I've just received a new box of British-made listing paper. The label is in English, French, and Dutch, with the measurements repeated in each section.

Curiously, all three sections show a very clumsy-looking specification of 11" x 240mm.

All three sections use metric for the weight, but the English version says 70 gsm whereas the French and Dutch sections state 70 g/m2.

Good point Paul!

It shows how poorly adapted some sections of British industry is to the metric system. Mixing inches with mm is ridiculous.

We also have a tendency to invent out own symbols when a perfectly good language independent one exists already. g/m2 is what it should be for UK customers as well as the continent.

It's just this kind of muddle that confuses and puts British folk off from using metric.

>>> "Mixing inches with mm is ridiculous".

Why? A car tyre might be 15 inches by 200mm. Is mixing inches and mm likely to be more confusing mm and cm?

My guess is that whoever was told to convert the size of the paper to metric simply converted the first measurement he saw and didn't give it a second thought. I know this sounds stupid, but not everyone notices measurements as quickly as the BWMA forum posters. Goes to tell you how little some people care about weights and measures. (and how little they understand the conversion process)

My geuss is that the paper in question is fan-fold paper that is designed for use with printers that have 0.5 inch sprockets. (There are still a few of these printers around). The printers usually print 6 lines per inch, so you can get 66 lines of printing per page (if you ignore the perferations).

The edges with the holes are often perferated and come off is strips 15 mm wide. Rmove two such strips and you have 210 mm - A4 width!

The use of gsm rather than g/m2 is however totally incorrect.

I travelled 50 miles in my 2.3 litre car this morning.

There were no reported deaths or injuries as a result of this

Yes, it's fanfold paper. When the perf strips are torn off it's actually 11 x 8-1/2", i.e. standard U.S. letter size.

"I travelled 50 miles in my 2.3 litre car this morning.
There were no reported deaths or injuries as a result of this"

Funnily enough there would have been none had you traveled 50 miles in your 2300 c.c. car either. ;)

Just as there would be none as a result of my traveling 50 miles in my 350 cu. in. car.

This morning I traveled 4.623 x 10^16 gonswops in my 3,462 1/3 crinitillo engine car.

No injuries either.

Bud,
Is that the straight six or the V8 version? ;)

My car gets 8 hogs heads to the furlong and that's how I like it.