The metric system forms a system of coherent units of measurement – units that are directly related to one another. This is contrast to imperial, which uses a wide range of units and differing number systems to measure quantities such as mass, volume or distance.

British policy on metrication – based on the assumption that teaching metric in schools will ensure children going on to use the system as adults – has failed, according to the association. Today, it says, the metric system remains in a “mess” in the UK, with two incompatible systems, metric and imperial, continuing to compete with one another. “Since the teaching of metric units was made compulsory in state schools as long ago as 1974, one might have expected that after almost 40 years those units would already have become the default for most of the population. Needless to say, this has not happened,” says the UKMA.

According to the UK Metric Association (UKMA), a non-political organisation that promotes metrication in Britain, UK scientists have made a considerable contribution to the development of the system. These included Anglican clergyman John Wilkins, one of the founders of the Royal Society, who in 1668, in his ‘Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language’ first proposed a metric system – or decimal system of measures. French scientists went on to define the metric system in 1790 and ‘Système métrique décimal’ became the legal system of measurement in France in 1795. The further development of the metric system “has been an international effort to which many British scientists have contributed, especially since the signing of the Metre Convention in 1875”, says the association. The notion, especially post-Brexit, that the system is a foreign imposition is therefore false.

“In Britain we haven’t managed to do the job. How have we managed that?”

Derek Pollard, secretary of the UKMA, is a former civil engineer who devotes his time to promoting the widespread adoption of metric. “It is the global measurement system. Even in countries that have not adopted metric fully, such as the UK, it is the system – no matter what the signs say.

“The roads are built in metric, and even if the speedometer on a vehicle reads in miles per hour, everything behind it is designed and built in metric. So we are in a metric country – but there are still labels that suggest otherwise.” Pollard says that 200 countries around the world have managed to make the complete transition to metric, so the UK is a distinct anomaly in its continuing use of both imperial units – for speed limits and road signage, for example – and metric. “It is much simpler to weigh yourself in kilos than in stones and pounds. In Britain we haven’t managed to do the job, and how have we managed that? Your guess is as good as mine. It shouldn’t have been too difficult.”

Metric to follow Brexit?

Brexit offers some hope for those who would like to see metric fully adopted in the UK, says Pollard. “People may see the need to adopt a global system without thinking it is being imposed on them by Europe,” he explains. “I hope the issue may now get a proper airing rather than being brushed under the carpet as a problem coming from the EU.”

The advantages of comprehensively adopting the system in Britain would include a workforce that is familiar with the measurement system used in working life. Although imperial is all pervasive on the surface, the real story is much more confused. “We have kids entering the workforce who use imperial for distances and weight,” notes Pollard. “They are then thrown into the metric environment of the workplace – it does take them a while to get used to it.”

According to Pollard, manufacturing would also benefit from a single system, especially in the training of skilled workers familiar with one system of measurement. There would be less training for the employer to carry out, and workers would be familiar with the measurement system used in global industry. When Pollard became an engineer in the mid-1960s he witnessed firsthand the changeover to metric from imperial in engineering. It gave him a lifelong passion for metric, he says, because it made the lives of civil engineers so much simpler. “There had been all these compromises over the years in order to get imperial to work in construction. There were all those problems that suddenly disappeared when metric was introduced.

“So here I am, 50 years later – still passionate about metric.”

For more information on metric, click here.