Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-03-19
WHY AN INCH Is AN INCH.
Quaint Origin Of Our Present System
Of Weights and Measures.

Quaint Origin OF Our Present System
of Weights and Measures.
II 1t is long enough ago since you
went to school you may remember
that:
barleycorns equal inch,
IL inches equal foot,
and so forth. Now they have taken
the barleycorns out of the arithmetic,
and one more Of the thousand natural
bases of weights and measures has
vanished.
Not from the records Of antiquity.
however. Nearly 1000 years ago the
lesson standards were kept at Win
chester and King Edgar decreed that
"the measure at Winchester shall be
the standard" Under the Normans
the standards were transferred to
Westminster and later became known
as "The standards Of the exchequer.'
In 1924 is recorded the exact manner
Of determining the standard inch.
Three barleycorns are to be taken
from the middle Of an ear, dried and
laid end to end.
Later monarchs started competition
with the barleycorn. Under Henry
VI, Richard II. and Anne an inch was
defined as "a thumbs breadth" That
was the extra inch to be allowed I'm
measuring cloth for stretching
The foot has its obvious natural der
ivation. The more ancient cubit was
measured from the point Of the ell
bow to the tip OF the middle finger.
Similarly Henry /. Of England estab-
lished the yard from gyrdan (mean-
ing the girth Of the body), as the dis
tance from the point of his nose to
the end of thumb, while his par
lament was working out the standards
Of length and weight according TO
grains of wheat and barley And
some Of those parliamentary enact
ments have lasted In spite of arithme-
tic editors.
Did you ever wonder. for example.
why your shoes are not measured by
common standards? They are still
numbered according to the length OF
a grain Of barley, in system or
enumeration by thirteens. Other units
from natural dimensions are the
fathom-faethm, the embrace-the
length Of the two arms from finger tip
to finger tip; the hand, four inches;
the span, inches; the finger, one
eighth of yard; the nail, taken from
the tip Of the thumbnail to the base
joint, two and one-quarter inches.
The following entertaining manner
of ascertaining standards in the six
teenth century Is given In KoebePs
work on surveying:
ITO find the length Of a rood in the
right and lawful way, and according
to scientific usage, you shall do as fol-
lows: Stand at the door Of church
on a Sunday and bid sixteen men to
stop, tall ones and small ones, as they
happen to pass out when service Is
finished; then make them put their
left feet one behind the other, and the
length obtained shall be right and
lawful rood to measure and survey
the land with, and the sixteenth part
of 1t shall be right and lawful foot"
The earliest measure Of distance,
however was the days journey, "a
daJ's march to so and So" AS
smaller unit became necessary the
stride, or pace, came into use, and
only in later times, when still smaller
units were required, the dimensions Of
parts of the body were adopted.
Among the Greeks and Romans the
pace and foot came into almost uni
versal use, and by them were hand
ed down to subsequent western ma
tions. The passus became the pace.
the mile passum, the mile. The pound
also is of classical derivation, from
pondus, apparently purely arbitrary
its meaning being sim
ply "a weight"
Not barleycorns, but grains of
wheat, are the basis Of our measure
Of capacity. When Henry III. enacted
that there should be uniformity In
weights and measures in the thir-
teenth century the following was es-
ia blished:
80 wheat grains equal ! penny
(pennyweight).
20 pence equal ounce.
12 ounces equal 1 pound.
pounds equal one gallon.
gallons equal London bushel
bushels equal l quarter.
This pound was know as the Tower
pound" and was in use until the mid
die of the fifteenth century.-Kansas
City Star.