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From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: [OT] Is English just badly pronounced French?
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2024 20:40:59 -0000 (UTC)
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BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>suzeeq <suzee@imbris.com> wrote:
>>>On 3/31/2024 10:56 AM, Rhino wrote:
>>>>Sun, 31 Mar 2024 06:35:33 -0700 suzeeq <suzee@imbris.com>:

>>>>>>. . . 

>>>>>While GB officially went metric, many people still use the Imperial
>>>>>measurements, at least for linear measures, not so much for weight.

>>>>The Brits weigh themselves in "stones" not pounds or kilograms. (I
>>>>believe a stone is 14 pounds.) These stones are definitely not metric
>>>>but I'm not sure they can truly be called Imperial either since they
>>>>aren't used anywhere outside the UK, as far as I know.

>>>Yeah, I don't know where stone comes from. I was thinking smaller, like 
>>>pounds and ounces.

>>These were literal stones of a uniform weight used in trade, and
>>depending on the trade good, varied from 6 pounds to 21 pounds. They
>>would have been used on a balance scale.

>Is there somewhere in the British government where the official 
>reference stones are kept? The ones on which all official measurements 
>are based?

Not till 1878 when they came up with a stable object made of platinum. I
think it had to be kept in a vacuum but I haven't read about it in a
long time.

Centuries ealier, they wouldn't have had the technical precision to have
a reference weight.

>Kind of like the Zero Milestone which stands on the Ellipse, just 
>outside the south fenceline of the White House. It's the point from 
>which all official road distances in the United States are measured.

Interesting.

For navigation, the Washington Naval Observatory was proposed as the
origin of the longitude, but it's Greenwich because the British had far
more navigation maps, and nobody wanted it to be Paris except the French.