Sunday, August 31, 2014

Wondering About Flea Market Treasures.

As you know from reading my blogs, my wife and I enjoy going to the flea market on weekends.  I especially like to go to chat with the people but she likes to go to find treasures.  Funny thing, it never fails, she always finds something that has to go home with us.  This weekend was no exception.  A retired fellow who cleans out houses for families, always has a lot of treasures and today was no exception.  My wife found a couple of things that came from Europe.  This first one is from Holland:

Maybe some of you world wide travelers out there can answer my questions about this calendar.  It appears to be a calendar to me, but I can't make sense out of the way it is set up.  Looks like in Europe they have up to seven weeks in a month.  It looks more like the ones I am used to if you lay it on its side, but then the numbers are harder to read.  Is this the normal way calendars are printed over there?
 
OK, she also bought this folding measuring stick from the same guy.

It seemed a little strange to me at first glance.  It didn't end at 3 or 4 feet, in fact it didn't even end at an even inch.  What the heck is going on.  Then I realized it came from Europe so it must be metric and sure enough, when I turned it over, it ended in one meter:
 
Here is a complete view of the metric side:

Yep, the one side is marked "METER" at the beginning of the rule:

And the other side is marked "LONDON" for the English side.

I have never seen a folding scale, or for that matter, any scale that was marked "LONDON".  Does that mean that other parts of England use a different scale and this one is only good in London?

Oh wait a minute.  It was made in Germany.  OK, I guess one side is to be used only in Germany and the other in London.
 

Now, I suppose Interpol will be after me because I have this measuring device in the U.S.A?  Don't tell them where I live, OK?  I guess I better hide out the rest of the day, but I want you all to have a great day beyond what can be measured by any measuring device, you hear?


16 comments:

  1. Living in Ireland for 3 yrs I had to get used to some measurements being different than in the US. Ireland was partly metric but referred to miles as well as kilometers. And they often measured weight by the "stone", which was 13 lbs. I weighed 10 stone for example. I never liked the date format, which is day/month/year, and today would be 31/8/2014, rather than 8/31/2014 as in America. The European format often caused me trouble. Buying produce and meat was the worst as I have no clue about grams. Having worked for the military though, I had no problem when writing out the date as 31 Aug 2014. All in all I prefer the American format and think we should stay with it.

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    1. There are so many ways of doing the same things it is a wonder that there isn't more confusion than there is. Of course it doesn't take all that much to confuse me (grin).

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  2. It always strikes as strange that the USA is so resistant to the metric system when 95% of the world uses it. Especially when your units of weights and measures are based on metric since the late 1800's. Resistance is futile!

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    1. Maybe most people are like me and can only think in English and can only count in Arabic numerals. I would have to carry a calculator with me if everything were in metric, like kilometers per hour or weight in grams or kilograms.

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  3. The plans for the boat I've been building are all metric, so I had to buy a few metric measuring tools.

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    1. I guess if you used inches instead of millimeters, you would end up with a huge boat.

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  4. Hahaaaa ... I know nothing. sometimes I like it that way ... (grin backatcha)

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  5. They tried to switch us over way back, and it didn't work. TG!

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    1. I would say that it partially worked.

      Almost all vehicles are now built with metric nut, bolts and liters of displacement for the engines (when was the last time you heard an engine described as so many cubic inches?). Why do many speedometers in this country now have a mph and a kph scale?
      Almost all packaged/bottled items now come with metric measurement. Look at any item you buy off the shelf at the market they will almost all have oz/gram or oz/ml measurements. When was the last time you bought a fifth of liquor?

      When was the last time you bought a fifth of booze?

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    2. A few years ago, quit that stuff. Quit that before the smoking, which was about 6 or 7 years ago.

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  6. Yep, they are slowly switching us over to metric. There are still some hold-outs. I am right now watching Top Fuel Drag Racing and those engines are 500 cu. in. and some reaching 1200 horsepower and cross the finish line at over 330 miles per hour at only 1000 feet, that is 320 feet less than a quarter mile.

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  7. I will have no blog posted today (Labor Day). Had one posted but my wife made me take it down.

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  8. I'm most curious regarding why the Mrs. bought the calendars and folding ruler. Or were they just something you saw at the flea market.

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    1. I have no idea why she buys a lot of things, but she does. I do know she likes folding rules where as prefer tape measures. The calendar? She must have just liked it or saw value in it. Once every couple of years we set up and sell at the flea market. Have to when our home gets too full.

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