Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/08/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]TTAbrahams@aol.com on 08/14/98 12:17:10 AM Part of my job is to design optical test instruments such as optical interferometers. The machine shops that I use here in Minnesota only use English units. However, they use mils (one thousands of an inch) instead of fractions of an inch. I learned the hard way not to give machinists engineering drawings containing metric units. Translating all the metric units into English units was not fun. By the way, Tri-X is my favorite film too. Glen Robinson Glen, your point on temperature and volume is well taken, and,although being born "metric" I can use the ounce and pint measures in the darkroom. Where the British or " Imperial" system falls apart is in machining. Trust me. it is easier to machine in metric than in 1/1000 of 2,54 cm. At least I know that a full turn on the feedwheel of my small lathe is 1,00 mm movement with the cutting tool, not 0,0384". On the bigger lathe the handwheels are calibrated in Imperial and this unit has a calculator epoxied to the tailstock!!!. Temperatures in Centigrade has a relevance, at 0 degressC the water is freezing and at 100 it is boiling, and at 20C+ you can develop Tri-X for 10min in D-76. Metrically yours, Tom A