8mm Forum: Why we call it "8mm" not "1/3 inch"?

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Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on July 27, 2009, 08:32 PM:

This might be a silly question but I really want to get the answer.

My question first goes from the fact super 8mm was invented by Kodak, an American company. American use unit system (inch/feet) for length oppose to metric system in UK (cm/m).

So why the Americans call this film wide as 8mm (in metric system)?

While on the other hand, the funny thing, for magnetic tape (reel to reel) we call them 1/4 inch, 1/2 inch and 1 inch for the wide. And it is also used in UK.

What is the history behind this?

(ps: the most funny one is when people in America saying "8mm film in 50ft length". It is a combination of 2 length systems)

cheers,

Posted by John W. Black (Member # 1082) on July 27, 2009, 09:10 PM:

The earlist film Gauges in the late 1800s were measured by millimeters.Every gauge since has used mm.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 27, 2009, 09:42 PM:

The fun part is it's 8mm film, but sold in 50 foot catridges!

Posted by Dan Lail (Member # 18) on July 27, 2009, 11:16 PM:

It was just one of those things
Just one of those crazy flings
One of those bells that now and then rings
It was one of those things

Posted by Bart Smith (Member # 780) on July 28, 2009, 01:28 AM:

American use unit system (inch/feet) for length oppose to metric system in UK (cm/m).

The facts of the matter are that here in the UK we don't use the metric system exclusively, by tradition we use the same measures as are still used in America (we call it 'Imperial').

All distances on road signs without exception are measured in miles and never in kilometers, as are all speedometers in cars (although Km/H are also marked in a smaller font, useful if you take your car over to Europe).

People's heights are always referred to in feet and inches. I know that I am 6'2", but can never remember what this is in metres and centimetres, and I know no native British person who uses the metric system for the height of a person.

The same goes for people's weight, I know I what I weigh in stone, but have no idea what the figure is in Kg.

The milk that I bought from the supermarket yesterday is in a 1.136L bottle, which is 2 UK pints. And when we go to a bar beer is always served in pint or half-pint glasses.

Having said that the metric system is also in use here, as most food produce is sold by the Kg -in fact this is a legal requirement, though shopkeepers are free to also state the equivalent in pounds and ounces.

I always use metric when measuring things if I am building something etc. as it is a much more logical system.

Schoolchildren are exclusively taught metric these days, so possibly in the future the old measures will have fallen out of use, but I can pretty much guarantee that in 100 years time we will still be buying beer by the pint.

British people tend to view these measures as part of their culture, and are generally loathe to get rid of all of them, but will happily use metric where it makes sense or is more convenient. So to us the idea of having 8mm film in 50ft cartridges doesn't seem that strange at all. The best of both worlds!

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 28, 2009, 10:30 AM:

I'm a Engineer, so I work in Metric units pretty much exclusively.

By the same token for the average person, a Mile is a Mile or a Kilometer is a Kilometer. It's only if you have to do calculations based on the measurements that the Metric System really shines.

When we drove in Germany, we swapped the GPS over to Km and drove by the metric speedometer. Other than the fact that it felt really cool to look down and see the needle swing up past "160", it wasn't really any different.

I remember a cartoon in the paper years ago: these two road workers are out installing signs.

Worker One: “We'll, this is the end of an era. We’re finally installing the metric speed limit signs.”

Worker Two: “How far apart should they be?”

Worker One: “Every half Mile.”

(Old habits die hard!)

PS: we call our Feet, Yards, Quarts, Gallons, Slugs, Dynes, Bushels, Cords, Acres and Pounds "The English Measurement System" here.

Posted by Yanis Tzortzis (Member # 434) on July 29, 2009, 06:03 AM:

".....we call it 'Imperial'......"

...oh no-don't say that,it's politically incorrect [Razz]

Posted by Martin Jones (Member # 1163) on July 29, 2009, 08:03 AM:

Gentlemen.... "PC" does not stand for "political correctness"

....it stands for "PRATT Culture".

Martin

Posted by John Whittle (Member # 22) on July 30, 2009, 08:22 AM:

If you go back to the very early days of 35mm film, you can find film cans marked with 35mm Nitrate film (1 3/8 inch). It was apparently much easier to specify the width in a whole number rather than a fraction and it was obviously easier when other widths came about (16mm, 8mm).

Another interesting note is in lenses. Most lenses in the US have always been specified in mm for focal length (50mm lens, 12.5mm lens) whereas I remember seeing a Marconi tv camera at the worlds fair back in the 1960s which had all the lenses in inches.

Now for a further oddity. Camera lens focal length in millimeters, projection lenses in inches. Perhaps this was because the formula for figuring screen width for distance required that all the elements be in the same units of measure.

John

Posted by Bart Smith (Member # 780) on July 30, 2009, 08:38 AM:

I've seen plenty of Taylor-Hobson C-Mount lenses (and other makes) with the focal length marked in inches.

Posted by John Whittle (Member # 22) on July 30, 2009, 09:26 AM:

Exactly, in the US the lenses were marked millimeter, in the UK in inches (Taylor-Hobson = British). In the 1930 Filmo catalogs, the US made lenses were all listed as mm and the Taylor-Hobson lenses listed in inches.

John

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