This history is the development of a short story of the Imperial System of Weights and Measures published eleven years ago, but withdrawn when this fuller work took shape. To have made it at all complete would have required a long lifetime of research; to give and discuss every authority, to trace, even to acknowledge, every source of information would have unduly swollen the volume and slackened the interest of the narrative. I offer it with all its shortcomings as an attempt to show the metric instincts of man everywhere and in all time, to trace the origins and evolution of the main national systems, to explain the apparently arbitrary changes which have affected them, to show how the ancient system used by the English-speaking peoples of the world has been able, not only to survive dangerous perturbations in the past, but also to resist the modern revolutionary system which has destroyed so many others less homogeneous, less capable of adaptation to circumstances.

E. N.

Feb. 1912.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
GENERAL VIEW OF THE EVOLUTION OF MEASURES[1]
CHAPTER II
THE STORY OF THE CUBITS
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 cubit[23]
4.The Beládi cubit[26]
The Bereh or equatorial land-mile[27]
5.The Black cubit[28]
Comparative lengths of the five ancient cubits[30]
CHAPTER III
THE STORY OF THE TALENTS
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 capacity[38]
The new Roman pound[40]
5.The Olympic talent[42]
6.Greek coin-weights[43]
7.The Arabic talent[44]
Measures of capacity derived from Arabic linear measures[47]
CHAPTER IV
THE INVOLUTION OF LINEAR MEASURES FROM WEIGHTS
THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH AND OF THE RHINELAND FOOT
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]
CHAPTER V
ENGLISH LINEAR MEASURES
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]
CHAPTER VI
LAND-MEASURES
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 yard and the verge[82]
7.How the rod came to be 5-1/2 yards[84]
8.How the acre came to be 160 square rods[87]
9.Customs of Lancaster[88]
10.Seed-measures of land[90]
CHAPTER VII
ENGLISH COMMERCIAL WEIGHTS
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-units of weight[112]
CHAPTER VIII
ENGLISH MEASURES OF CAPACITY
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-measures[126]
CHAPTER IX
THE MINT-POUNDS
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 of the Troy pound[139]
CHAPTER X
THE CUBIC FOOT AND THE TON REGISTER
Concordance of capacity, weight, and measurement[145]
Volume and weight of water at different temperatures[146]
CHAPTER XI
SCOTS, IRISH, AND WELSH MEASURES AND WEIGHTS
1.Scotland[147]
2.Ireland[155]
3.Wales[156]
CHAPTER XII
MEASURES AND WEIGHTS OF SOME BRITISH DOMINIONS
1.The Channel islands[157]
2.South Africa (Cape Colony)[166]
3.India[167]
4.Burma and the Straits[172]
5.Canada and Mauritius[173]
CHAPTER XIII
MEASURES OF VALUE
1.English money[174]
2.Guernsey currency[183]
3.Indian money[184]
4.Decimal currency[188]
CHAPTER XIV
MEASURES OF TIME
The lunar year[194]
The compass-card[195]
CHAPTER XV
MEASURES OF HEAT AND OF DENSITY[197]
Compound industrial units[201]
CHAPTER XVI
THE ELLS[202]
CHAPTER XVII
FOREIGN LINEAR MEASURES
1.Teutonic countries[206]
2.Latin countries[208]
3.Russia and the East[212]
4.The Hashimi cubit[214]
5.The Halebi pík or arshīn[215]
CHAPTER XVIII
FOREIGN WEIGHTS
1.Teutonic systems[218]
2.East-European systems[219]
3.Mediterranean systems[220]
Summary[224]
Original weights of the dirhems[226]
CHAPTER XIX
FOREIGN MEASURES OF CAPACITY
1.The Teutonic system[227]
2.The Mediterranean system[232]
3.Hebrew weights and measures of capacity[237]
CHAPTER XX
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEANING IN THE NAMES OF
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
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]
CHAPTER XXI
THE OLD MEASURES AND WEIGHTS OF FRANCE
1.The Southern system[253]
2.The Northern system[259]
CHAPTER XXII
THE METRIC SYSTEM[271]
CHAPTER XXIII
HOW THE METRIC SYSTEM WORKS IN FRANCE[284]
CHAPTER XXIV
THE CONFLICT OF THE IMPERIAL AND METRIC SYSTEMS
1.General view of the Imperial system[295]
2.The propaganda of the Metric system[300]
3.The reform of the Metric system[306]
CONVERSION-TABLES OF METRIC AND IMPERIAL MEASURES[310]
INDEX[311]

MEN AND MEASURES

CHAPTER I
GENERAL VIEW

The earliest measures were those of length, and they were derived from the rough-and-ready standard afforded by the limbs of man.