A recent email exchange reminded me how easy it is to slip into jargon, or start using terms that may well not be understood by Members Of The Public and Other Trades People:
"Dear Ben,
> > Thank you for your email. Please could you pass this brochure (attached) to
> > your customer, I am putting a hard copy in the post to her today.
> > Does she require Colour on White or Colour on Colour?
Hello again Toby
> Assuming that the 2 colour aspects relate to the internal / external
> aspects of the frame (sorry. i am not to up to speed on modern windows
> we normally deal with Tudor, Elizabethan and Georgian buildings!) then
> i reckon ti will be colour/colour
Sorry, I should have been more clear:
- White on white means white outside and white inside
- Colour on white means colour outside and white inside
- Colour on colour means colour outside and colour inside."
Â
Note to self; remember not to assume that people know what you are drivelling on about:
The convention is to state the external colour first, followed by the internal colour. To try and minimise errors in manufacture and processing; measurements and drawings are normally made from the outside, a standard that everyone in the build process (from salesperson, through to installer) needs to stick to. Measurements are quoted in millimeters - Width first, then Height (never Height by Width)
Mistakes are easy to make and often hard to avoid, so a rigid adherence to an agreed system is a must. This is something that DID NOT occur with the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1998, whereby metric units were confused with imperial measurements in the navigation system. The resulting confusion between pound force seconds and newton seconds meant quite a lot some 55,000,000 miles (not kilometres) from Earth and the resultant pop and fizzle of the craft burning up as it hit the atmosphere at the wrong angle must have been quite a sight to see. If there was anyone there to see it. Which there wasn't. At least, we don't think there was. Anyway, it was the first incidence of a $163.8 million firework being let off. Well done NASA.
Want to know more? Contact us here!
Â
