Metrication in The United Kingdom - 1965 Onwards - Other Sectors

Other Sectors

Before the Hodgson Committee, the metrication process was already in operation. One example was the Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency for Great Britain, which initiated the Retriangulation of Great Britain in 1936, using metric measures. A metric National Grid was then used as the basis for maps published by the Ordnance Survey from World War II onwards, the War Office maps having had a metric grid since 1920. The adoption of a metric scale was part of the national metrication process: the best-selling 1 inch to the mile range of maps was replaced with the 1:50000 range in 1974. The metrication of Admiralty Charts began in 1967 as part of a modernisation programme.

Another example was the Met Office who, in 1962, started publishing temperatures in both Celsius and Fahrenheit, dropping the use of Fahrenheit from their official reports in 1970.

Many other sectors metricated their operations in the late 1960s or early 1970s, invisibly to the general public, though their use of metric units can be seen in the financial pages of the leading newspapers. Such sectors included the principal London commodity markets (apart from the oil industry) the London Metal Exchange, and the various agricultural markets.