No chance of going back. About 10 years ago there was a legal challenge over the sale of some things in imperial units, they lost the legal challenge because of the European union directives if I remember correctly, but this issue was really insignificant and the legal challenge was lost because it was a challenge. If I remember correctly it was a market trader selling bananas on a market stall as a "lb of bananas".... Probably a £ for an lb of bananas.... Trading standards got involved and everyone wanted to stand their ground to prove a point....
There was a TV program on a few years ago that spoke of whitworth (man the whitworth thread is attributed) how one of his many patent items was a hexagonal bullet with a corresponding hexagonal gun barrel rifeling ... He was bidding for a better gun contract from the government of the time but lost the contract... So had an office built or purchased across the road from them at a higher level so he could look down on them. Thing was his design was apparently more accurate, just more complex to mass produce I expect.... He went on to patent many other things in anger I presume over loosing this lucrative contract because he could not understand why or how he could loose a contract having provided the clearly better solution (more accurate).....
Didn't know he still found a good market for them in the us (read after writing the above)
https://www.militaryfactory.com/smallar ... rms_id=525Unfortunately world moves on.... And the French won through with the metre ... (Don't get me started on half the world driving on the wrong side of the road... Including America adopting the "metric" French side.... But measuring and bolting everything together with "imperial" {British} units
It impressed me that some us companies are changing to metric these days (caterpillar, tremec (I have a t56/tr6060), Chevrolet (I have an LS engine))... Maybe in a couple more generations we'll all be talking the same lingo worldwide, and measuring everything the same
...does it really matter... I guess ...