Decimal day-fifty years ago today

Dazzler21

SporadicAddick said:

Dazzler21 said:

IdleHans said:

and we've been dumbing down ever since

It's not about dumbing down. 

It's about using a universally understandable metric. 

It's why many countries use kilometres, metres and centimetres. Personally I think it's a bit weird that we haven't moved to that too. 

Some things are best left untouched. I don’t look forward to the day that I go to the pub for a couple of half litres.

You wan't a couple of 568mls If you're getting half litres you're being scammed. 

Saga Lout

I started work as a bank clerk (hated it) in 1975 and the branch still had calculating machines that had been converted from old money.

bobmunro

seth plum said:

Is the decimal system  likely to be more biological than logical?
Hands and feet being the guide?

You mention hands and feet so we are dealing with measurement of length based on the physiology of an average human being. That seems not just illogical but also bizarre. Measurement based on the natural physical world i.e. the thing you are measuring, makes infinitely more sense than physiology (there's no such thing as the average human being and the yard for example is based on the belt or girth of a man!) - and that's the metre (one ten millionth of the distance from the north pole to the equator). 

So the metre is physical rather than biological - makes sense to me.  

cafcfan

RodneyCharltonTrotta said:

What was the point

Well, you made me laugh anyway.

MrOneLung

Also a penny was a pennyweight of silver, which is why there were 240 pennies to a pound (literally the value of a pound weight of silver)

Chizz

In the old days, you could divide a pound by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 24, 60, 120, 240, 480... and be able to use a whole number of coins. 

With decimal, you can only divide by 2, 10, 20, 50 and 100.  

It made hiring staff by the day or hour a lot easier. 

Chizz

SporadicAddick said:

Dazzler21 said:

IdleHans said:

and we've been dumbing down ever since

It's not about dumbing down. 

It's about using a universally understandable metric. 

It's why many countries use kilometres, metres and centimetres. Personally I think it's a bit weird that we haven't moved to that too. 

Some things are best left untouched. I don’t look forward to the day that I go to the pub for a couple of half litres.

I couldn't care less whether it's measured in cubic inches, groats or avoir dupois.  I am just looking forward to getting back in the pub.

_MrDick

As an 11 year-old, it was the worst day of my life. I used to be able to get 12 sweets in the tuck shop for my shilling and overnight, I could only get 5 for the one shilling equivalent of 5p #WhatALiberty

Karim_myBagheri

wish we still had it.
just to see tourists perplexed looks when trying to buy anything over here. 

clive

Average prices on this day
House: £5,378
Council rent: £5 a week
Pint of lager: 12.5p
Gallon of petrol: 34p
20 cigarettes: 25p

The average weekly wage was £30.98

seth plum

bobmunro said:

seth plum said:

Is the decimal system  likely to be more biological than logical?
Hands and feet being the guide?

You mention hands and feet so we are dealing with measurement of length based on the physiology of an average human being. That seems not just illogical but also bizarre. Measurement based on the natural physical world i.e. the thing you are measuring, makes infinitely more sense than physiology (there's no such thing as the average human being and the yard for example is based on the belt or girth of a man!) - and that's the metre (one ten millionth of the distance from the north pole to the equator). 

So the metre is physical rather than biological - makes sense to me.  

I wasn't clear. I didn't mean feet being akin to a foot in length, I meant a hand or a foot has five appendages, toes, fingers and thumbs. Used in counting not in measuring.

Scratchingvalleycat

Dazzler21 said:

IdleHans said:

and we've been dumbing down ever since

It's not about dumbing down, well not entirely.  It's about using a universally understandable metric. Anyone can come to the country and understand the currency system. Can you imagine going abroad and being told that'll be £3, 5d & 2s? Weird. 

It's also why many countries use kilometres, metres, centimetres and millimetres. Can you imagine measuring something requiring fine precision in inches & feet?  If you need to cut something 7 & 1/16th of an inch or 180mm?

Personally I think it's a bit weird that we haven't moved entirely to that too. I measure all distances of running, walking and driving in miles, except the short distance runs.... If I am doing DIY I use millimetres or centimetres. I mean I use them interchangeably and maybe that's best?

Ah but it is dumbing down to the internationally accepted base 10 when as a country we were taught to think to the base 12 (duodecimal) and base 20 (vigesimal) in addition to the standard decimal system. It helped tremendously  with understanding of binary and also hexadecimal (base 16) concepts used in computing and helped the country in development of computer software. Other countries lagged behind  because they only thought to the base 10.
The concept of chain and furlong is know alien to a lot of people even though it remains in use today. However, how many can still understand  Rod, Pole and Perch, which were explained on the back of my Kent County Council school exercise book.

golfaddick

RodneyCharltonTrotta said:

What was the point

Precursor to joining the EEC. 

Chizz

clive said:

Average prices on this day
House: £5,378
Council rent: £5 a week
Pint of lager: 12.5p
Gallon of petrol: 34p
20 cigarettes: 25p

The average weekly wage was £30.98

The average wage, at 3.5 times earnings, could get you a mortgage big enough to buy the average-priced house without a deposit, and 2,400 pints of beer. 

Lincsaddick

prices rocketed straight after decimalisation day .. here are a couple of interesting decimalisation facts .. The Russian ruble was the first decimal currency to be used in Europe, dating to 1704, though China had been using a decimal system for at least 2000 years.[1] Elsewhere, the Coinage Act of 1792 introduced decimal currency to the United States, the first English speaking country to adopt a decimalised currency. In France, the decimal French franc was introduced in 1795. from Wiki of course

Chizz

A cricket pitch is 2,011.68cm in length.  Or, one chain.  Don't tell me decimal is easier!

SoundAsa£

I knew quite a few of the market trade stall holders on Lewisham market.....they shamefully ripped of customers and prices went up as much as 50% almost overnight!

clive

Price rises have averaged at 5.6% since 1971
A pound then had the buying power of £14.46 today
The highest year-on-year inflation rise in the past 50 years was 24% in 1975 & the lowest was 0.53% in 2009.

SoundAsa£

charltonkeston said:

seth plum said:

I remember it well. Also how ripped off a lot of the population were. 
People can handle inches feet and yards even today. Can't  they?
The old system simply used different number bases and led to an arithmetically sophisticated population.

I left school in 1980 and up to that point I had never used feet or inches at school. The first day at work,(engineering), it was all inches and remained that way for me way with the exception of college for r many years. Even today you will find many of the machine tools with imperial graduations, we actually bought a new lathe about 5 years ago which has dual measurement. 
What catches me out is when someone gives me a sketch in cm. I work inches or mm.
As for the money I remember decimal day well, although I was only 7 years old at the time. My gran used swear blind prices went up because of it.  

How right she was ck.

bobmunro

Chizz said:

A cricket pitch is 2,011.68cm in length.  Or, one chain.  Don't tell me decimal is easier!

Can't fault that argument, Chizzy.

Let's get a UK Gov Petition going to introduce the UK unit of measurement as 'Cricket Pitch'.

DRAddick

seth plum said:

We were brought up with quite a varied system of weights and measures and currency. Even now nobody seems to think twice about the concept of a 'pint'. The currency was a big incentive to be agile with mental arithmetic. It astonishes me even now when paying £1 for something costing 64p that people in shops can't work the change out in their head without a calculator.
Can anybody do a simple sum like £2 3s 11d plus £1 18s 7d and then convert it into decimal currency?


Answer below.









£4 2s 6d
Which today would be four pounds twelve and a half pee.

My favourite is when something comes to say £5.10, you give them a £10 note and 10p and watch the look of utter confusion on their faces. Happens at The Valley kiosks quite regularly.

rananegra

Chizz said:

In the old days, you could divide a pound by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 24, 60, 120, 240, 480... and be able to use a whole number of coins. 

With decimal, you can only divide by 2, 10, 20, 50 and 100.  

It made hiring staff by the day or hour a lot easier. 

What about 4, 5 and 25? 

Chizz

rananegra said:

Chizz said:

In the old days, you could divide a pound by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 24, 60, 120, 240, 480... and be able to use a whole number of coins. 

With decimal, you can only divide by 2, 10, 20, 50 and 100.  

It made hiring staff by the day or hour a lot easier. 

What about 4, 5 and 25? 

No-one likes a smartarse.  Especially a smartarse. 

BartramBlitz

cafcfan said:

Yes, it was also a Monday.  I had been employed by the Bank of England for a grand total of 5 months and was tasked, with many others, to work the weekend of 12/13 February manually converting all the Bank's stock ledgers to decimal. The pubs in the City were doing a good trade that weekend.  :-)
(The Banks computers in those days were rudimentary with punch cards. It was not until, maybe the late '70s, early '80s that its financial ledgers were converted to a basic computer-based system made by NCR. Until that time the ledgers were still handwritten using a dip pen which needed to be dipped in indelible ink every few words.  And woe betide you if you made a mistake.) 

When I left school in 1985 my first job was in the B of E Issue Office. I remember having to use hand written ledgers to record the withdrawal of the £1 note so things obviously had not moved on much from 1971.

fat man on a moped

There were public information films produced in preparation for  changeover to decimal currency including one called 'Granny gets the point' that was shown quite often. 

Wonder which famous footballer, now manager, has watched this?

Friend Or Defoe

seth plum said:

Is the decimal system  likely to be more biological than logical?
Hands and feet being the guide?

That's why most number systems are base ten.

Crazy that (old) people think this system and metric are better. If i had my way i would decimalise time.

letthegoodtimesroll

bobmunro said:

seth plum said:

I remember it well. Also how ripped off a lot of the population were. 
People can handle inches feet and yards even today. Can't  they?
The old system simply used different number bases and led to an arithmetically sophisticated population.

I still think in feet and inches.

I still drink pints.

EastTerrace

So the Yanks went decimal in 1792 but still use feet & inches for more things than us I believe. Do they use lbs and ounces? 

SomervilleAddick

EastTerrace said:

So the Yanks went decimal in 1792 but still use feet & inches for more things than us I believe. Do they use lbs and ounces? 

Yep. Feet, inches, miles, acres, pints, pounds, ounces and Fahrenheit. 

Bangkokaddick

golfaddick said:

RodneyCharltonTrotta said:

What was the point

Precursor to joining the EEC. 

When are we going back then, Golfie?

Decimilisation saw the start of the horrendous inflation that we saw in the seventies and eighties. Nearly everything went up in price overnight as new prices were mainly rounded up.