Some remarks:
- I am not sure for France, but as mentioned, in Germany, "Pfund" is
declining in popularity. You will not find it in shops anymore.
- In shops, prices for more expensive products are displayed for
100 g. In many cases, things are sold by the item, or prepackaged
(100 g, 200 g, 500 g, 1 kg...).
- In Germany, it is very rare for people to give their body mass in
"Pfund". All weighing scales are in kg.
- Pipes are a (unnecessarily) complicated topic. The supposedly inch-
based measurements do not correspond to the actual dimension of the
pipe. Plastic wastewater pipes have metric dimensions, anyway.
- Rivers and canals in Germany used by boats have hectometer markers
placed on their sides. Water depths are given in metric, as are a
ship's dimensions. Speed limits are in km/h.
Nautical maps of the German coast have depths marked in metres.
Distances on the sea are given in nautical miles, according to
international standards. This has to do with geometry.
- "Morgen" (2500 m²) are also declining in usage.
- Spirits are sold in 2 cl or 4 cl glasses in Germany, and they have
a mark on them to indicate the correct volume. Beer is sold in
0.2 l, 0.3 l, 0.5 l glasses in Germany, while in The Netherlands,
0.25 l is preferred, I think. Austria also uses metric measures for
draught beer (not sure if 0.2 l or 0.25 l, though). Note, that the
glass sizes vary, but the volume is printed on the glass, with a
mark. It is also mentioned in the price list. This is required by
law.
- The computer disc was developed in Japan, and has a diameter of
90 mm.
- Bicycle tyres have metric dimensions mentioned, too.
- TV set screen sizes are given in cm in Germany at least since the
1970s (it were computer monitors where inch sizes used to be more
common, but less so). Fans are measured in metric, I just bought a
4 cm and an 8 cm fan last week.
- The claims about the paper sizes show a great degree of ignorance.
See the Metric FAQ for details and links.
Not one example for a newly invented non-metric unit was given in
these texts. All of these were inherited from pre-metric times.
> As a first check, take a look at some European engineering websites,
As for the railway industry, the standard gauge is 1435 mm, and
construction drawings for railway vehicles are fully metric since
at least 100 years in Germany. The dimensions are given in mm in
such drawings.
The standard European passenger railway carriage is 26400 mm long
over buffers, the pivots of the bogies are 19000 mm apart, and
the axles in one bogie are usually 2500 mm apart.
N.b., 1435 mm is not a round inch figure by far, but a nice metric
number ;)