Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-10-15
THE INCH AND THE OUNCE.
Some Facts Ia Regard to Standards of
Length and Weight
London Standard.

As the Jews had a mystical rever-
ence for seven, and the ancient Welsh
and Cells for three, and the Greeks a
perfect philosophy constructed out of
the harmonies of all sorts of numbers,
SO the Romans fell back upon a scale
of, or, more properly, upon 3 scale
with a base of six. Accordingly, as
they divided the pound into twelve
uncia, SO tAey also divided the foot,
which was the standard of linear
measure into twelve sections, and
they called these sections uncie, too.
But how did they get the inch origin
ally? Rather how did they get at the
pound? for that, and not the inch,
is the unit. There seems to be NO pre-
else information. They would divide
any unit into twelfths, and prevail
ing notion was at one time that linear
uncla was really the original, and
was then transferred as name to
weight. This, though plausible, is
hardly the case. Sometimes, especi~
ally in old books, written when phil>
ology was not what it is now, it was
the fashion TO derive the uncise from
the same word in the Greek, because
after the revival of letters III Europe
the admiration of the Greek became
so great that whenever similar words
were found in it and some other
language borrowed them from the
Greek. This is very far from being
always SO; and in the present instance
the very reverse appears to have oc>
Cured. The ounce is literally the
twelfth; and thus we see at once the
sense of speaking of an ounce of land
and an inch of milk, just as of an inch
OF interest for money on loan. 1t was
always the twelfth of a unit-twelfth
of an hour; twelfth of a jugerum, that
half acre which the two oxen plowed
in day; twelfth of sextarius, or
equivalent to our pint; twelfth of the
entire hereditas; twelfth Of the entire
hereditas; twelfth of the principal lent
on hire when it was money as usury
j. e., over per cent. Its Accord
iugly as much of mistake to say
that the primary meaning of the word
is a linear, which Is to say that it
comes straight from the Greek into
the Latin, and thence on to US. The
riddle is plain enough when we get
to the true origin of the word-s
twelfth. Once, indeed, it used to be
said the origin was that the word meant
a thumb breadth, because it's equlval-
ent pollex in linear measure was often
used in its place. But this is not the
case. Some of the old Latins them~
selves, moreeveo, thought it meant
literally the unit: but even this will
not hold beside the proper signifca~
ton of the twelfth. The pound
weight was really never divided by
inches or ounces. It was divided by
twelfths, by halves, by thirds, by
inches or ounces. 1t was divided by
tweIfths, by halves, by thirds, by
fourths, and by sivths. And here,
again, we see what convenient base
a system of twelfths is for division
compared with a system of tenths,
which could only be divided evenly in
two ways-by two and five. For sew
en- ounces they use the literal seven
twelfths; for eight ounces they said
two parts. e, two thirds; for nine,
wantsng a fourth, which with us
reads like roundabout way of ex-
pressing three>quarters for ten want
ing a sixth; for eleven, wanting
twelfth.