New-York tribune., 1901-10-13
John A. Rrashear in Cassier's Magazine

John a. Brashear In Casters Magazine.
So far $ We know present. the standard meas
Persia. Babylonia. Greece and in fact all the east
various ways that Of the Talmud being divided
into diGits or finger breadths, palms and spans,
four digits being equal TO one palm or hand
breadth, three palms 10 one span and two spans TO
a great deal Of valuable research has been made
by eminent metrOogists to ascertain the length OF
it their standard. We would naturally CINE that
all cubits We're Of one length, but when We consider
that foot measure has varied much
mine and one-quarter inchesl from its present
recognized value We should be surprised to find
that the cublt varied from 1923 to 81 inches in
Egypt. The cubit OF the Fourth Dynasty varied
inch. The divided plotting scales lying on the
drawing board Of the statue OF Gudea equaled 20S9
inches. The Babylonian cubit was almost exactly
Of the same length as the Egyptian cubt Of the
Fourth Dynasty, viz, 2o,6 and-205 inches. The Per-
sIin cup5t seems 20 nave oeeh rather short meas
uFing lS2 inches but according to recent writer.
The cubt of the Hebrew nation. according to A
number of Investigators seems TO have been 2l
seems to have proved that the value of the Jewish
as well as the Egyptian sacred cubit exactly
, There is considerable difficulty in connecting the
INKS between ancient and medieval neurology.
,6 Ior no sharp lines can be drawn, and there is
R%ealod per % OF more than thousand years over which
me connection of units of measure is very
Great Britain in the tenth century Its value, as
the foot now measures was 1922 inches: but it had
Begic foot Of i3 % nrbs as bea ne year S2O ad the
the esa toot OF L inches only n very small change
would nave to be made TO make 1t one-third of a
metre, the metre being about inches and three
times the value of the Belgic foot would he only
UE5 OF an lnch longer than the But the edict
OF hlng Henry had paced the value of the foot
at II inches or one-thlrd OF the legal yard which
between the tips of the fingers of the outstretched
arms OF King Henry In the year 1924 A. D.. in the
reign OF Edward III, statute was enacted thar
made the standard inch equal three barley
corns round and dry" and twelve such inches made
one foot Who of us that have lived out our half
century DO not remember the old long measure
table commencing with Three barley corns make
one inch? l believe the long measure tables no
more contain this familiar sentence
There were several values of the ward I'm the in
terVal between King Henrys time and that of the
hhal value which was established Just five hundred
years after what may be called the BARLEY corn
statute There was the yard and handful OF iO-Incn
ell winch was abolished in 1i39: the ward and
men or 3'-lnch ell, which abolished i'm 1854:
me cloth ell of 10 inches. which was used until
loV ana the yard of Henry VII, which had n yaIue
OF 39963 inches. within thrty-seven-t 90
the Value or the yard and handful.
BUT the mechanic arts cried out for a better
STANDARD, one that so variable as the
oariey corn, or the length of a mans arm and So
early as the beginning Of the seventeenth century
most accurate standards of the yard foot and
men had been graduated upon metal bars nv Abrana
sharp. Rowley, Sissons, Smeaton, Graham and
methods to very high development of the adopted
Just 4ve hundred years after the statute of Ed
Waro II winch made the barley corn the haste 90
the men, II was, by an act of George " i'm 1sSa
that legal definition of the yard was made This
declared that the yard bar made bv BIRD in i7sn
should be the standard beyond question Of doubt '