SIR – Perhaps advancing age is blurring my memories of long ago. I hardly remember the daft units of measurement I learned at school. Perhaps Philip Bird (Letters, April 22) can remind me of those golden days.

How many ounces were there in a hundredweight, and would they be troy ounces, fluid ounces or avoirdupois? How many yards were in a pole, or was that a rod or a perch – or maybe a fathom? Did water really boil at 212 degrees back then?

Eeh, lad, them was the days! Mr Bird may think in fractions, but I doubt that he speaks for the nation. Nowadays, everything goes in tens and hundreds, and I rejoice.

L A Hobsbaum, Willow Crescent, Bradford