5 thoughts on “Measurement Before The Metric System”
Thank you very much for this chapter Randy! I’m looking forward to reading it all today.
Excellent reading!!!!!!! I am a history buff as well as interested in science. I do hope that you are able to find a publisher for this work. Anyone should be able to see that you have done considerable research.
So, the English inch in 1668 was 27 mm and not 25.4 mm.
Also, John Wilkins is not the father of the metric system. The English in the Pre-Norman times had a unit call the Wand that was equal to about 1 m and was decimally divided.
The wand is also a pre-Norman unit of length used in the British Isles equal to approximately the modern metre, apparently dating from an early use as a yardstick (originally as a generic term). The ‘wand’ survived for a time under the Normans. Then when the yard was established, the wand came to be known as the ‘yard and the hand’, and then disappeared, either slowly or by being banned by law.
The old English unit of 1007 mm was called a ‘wand’, and although the ‘yard’ was created to replace the wand, the wand was still used for some centuries because of its convenience as part of an old English decimal system that included:
1 digit (base of long finger) about 20 mm
10 digits = 1 small span (span of thumb and forefinger) 200 mm
10 small spans = 1 armstretch (1 fathom from finger tip to finger tip) about 2 m
10 fathoms = 1 chain about 20 m
10 chains = 1 furlong about 200 m
10 furlongs = 1 thus-hund of about 2 km
The wand that has survived today as part of folklore may in fact be a rendition of the ancient British length unit. Thus a true wand would be 1 m in length and not 30 cm.
If anything, Wilkins resurrected the ancient wand and gave it a new name.
From the footnote on page 4:
Metric quantities with magnifying prefixes, such as Kilo, Mega, Giga, Tera and so on, will be capitalized (e.g. Kilogram, Megameter, Gigajoule Teraliter). Metric quantities with reducing prefixes such as milli, micro, nano, pico and so on will be rendered in lower case (e.g. millimeter, microgram, nanoliter, picojoule). A capital K will be used as the metric prefix symbol, so Kilometer will be abbreviated Km.
This convention is not sanctioned by the BIPM. The symbol (not abbreviation) for kilometre is km, not Km.
Maven:
Here’s one series of hundreds of books that is ongoing and should be interested in your book here: A Very Short Introduction.
Thus, your book would be titled something like “The History of the International System of Units (SI): A Very Short Introduction”.
Thank you very much for this chapter Randy! I’m looking forward to reading it all today.
Excellent reading!!!!!!! I am a history buff as well as interested in science. I do hope that you are able to find a publisher for this work. Anyone should be able to see that you have done considerable research.
So, the English inch in 1668 was 27 mm and not 25.4 mm.
Also, John Wilkins is not the father of the metric system. The English in the Pre-Norman times had a unit call the Wand that was equal to about 1 m and was decimally divided.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wand
The wand is also a pre-Norman unit of length used in the British Isles equal to approximately the modern metre, apparently dating from an early use as a yardstick (originally as a generic term). The ‘wand’ survived for a time under the Normans. Then when the yard was established, the wand came to be known as the ‘yard and the hand’, and then disappeared, either slowly or by being banned by law.
The old English unit of 1007 mm was called a ‘wand’, and although the ‘yard’ was created to replace the wand, the wand was still used for some centuries because of its convenience as part of an old English decimal system that included:
1 digit (base of long finger) about 20 mm
10 digits = 1 small span (span of thumb and forefinger) 200 mm
10 small spans = 1 armstretch (1 fathom from finger tip to finger tip) about 2 m
10 fathoms = 1 chain about 20 m
10 chains = 1 furlong about 200 m
10 furlongs = 1 thus-hund of about 2 km
The wand that has survived today as part of folklore may in fact be a rendition of the ancient British length unit. Thus a true wand would be 1 m in length and not 30 cm.
If anything, Wilkins resurrected the ancient wand and gave it a new name.
From the footnote on page 4:
Metric quantities with magnifying prefixes, such as Kilo, Mega, Giga, Tera and so on, will be capitalized (e.g. Kilogram, Megameter, Gigajoule Teraliter). Metric quantities with reducing prefixes such as milli, micro, nano, pico and so on will be rendered in lower case (e.g. millimeter, microgram, nanoliter, picojoule). A capital K will be used as the metric prefix symbol, so Kilometer will be abbreviated Km.
This convention is not sanctioned by the BIPM. The symbol (not abbreviation) for kilometre is km, not Km.
Maven:
Here’s one series of hundreds of books that is ongoing and should be interested in your book here: A Very Short Introduction.
Thus, your book would be titled something like “The History of the International System of Units (SI): A Very Short Introduction”.
Here’s a link to get a look at the now 600-plus titles:
https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/v/very-short-introductions-vsi/?cc=us&lang=en&