[GreenKeys] teletype...Whhhyyy?!

[Sam Hallas]

Joe Duszyński wrote:
> When I lived in the UK I bought the range of taps and dies for BA and Whit.
> The engineer had to have cool new tools!! LOL!
> FYI They've come in handy with this project.
> 
> Which brings us to the above mentioned Whit sizes... "Another Standard"
> 50's British Cars were Whitworth threads and hex head spanner/wrench sizes.
> Leyland,Austin,Morris switched to SAE in the 60's and metric in the
> late 70's (third and fourth standards)
> And When working on Motorcycles they tend to be BA threads and Hex
> head wrench/spanners.

You're right, Joe. The automotive sector was just as schizophrenic as 
you described. I inherited a set of Whitworth & AF spanners from my 
father in the late 60s when I got my first car. Thank heavens they're 
all metric now! The only Whitworth taps and dies needed now are to make 
studding or screws for camera tripods which are still 1/4" Whitworth.

Telecomms always seemed to be BA - usually even sizes. But the British 
Post Office had a love affair with odd sizes. Maybe to stop staff 
stealing them for home projects or just out of sheer cussedness.
Cheers,
Sam