in US units.

But my point is that there's nothing inherently superior about a centimeter vs. an inch, for example. Or a pound vs. a Newton. The only thing you gain with metric is computational convenience when changing units. It's a big advantage if you do it a lot, but your part doesn't magically become "better" because you dimensioned it in millimeters instead of inches.


I say this because I'm an engineer in an industry that (in the US) almost exclusively uses US units. We don't run into all these supposed inferiorities because we don't do things like mix feet, inches, yards, etc. or use fractions. Everything's done in decimal inches and decimal pounds. Ignoring for a moment the existing certified supply of standard materials, fasteners, allowable data, and all that other fun industrial-base stuff, we could just as easily do our job in metric, with minimal trouble (as any engineer worth their title should be able to).


I just get irritated when people do stuff like present false dilemmas or look up absurd units to "prove" that metric is superior, like "metric uses decimals, not fractions like the US system", or picking out obscure units that nobody uses any more.

 

[EVOLVO]

Besides computational convenience there is also engineering convenience. I just pulled up an assembly drawing I have. First, no one uses centimeters, it's all millimeters. Then I noticed that a series of drilled holes was all dimensioned with whole numbers, that is the second hole is 147mm from the first than 167mm, 188mm, 210mm and 234mm. In fact the whole drawing is done with whole numbers, not one decimal point! Try doing that with decimal inches, especially if the holes aren't on 1" centers which the aforementioned are not. If it was necessary to use a decimal in the metric layout there would only be 2 digits to the right of the decimal point, 3 at most in very close tolerance drawings. So I stand by my statement, the Metric system is superior!

 

[Copymutt]

This one made me cross eyed.
Visited Harpswell, Maine last summer. On my first visit to a lobster shack I attempted to order a filet of cod.
Do you want a half pint or a pint? HUH?
She repeats it. OK I'm familiar with coleslaw, beans and even a beer in that volume measurement but I don't order a half pint of steak or a pint of burger.
It couldn't be new Math as she was well into her 60s. Was she a visiting alien from another planet and just blew her cover?
Maybe I should have countered with "a half liter please". Shoulda order a pound of JD and coke to go with it.

Jim

 

[jakemac]

Was that an American Pint or an Imperial Pint ?

 

[jmarkwolf]

There are two types of countries in this world:

those with the metric system and those that have landed on the moon.

 

[davethorik]

There are two types of countries in this world:

those with the metric system and those that have landed on the moon.

Must have been senior skip day when they taught about Burma and Liberia's moon landings in history class, I sure don't remember hearing about them

 

[jakemac]

Burma didn't land on the moon, that was Myanmar.

 

[EVOLVO]

https://www.space.com/3332-nasa-finally-metric.html

It's the only way we can keep up!