Why are rulers measuring inches usually divided by multiples of eight?

[a.palfreyman]

If you used a mixture of scale rules during a project, would that make it awkward by design...?

 

[Barrymagrec]

I think I have mentioned before about seeing around 1973 a new offering from the D.O. labelled "Metric Standard Drawing : General arrangement 1/4 inch tape deck".

 

[Loz828]

I'm so sick of metric Vs imperial, the whole thing has cost me thousands of dollars (and/or pounds, yen, sheckles or dirhams). In my career I have needed so many different tools, 6point/12point metric sockets with 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" drive (figure that one out), wire strippers for AWG and mm2 stranded and solid down to solid 30AWG (0.25mm-ish), I've got tap and die sets coming out of my ears with mm, UNF, UNC, BSW, BSF, BA and blah blah blah - don't even get me started on letter and number drill bits. Philips, Posidrive, flat, robertson, torx, and precision screwdrivers of every different size, torque wrenches in in/lbs ft/lbs and N/Ms. Literally hundreds of crimping tools and wire wrap/unwrap tools, pin insertion and extraction tools - oh the list could go on and on.
But even with a workshop overflowing with all of this I never seem to have the right tool for what I'm trying to do - it drives me insane.

 

[Pete MB&D]

IPhilips, Posidrive, flat, robertson, torx, and precision screwdrivers .

wot no JIS (Japanese industrial standard) screwdrivers?




Pete

 

[miktec]

We were slippered - you must have gone to a technical school.

No - we were also slippered, but only in the abbreviated subjects (RE and PE)

In other non-technical subjects the usual teacher weapon was a well aimed board rubber or, in extremis, the cane.

 

[Loz828]

wot no JIS (Japanese industrial standard) screwdrivers?




Pete

I probably have some after all the times I've worked in Japan, but I just thought they were crappy Phillips.

 

[westsea]

How big is the educational (state schools) window on being taught both metric and imperial, plus being comfortable converting from one to other in your head?

That would be mostly 70's schooling for me, with a blob of 80's on top and then college.

Most peeps I talk to are firmly fixed in one or the other camp.

Back to the calibration on the imperial side of a rule, mine all have at least one inch marked in 16ths another in 8ths and the rest in 10ths. One is graded as follows, 32nds for 3 inches, 64ths for one inch and 16ths for the rest.

Interesting, the scale system I used way back in the 50's (relatively heavy engineering - coal processing plant) started at 1/8 inch to the foot through to 3inch/foot, all to base 12. For example 1/4 inch/ft had 12 divisions;
1inch 48 divisions and so on, at 3/8 through to 3inch the divisions were 32nds but the marking is base 12.
Rules used in different disciplines were marked accordingly, down to slip gauges.
If my memory serves, Engineers used Rules, students and teachers used rulers

 

[a.palfreyman]

Funny you should say that... Thinking about it, I've always used the term 'ruler' for something plastic, but if it's steel, it's a 'steel rule'... Don't know why though. Maybe just habit.