I do a lot or reading.... And I was born on the cusp of Imperial to Metric in NZ.
That ment, from there on when we were taught in school, everything changed for our year, we didn't learn fractions, but learnt percentages, next year it was 'zero point ?' decimals.
I remember being sent to the local fruit shop to 'Buy 2 Lbs of bananas'. (In 1978) As in "Buy 2 pounds of bananas".
I converted 2 pounds, English £, as $6 and got a huge box of bananas...... Defiantly not 900 grams of bananas.
While everything has two meanings, I have to try harder to make sure to 'box it', make sure that from every direction the info is solid and contained.
We had to describe a metal object at school metalwork class as a assignment once.
Within a few minutes the next day, 1/2 the class were ruled out, soon we narrowed it down to 4 & I pointed out problems with their descriptions, in the end, only my description stood.
('Boxed', no way to get out of it, no freedom in any direction and it stood unsupported on three pillars of substance, 'Stood')
Hey something I have been thinking about a bit lately.
Where I did my apprenticeship in Fitting/turning ('Machine shop' in American).
The owners were American, from Los Angeles, the owner came over in, I think 1954. I think he had served in the Pacific during the war.
I think he had a 'South Pacific' like romance in the Pacific islands.
They had a machine shop in Los Angeles that made parts for the air force, High pressure oxygen tanks etc.
Now the engineering workshop they bought in NZ made lots of small items, parts for fridgeration units which were rare in NZ prewar, you actually had to build them into the house. Machined grenades for the war effort.
In their early days they had a coal fired steam engine which drove a shaft thru the roof, which drove all the machines by belt. Remnants of it were still there, the paint bay was the steam engine room and the office backed onto it because it made it warm....
But, one day I was asked to 'Get up into the roof of the house' beside the workshops to check for a roof leak.
I found there had been a fire in the attic, and a small pile of Popular Mechanics magazines.
I brought a few down and the boss was amused, he looked for the date on them and mentioned that "The guy my Father bought this workshop off in 1954 ( date ?) was shifting overseas.
He had been writing articals for Popular Mechanics for years and was offered the job as Editor for Popular Mechanics.
They joked together when the workshop was being sold that "They were pretty much swapping homes, lifestyles and firms".
If anybody can help with some info about this it would help me out a lot, one of the bosses sons lives not far from here.
But one thing surprised me a while ago when I opened a old PopularMechanics book in a second hand shop.
It was a advertisement for either car bearings or oil. It mentioned "From Hudson bay to Gummies bush, you can rely on us to get you there"
Gummies bush, is a small locality on the south coast of the NZ's south island. Its almost unknown anywhere else. There's no town or such, just a few farms. How would anybody in America know of it?
Its named, its funny, in the early days a Scottish land survyer surveyed the areas around the bottom south island, he gave them Maori names describing the areas.
He got a letter back from London saying they 'Wanted more English sounding names to build a connection for the English emigrants arriving there and setting up farms".
So, being Scottish .... And not happy at all, sat down and went thru the names with a few wiskeys and a quill pen....
Gummies bush, Centre bush, Heddon bush, Fairfax, Riles bush, Wrights bush,
Southillend, Winton, Queenstown, Kingstown, Arrow town, Riverton....
and a bunch of Scottish names, Glenorchy, Invercargill, lawerance town,
and Catholic names too, Mitre peak, Coronet peak.... All done one drunken night on a whim.
'Gummie' was a older toothless Maori who lived there in a small hut. Otherwise it was empty land.
The other Popular Mechanics connection. They followed a Kiwi called Burt Monroe, he's 'famous in NZ' for his world record motorbike. He lived a short distance from Gummies Bush.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Munro
They even made a film about him starring Anthony Hopkins.
This sort of remote innovation was a necessity back then, we call it "Number 8 wire" after a #8 fencing wire which could be used to make and fix almost anything.
We also invented the airplane.... ;-).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse. down there in the deep south too.
(Ah we love needling the Yanks about that one) In reality, The Wrights got there first, proper documenataion & results.
Its a early night for me tonight, spotayh/e
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Originally Posted by eesakiwi
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