What is this for?

[smiler]

Old terms seen in "The Model Engineer" and also heard from other older railway engineers: "Napoleonic units" vs "Christian units".  Quite a serious issue if you are either modelling pre-metric prototypes or are involved in heritage railways where Whitworth threads are fairly standard


Not forgeting the fishermans units 

[MartinR]

Don't know, but if I fathom it out I'll tell.

[Stewie]

How long will it be? 

[johnfilmer]

Trying to stay on topic while spotting a rich seam ripe for mining, I will start a measurement thread for such discussions.

[MartinR]

Old terms seen in "The Model Engineer" and also heard from other older railway engineers: "Napoleonic units" vs "Christian units".  Quite a serious issue if you are either modelling pre-metric prototypes or are involved in heritage railways where Whitworth threads are fairly standard.

[Smiffy]

"Napoleonic Units" Love it.

[MartinR]

[Stewie]

Thank you for the insight MartinR I am not really a whisky drinker but liked the look of the piece. The dimensions of the beaker /  tumbler are 10cm diameter by 11cm depth which made me think it was a bit large for a drinking vessel, a 'wee dram' would barely cover the bottom to any depth? See pictures.

[MartinR]

Whisky tumblers are fairly large, but you don't (normally) fill them.  The idea is that you can appreciate the "nose", particularly with a fine, highly peated Islay for example.  If the decanter has only blended whisky in it then you might want to add ice or some mixer.  See https://www.amazon.co.uk/whisky-tumblers/s?k=whisky+tumblers for some examples.

[DaveTheTrain]

I believe they sold single glass sets, Stewie.  The sort of thing you might buy as a gift for a whisky fancier (not me, yuk).  Whether they ever got used is another question.

[Stewie]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, it does resemble the stacked whisky decanter sets that you find on the internet though I only have one glass. That said the glass beaker does seem to be a bit large to drink from so perhaps it is designed to hold water for mixing with h spirit. It reminds me of the single cup & teapot combinations that you can get so I was thinking that its purpose was along the same lines. 

[MartinR]

I'd never heard of them before, but I think you're right, see https://www.thegreenhead.com/2016/11/stacked-decanter-set.php for a modern example.

[DaveTheTrain]

It looks like a stacked whisky decanter set.  You do see them them still for sale.

[johnfilmer]

[Stewie]

I have had a similar suggestion Johnfilmer from some one who tales a drink of water to bed with them.