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CALLING SPARKING CHIP

John Peckham
Andy


There is a splendid set of carpentry tools at the moment on Ebay. Just search for GTL tools and scroll down to the tool chest. I thought you may be interested and I could deliver it to your relatives address for collection.
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    Chris Pearson:




    Sparkingchip:

    ... slide rules were invented by carpenter.


    How many of you use a Mear Calculator?




    According to Wikipedia, so it must be true, he was a sky pilot. Based upon Napier's work, but his bones were slightly different. Yes I have used a type of Mear calculator.


    (I once met a man by the name of Napier and asked whether he was connected with the engine manufacturer. He said no, but Napier as in bones.)


     




    I thought I recognised the name. I have the heating calculator, it is rather old now, like me,  so I have to do my calcs in feet, inches and BTUs. Not often I use it these days. When I did O and A levels they kept on changing the units so I used ft/lbs, MKS and then CGS with all the associated units such as poundals, ergs, and many more I have forgotten about so I am completely at home with feet, inches and BTUs


     

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    The feet and inches were fine, but then engineers, carpenters and builders digressed.


    Engineers worked in tenths of an inch through to thousands of an inch.


    Carpenters and builders  worked in halves, quarters and eighths of an inch, the manufacturer kindly put sixteenths on some rules, but carpenters and builders called them an eighth and a bit or bare, as in 7/8 and a bit or a bare inch.


    But the carpenters also had their roofing squares which are graduated in inches and twelfths of an inch, because using a roofing square you are actually doing a scale drawing and there are twelve inches in a foot.


    Then metrification was thrown into the mix leaving some of us with rules having four different sets of graduations to hand.


    Though I also worked for a guy who owned a sawmill and we used Hoppus feet to assess the quantity of timber in a log, I actually have various editions of the Hoppus ready reckoner spanning several centuries on my book shelf.


    Perhaps it’s not surprising that late night EBay purchases are frequently commented on.


    I have never owned a Mears calculator, there used to be one under the counter at one of the local plumbers merchants, you went in with your notes then the Mears calculator was brought out from under the counter and    a group of plumbers would congregate to assist in the mystical process of selecting the correct size of radiator for the required purpose and invariably suggest using a size larger, “just in case”.


     Andy B.
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    Metric measurements are a necessary evil in our business I can get millimetres centimetres etc but I will never be able to get my head around kilometers I know we don't need them in our work but when Katie told me she was doing a 5 k run I had to look it up to see how far it was life would of been so much easier if we had stuck to imperial measurements
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    The Mear calculator at the plumbers merchants was handled as if it was a Ouija board calling on the souls of dead plumbers for guidance.


    Andy B
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    I've got a Mear calculator for cable sizing in my van. Its completely out of date obviously but a great piece of kit and I sometimes use it as a quick guess tool for Volt drop calcs.


    Nick
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    Sparkingchip:

    The feet and inches were fine, but then engineers, carpenters and builders digressed.

    Engineers worked in tenths of an inch through to thousands of an inch.

    Carpenters and builders  worked in halves, quarters and eighths of an inch, the manufacturer kindly put sixteenths on some rules, but carpenters and builders called them an eighth and a bit or bare, as in 7/8 and a bit or a bare inch.


     




    Some levitation, there is no mention of the ba' hair there, it is a well used form of measurement. Can be painful though unless done quickly, less so from the head..


    Jaymack

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