What's amazing is that the rest of the world, as far as machine tools goes, are still on Imperial. Francesca is a bleedingly italian motorcycle. The guys I talk to to keep her running are either English or German. And you know what? They all use 1/4" or 1/2" drive wrenches. Sure, the actual sockets are something civilized like 10mm, but they aren't on a 12.7mm end wrench. Just today an Australian told a Briton to use a 24" 1/2" socket extension to fit a german part onto an Italian motorcycle.
Some quick research points to Britain's early dominance in the Industrial Revolution, combined with their metrication process not seeing official adoption until the mid 1960's. Apparently they still use imperial units quite a bit. Anyway, it's almost time for a pint (WINKWINK) here in CDT.What's amazing is that the rest of the world, as far as machine tools goes, are still on Imperial.