[BC] need a NON-technical explanation

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

Actually c.p.s., and kilocycles was a term used by everyone involved in the generation of radio frequency energy, including the Germans, since such experiments began. It was the French (General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) Conférence générale des poids et mesures) in 1960, that forced it upon the rest of the world. For political reasons, countries that had a stake in it, did not bother to resist. I have reference books with chapters written by Lee DeForest and others who use cycles and kilocycles. In fact, the "father" of antenna theory, Fredrick Terman, wrote a book, Antennas, a copy of which I have, with a whole chapter devoted to using "turns" instead of cycles and two-PI-radians, etc., because the calculations were much simplified. That was written in the '30s, well before Hz was forced. His "Radio Engineering," circa 1932 also used cycles and it was the "bible" by which the Germans studied radio engineering and began to prepare for the war.

Prior to 1960, the MKS system of measurements was the worldwide standard (Meter kilogram second). Cycles per second was used within this standard. When the SI units (from the French Le Système International d'Unités ) was forced upon us, cycles were dropped, in favor of naming everything after some person.

Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Book: http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Schoon" <steven.schoon at uni.edu>

One of the first broadcast engineers I talked to back when I was a young pup
told me that the term Hertz was deliberately avoided during and after WWII,
because Hertz was a German...

Urban legend??