2002-03-07
This is more of the same crap the BWMA has been pushing
for years. They reiterate it so much they actually believe it to be
true.
First of all, the Greeks never had a mile unit. The
unit mile was first used in Roman times. Rowlett (http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictM.html)
defines the mile as such: Note that historically, there never was a
"standard mile". All units with the name "mile", or a similar sounding
name varied from time to time and location to location.
Also note the various forms used in Continental Europe and
tell me if they are the same. So, how can they say all these units were
simply related?
mile (mi)
a traditional unit of distance. The word comes from the Latin word for 1000,
mille, because originally a mile was the distance a Roman legion could
march in 1000 paces (right foot, left foot -- that's one pace). There is some
uncertainty about the length of the Roman mile. Based on the Roman foot of 29.6
centimeters and assuming a standard pace of 5 Roman feet, the Roman mile would
have been 1480 meters (4856 feet); however, the measured distance between
surviving milestones of Roman roads is often closer to 1520 meters or 5000 feet.
In any case, miles of similar lengths were used throughout Western Europe. In
medieval Britain, several mile units were used, including a mile of 5000 feet
(1524 meters), the modern mile defined as 8 furlongs (1609 meters), and a longer
mile similar to the French mille (1949 meters), plus the Scottish mile (1814
meters) and the Irish mile (2048 meters). In 1592 the British Parliament settled
the question by defining the statute mile to be 8 furlongs, 80 chains, 320 rods, 1760 yards or 5280 feet. The statute
mile is exactly 1609.344 meters. In athletics, races of 1500 or 1600 meters are
often called metric miles. See also nautical
mile.
meile
A traditional distance unit in German speaking countries, the meile is much
longer than the mile units of western Europe. Typically the meile was equal to
4000 klafters
(fathoms) or 24 000 fuss (German feet). In Austria this came to 7586 meters
(4.714 miles); in northern Germany it was 4.6805 miles or 7532.5 meters. A
version of the meile called the geographische meile was defined to equal
exactly 4 (Admiralty) nautical
miles (24 320 feet, 4.6061 miles,
or 7412.7 meters). The geographische meile was designed to equal 1/15 degree [2] or 4/3
league.
milha
the traditional Portuguese mile, one of the "longest miles" of all at
2282.75 yards (1.297 statute miles or 2087.3 meters).
milla
the traditional Spanish mile, equal to 5000 pies (Spanish feet) or 8 estadios. This
is about 1392 meters, 4567 feet, or 0.865
statute mile.
mille [1]
the traditional French mile, equal to 1000 toises. This is
equal to about 6394.4 feet, 1.211 statute
mile, or 1949 meters. In modern France, the mille sometimes means the nautical
mile (mille marin), equal to exactly 1852 meters.
mil [4]
in Scandinavia, the mil, pronounced like "meal" in English, is a traditional
distance unit considerably longer than Roman or English miles. In Denmark, the
traditional mil was 24 000 Danish feet, which is 4.6805 miles or 7.5325
kilometers (this is the same as the north German meile; see above). The Danish
mil has sometimes been interpreted as exactly 7.5 kilometers (4.6603 miles). In
Sweden, the traditional mil was 36 000 Swedish feet, which is 6.641 miles or
10.687 kilometers. In Sweden and Norway the mil is now interpreted as a metric
unit equal to exactly 10 kilometers (6.2137 miles).
miglio
the traditional Italian mile. The miglio equals 1628 yards, which is 0.925
English mile or about 1488.6 meters. This is 32 yards (29.3 meters) shorter than
the classical Roman mile.
I can find no Greek mile. However, the Greeks had a unit called
Stade, and Rowlett defines it as such:
stade, stadion or stadium
a historic unit of distance originating in ancient Greece. Greek athletic
fields were all of roughly the same size, and the stadion, as a unit of
measure, represented the length of the field. Archaeological measurements show
that the stadion was roughly 200 yards or a little
less than 200 meters. The stadion at Olympus, where the original Olympic Games
were held, measures 630.8 feet or 192.3 meters. Stadium is the Latin
spelling; in the Roman world the stadium was equal to 625 Roman feet
(pes) or 1/8 Roman mile. This is
equivalent to 606.95 feet, 202.32 yards, or 185.00 meters. The plural is
stadia.
Rowlett also gives some history on the development of the foot:
foot (ft or ')
a traditional unit of distance. Almost every culture has used the human foot
as a unit of measurement. The natural foot (pes naturalis in
Latin), an ancient unit based on the length of actual feet, is about 25
centimeters (9.8 inches). This unit was replaced in early civilizations of the
Middle East by a longer foot, roughly 30 centimeters or the size of the modern
unit, because this longer length was conveniently expressed in terms of other
natural units:
1 foot = 3 hands = 4 palms = 12 inches (thumb
widths) = 16 digits (finger
widths)
This unit was used in both Greece and Rome; the Greek foot is estimated at
30.8 centimeters (12.1 inches) and the Roman foot at 29.6 centimeters (11.7
inches). In northern Europe, however, there was a competing unit known in Latin
as the pes manualis or manual foot. This unit was equal to 2 shaftments,
and it was measured "by hand," grasping a rod with both hands, thumbs extended
and touching. The manual foot is estimated at 33.3 centimeters (13.1 inches).
In England, the Roman foot was replaced after the fall of Rome by the
natural foot and the Saxon shaftment (16.5 centimeters). The modern foot (1/3 yard or about 30.5
centimeters) did not appear until after the Norman conquest of 1066. It may be
an innovation of Henry I, who reigned from 1100 to 1135. Later in the 1100s a
foot of modern length, the "foot of St. Paul's," was inscribed on the base of a
column of St. Paul's Church in London, so that everyone could see the length of
this new foot. From 1300, at least, to the present day there appears be little
or no change in the length of the foot.
Late in the nineteenth century, after both Britain and the U.S. signed the
Treaty of the Meter, the foot was officially defined in terms of the new metric
standards. In the U.S., the Metric Act of 1866 defined the foot to equal exactly
1200/3937 meter, or about 30.480 060 96 centimeters. This unit, still used for
geodetic surveying in the United States, is now called the survey foot.
In 1959, the U.S. National Bureau of Standards redefined the foot to equal
exactly 30.48 centimeters (about 0.999 998 survey foot). This definition was
also adopted in Britain by the Weights and Measures Act of 1963, so the foot of
30.48 centimeters is now called the international foot.
Elsewhere on
this page are entries for the Danish fod, Swedish fot, and German
fuss. Other foot units include the French pied and the
Italian and Spanish pie.
I don't know enough about the history of units, nor do I feel like perusing
through thousands of definitions to see how the BWMA came of with their 24
British miles equals 25 Greek miles. And if the British units are supposed
to be based on human body proportions, how all of a sudden are they now based on
the earth's dimensions, and to such accuracy, that they ancients got it right
and the French wrong?
Steve,
Can I suggest that you forward your posting to Rowlett, at the email
address below, and ask him for your help in validating the claims of the
BWMA.
John
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, 2002-03-07 18:42
Subject: [USMA:18612] Even astrologers are at it
now!!
> This, quite
bizarrely, was in the astrology column of the Daily Mirror!! It was
written by a certain John Michell:
>
> It is a tragedy to lose
something, or someone, and only then realise how much you valued them.
>
> It happens all the time in love. And it is happening now, as we
are forced to part company with our most ancient and precious possession - our
units of measure, the foot, mile, acre, and so on.
>
> It is now
known that our present British units were the standards behind all other
measures in the ancient world.
>
> For example, 24 British miles
equals 25 of the classical Greek miles.
>
> This gives you the
exact value of the Greek mile and of its 5,000th part-the Greek foot-by which
the Parthenon was built.
>
> All these traditional units-Roman,
Egyptian, Sumerian and others-are related to each other by simple ratios.
It was all one system, universally. Even across the Atlantic, the Mexican
pyramids were designed by the same units of measure as those of Egypt.
>
> The ancient units were fractions of the Earth's dimensions. One
standard was its mean circumference, which was equal to a tenth part of 12 x 12
x 12 x 12 x 12 English miles. When the French tried to measure the Earth
in order to establish their metre, they got it wrong - and their system is based
on error.
>
> There is nothing political about this. (hmmmm) It
plays no serious part in the debate over Europe and the euro. It's just
that our units are sacred in origin.
>
> They measure the universe
and the human body by the same standard, whereas the metre has no natural
meaning. That is why we traditionalists say, "Stand up for the
foot!"
>
> A vigorous campaign to preserve our measures is run by
Vivian Lineacre of the British Weights and Measures Association.
>
> A year's membership of the association (including subscription to the
Journal) is £10 to BWMA, 45 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh, EH7 5JX.
>
> Regards,
>
> Steve.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
