The French call them something like 'les bottes de sept lieues' (leagues), so the French have had milles and lieues as well. In Germany they are called Siebenmeilenstiefel and we call them evenmijlslaarzen. The miles that were used on the continent when this fairytale was written were much longer than the present English mile, at least 5 km! We also had the unit 'an hour's walking' or *uur gaans* , about 5 km. It was a German fairytale, that means that each step with these boots carried one at least 35 km. In Britain they would carry a person about the same distance.. France has had miles of 7 km, and the metricated Swedish mile is exactly 10 km. The mileage of used cars is expressed in the Swedish mile.
Han Historian of Dutch Metrication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Potts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, 2002-04-07 19:25 Subject: [USMA:19315] RE: Gram of action Han Maenen wrote: "and the Seven Miles Boots never became xxx Kilometer Boots." > Interestingly, the English version of that is "Seven-League Boots" -- an even older unit that the mile. Bill Potts, CMS Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
