Hej Slovenci,

I found an old picture frame in the trash that was in good condition so I took it home. Upon measuring it, I made an odd discovery: it is not any standard metric size, but is exactly 24 by 36 inches, which is a standard Imperial size. The frame itself has no identifying markings as to where it came from or how old it is, but I am assuming it is at least 50 years old. It must be from before Slovenia converted to metric, and I am now wondering when that was. I can’t find any information on it, possibly because Slovenia was probably part of Yugoslavia at the time, and Yugoslavia info is not included on modern charts like [this one](http://chartsbin.com/view/d12).

So does anybody know/remember when Slovenia converted to metric?

9 comments

  1. When Austria-Hungary (or at least Austria) converted to metric, ~~1876~~ 1871.

    Old measurements were still used for standard sizes of some particular things, and they’re used to this day e.g. for pipe diameters.

    **Edit:** Introduced in 1871, made compulsory in 1876.

  2. Oh, also, I looked at that chart and it’s quite obviously wrong for the Balkans. The metric system wasn’t introduced in Yugoslavia after the 1950s that’s just silly.

    **Edit:** OK, just went and checked. Austria-Hungary (and consequently Slovenia and Croatia) introduced the metric system in 1871 (it was made compulsory in 1876). Montenegro did it in 1871 as well, Serbia did it in 1873, and the Ottoman Empire (and consequently Bosnia and Macedonia) did it in 1869. So that chart is really really bad.

  3. not anybody alive would remember that.

    and even before adoption of metric system, there was not the imperial system as you know it, but another measurement system based on austrian specific measurements with miles, klaftern and inches.

    that map is also completely false.

  5. I mean, there are so many things that are a certain size, because it has always been that size and thats basically it.
    But for things like frames, postcards, prints and such, I think they are well adopted sizes internationally, just because they are of a standard, which happened to originate from a different system.

  6. Od u/ladyferretqueen rit meri tretjino sežnja v širino. Večja kot je masa, večja je privlačnost.

    Science bitch! -micdrop-

  7. The “imperial” system before was not the same used in england. It was austrian. I’d assume the change started happening in austria-hungary already since i know guns from that era already have metric ammo. You should therfore be looking when austria-hungary changed it’s system

    The reason you found a frame of that size is that simply some things use inches (here it’s referred to as “cola” from german zoll) for whatever reason. Another example: tire sizes are in inches

  8. It happened in the later 1800s. But inches are (still) used for some things like wheel sizes, monitor or tv dimensions…

Leave a Reply