The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1885-06-02
THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
TUESDAY, JUNE 2. 1885.
The Inch and the Ounce.

As the Jews had mystical reverenc
for seven, and the ancient Welsh AM
Cehs for three, aud the Greeks perfec
philosophy constructed out OF the har
monies of all colts OF numbers, so th
Romans fell back upon scale OF twelve
or more properly. upon a scale with I
base OF six. Accordingly as they div
ded the pound into twelve aac &c so they
also divided the foot, which was th'
standard of linear measure, into twplv
sections, and called these twelve ane;s
too. But how did they get at the incl
originality R,ther, how did they gel
It the pound 7 for that, and not the inch
is the unit There seems to be no pre-
else Information. They would divid,
any unit into twelfths, and prevailing
notion was at one time that the lineai
sncia was really the original, and wa'
then transferred, az name, To th,
weight. This, though plaus ble, is hard
" the case. Sometimes, especially IL
old fashioned books, written at tim'
when philology was not whit II is now
II was the fashion TO derive the xacic
from tie same word In the Greek, b
cause after the revival Of letters In Eu
rope the admiration OF the Greek be,
came so great that whenever similar
words we're found In it and in some
other language Ii was slways said tha
the Greek was the older and the origin
el, and that the other language borrow
cd them from the Greek That is very
far from being always so; and, In tn.
present instance. the verv reverse ap.
pears TO have occurred. Tne ounce i,
literally s.tbe twelfth and thus we see
ct once the sense OF speaking OF ar
ounce OF time, an ounce of land and ar
inch Of milk, just as Of an inch OF I
mans will or an inch OF interest fol
money ON loaa. 1t was always The
twelfth OF the unit-twelfth Of an honr
twelfth Of q iuyerum. that half an acr'
which the two oxen ploughed in day
twelfth OF o sextartius or equivalent ts
our pint; twelfth OF entire heredtas
twelfth OF the principal lenron hire vher
it Was money at u ury, T. e., over 8 PEI
cent. It's accordingly as much mis-
take to say that the primary meaning o
the word is linear. which is to cay tbs
Il comes straight from the Greek into
the Latin. and thence on to US. Th,
whole riddle is plain enough when W,
get to the true origin OF the words
twelfth. Oace, indeed, 1t used 10 bt
raid that the true origin was that tn,
word meant thumh-breadth, becaus
its equivalent polex In linear measur,
was often used in its place. But this Il
not the case. Some of the old Latin,
themselves. moreover, thought it mean
literally s.ihe unit;" but even this viii
moi hold beside the proper signifcatioI
OF Q twelfth. The pound weight was re
ally never divided by inches or ounces
II wss divided by twelfths, by halves
by thirds, BY fonrths, and by sixths.-
And here, again, We see what convc
nient base system Of twelfths is Tor di
vision. compared with system Of tenths
which could only he divided evenly II
two ways--by two and FIVE. For sever
ounces they used the literal seven
twelfths; for eight ounces they saif
.stwo parts" i.e, two-tblrds; for nine
.santine fourth" which with us read
. roundabout way Of expressing three
quarters; for ten, "wanting sixth !" fo
eleven, "wantlng twelfth"