Men and Measures

The first measures of land were seed-measures. They are found in every country; they become fixed in course of time as the idea of geometric measurement arises; they survive in...

The story of our Imperial system has hitherto been utterly obscure. The origin of our foot, our gallon, our pound, indeed of all our measures, was quite unknown. That of the pou...

Two systems are face to face throughout the West—the Imperial system resting on long custom and on convenience, and the Metric system on an assumption of science and on revolt a...

The story of the cubits and of the talents, the great units of weight evolved from the cubits, is part of the history of the ancient and medieval Eastern Kingdoms, so intimately...

These measures are the connecting links between those of old France, through Normandy, and those of England, especially in land-measures. Normandy had a system of measures kept...

In all times money has been the weight of a certain amount of copper, silver or gold, in the form of coins the fineness of which is guaranteed by the stamp of the State. The wei...

It has been seen that throughout the ancient Eastern Kingdoms, from soon after 5000 B.C. to some centuries after our era, there was general unity in the system of linear measure...

The great diversity in the weights and measures used in different parts of France, and the discordance between the series of the official system, or want of system, were inconve...

It has been seen that a cubic foot of water is very approximately = 1000 Roman ounces = 62-1/2 lb. of water at the early averdepois standard. There is reason to believe that thi...

At some time before the Norman Conquest the Marc of Cologne was brought to England, probably only as the mint-standard of the later English kings, for the 16-ounce Roman pound w...

In England they were originally based on the measure of 1000 ounces of water, which became a cubic foot. Many foreign measures are either a cubic foot, sometimes increased in wa...

In the various names of weights and measures there are many general-utility words which offer no difficulty in the sphere of those who use them habitually, yet which are sometim...

From this division of the cubit into 6 palms and 24 digits, and of its half, the span, into 12 digits, came the division of the day into watches and hours, of the year into mont...

Only a sketch of these can be given, for in some countries so various are the local standards that each petty state, each district sometimes, would require a long study.

It violently broke up the customs and habits of the people as might have been done by some Greek or Tartar tyrant who, with uplifted rod, wills to be obeyed in all his decrees,...

The standard of length was the Scots Ell = 37·06 English inches. Originally three Rhineland feet at 12·353 inches, it was always described as containing 37 inches. The inch, at...

Commerce is the great conservator of standards. These may become altered by the ill-advised action of rulers, by municipal or parochial carelessness, even by the desire of profi...

the want, more or less well. In some districts (also in Mauritius) there were milestones at intervals of 1000 toises, called a mille. In South France the mille was divided into...

1. The pound of the Cologne mark, the double marc, = 7216 grains, its ounce = 451 grains. This was the standard of the old Tower weight of the English mints. It coincides with t...

The primitive divisions of time were the day (the civil day between two sunrises or sunsets), and the lunar month taken as 30 days instead of the actual 29-1/2. Twelve lunar mon...

The Cano or fathom, = 79·24 inches, was 8 pán or spans each = 9·904 inches; the span was of 8 menut or inches, also divided into 8 parts.[47]

The term Yard, the Old English ‘gerde’ or ‘yerde,’ a wand or rod, became specially applied to a wand of 3 feet, or 4 spans; from this double mode of division and from its conven...

The definition of the Imperial gallon as 277·274 cubic inches, the volume of 10 lb. of water at 62°, a pound of water measuring 27·7274 cubic inches, led to attempts to determin...

Fahrenheit, about 1714, made a mercurial thermometer, its 0 at the cold produced by a refrigerating mixture and 24° at body-heat. On this scale, freezing-point was 8° and boilin...

The Ells are the Cubits of the modern West. They are of two kinds: the Foot-Ells, of which the Persian cubit and the Beládi cubit, divisible into 2 feet, were the types, and the...

Up to the time of the Revolution each province had its own measures and weights, more or less influenced by the uncertain standard measures of the king in Paris. This was the ef...

1. Introduction 65 2. Evolution of geometric land-measures 66 3. The story of English land-measures 71 4. Feudal land-measures 75 5. Terms used in old land-measures 77 6. The ya...

1. The Alexandrian talent 33 The Medimnos 34 2. The lesser Alexandrian or Ptolemaïc talent 35 3. The Greek-Asiatic talent 36 The Metretes 37 4. Roman weights and measures of cap...

1. The Egyptian common or Olympic cubit 14 The meridian mile 15 Greek itinerary measures 16 The Roman mile 17 2. The Egyptian royal cubit 18 3. The great Assyrian or Persian cub...

1. The English foot 49 2. The Rhineland foot 52 3. The pán of Marseilles 53 4. The filiation of the English foot, of the Rhineland foot, and of the pán of Marseilles 55

1. The Saxon or Tower pound 127 2. The Troy pound 129 How the averdepois pound was of 7000 grains 133 3. The pride and fall of Troy 136 The assize of bread 138 The disappearance...

1. General remarks 240 2. The nail and the clove; the inch and the ounce 242 3. The carat and the grain 245 4. The tun and the fother 252

1. The story of Averdepois 93 2. The Imperial pound 102 3. Scientific and medicinal divisions of the pound 104 4. The long hundredweight 105 5. Wool and lead weight 109 6. Trade...

1. The old wine-measures 114 2. The ale-gallon 117 3. Corn-measure 118 4. The quarter and the chaldron 120 5. Coal-measure 122 6. The Imperial gallon 123 7. Medicinal fluid-meas...

1. The yard, the foot, the inch 58 2. Standards of the linear measures 59 3. The hand 61 4. The ell 62 5. The rod, furlong, mile, and league 62