Click the tartan to view its entry in The Scottish Registers of Tartans which includes registration details, restrictions, and registrant information.
Unregistered tartans may link to one of the web's online design environments for similar information.
For any questions about reproduction of designs or weaving of these tartans, please contact the registrant directly or via this website.
Metric System Day
“There are three kinds of countries: those that use the metric system, those that don’t… and the United States.”
Mathematical unit humour ... it's a real thing!
Are you an committed Imperial Unit person (inches, feet, ounces, pounds, and miles) or a modern Metric System person (centimetres, metres, kilograms, kilometres… and sometimes, well… miles)? Or do you switch easily between the two as appropriate, a dual-wielder of units!
For those who appreciate precision with a bit of style—there’s a tartan that might suit admirably This design symbolizes the metric system itself: stripes arranged in groupings of 10 and 100 to reflect its base-ten structure, and seven distinct colours representing the seven SI base units—metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela. Fittingly, the overall palette leans toward blue, a colour long associated with tools, industry, and standardized measurement!
The metric system was born in French Revolution in the 1790s, when reformers decided that if they were going to rebuild society, they might as well fix the measuring system too.
Before that, every region had its own standards: a “pound” in one town might not match a pound in the next, and land could be measured by how much a team of oxen could plough in a day.
Metric measurements promised order, fairness, and a pleasing reliance on powers of ten. Over the 19th and 20th centuries, most countries gradually adopted it—some more enthusiastically than others.
The United States, meanwhile, never fully made the leap. Although Congress legalized metric use in 1866 and encouraged it again with the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, the shift remained voluntary. Having already mastered cups, teaspoons, miles, and degrees Fahrenheit, there was little urgency to change.
Regardless, no matter the units: measure twice, cut once—especially when being fitted for a new kilt! 💙 🤍 💚 🖤 📏 📐 ⚖️
The metric system grew out of the intellectual ferment of the late 18th century, when scientists and reformers sought a universal, rational way to measure the world. Before its creation, units of length, weight, and volume varied wildly from region to region—often based on local customs, body parts, or trade practices. This made commerce, science, and taxation confusing and inconsistent. In the midst of the French Revolution, the push for clarity and equality extended even to measurement. A standardized system, based on nature rather than tradition, was seen as both practical and philosophically aligned with Enlightenment ideals.
In 1791, the French Academy of Sciences proposed a new system built on decimal relationships. The meter was defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole along a meridian through Paris—a bold attempt to root measurement in the Earth itself. The gram and liter followed, tied to the properties of water. By 1795, France officially adopted the metric system, though it took decades—and some resistance—for it to fully replace older units.
The system continued to evolve in the 19th century as international cooperation increased. In 1875, representatives from 17 countries signed the Metre Convention, establishing shared standards and creating institutions to maintain them. This led to the formation of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which still oversees global measurement standards today. Physical artifacts—like platinum-iridium meter bars and kilogram weights—served as the official references for many years.
In the 20th century, the system was refined into what is now known as the International System of Units (SI). Definitions shifted away from physical objects and toward fundamental constants of nature, such as the speed of light. This made measurements more precise, stable, and universally accessible. Today, the metric system is used by nearly every country in the world and underpins science, engineering, and global trade—an enduring legacy of the Enlightenment’s desire to bring order and reason to the natural world.
Even so, need a quick reference to convert between Metric and Imperial Unit systems, click the graphic!