I never heard before of the French yard or verge. It must hardly have been used. Yes, the aune or ell was a typical cloth measurement. However, when the Netherlands went metric, the meter was called the Dutch ell, and in now it was used as the unit of length for all purposes.The Dutch ell was 10 Dutch hands and the hand was 10 Dutch inches. A field (akker) in that time might measure 100 by 100 Dutch ells, which is, of course, an hectare. I think that the akker was used in some places as unit of area before 1812. A villagename of Vierakker points to such usage. The hectare had also an old name, bunder from French bonnier. Still, when deeds crop up from that time, there may be confusion. It is known that an old ell was about 68 cm, and errors have been made in lawsuits with it until very recently. Nobody knows that before metrication the ell was used exclusively in the cloth trade, and that for all other measuremetns the inch, foot, rod and orther units were used.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Joseph B. Reid" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, 2002-12-09 22:33 Subject: [USMA:23872] Re: Exam and center > Han Maenen wrote in USMA 23860: > > >The French yard , or better, ell (aune) was about 1.13 m; the Napoleonic aune (used between 1812 and 1840) was 1.20 m exactly. The old French ell had about the length of the English ell, which was 45 inches or about 1.12 m long. > > > >Han > > > I had previously written about the French toise and verge. Could it be that the toise and verge were used to measure short and medium distances and that the aune was used to measure cloth, like the British ell? > -- > Joseph B. Reid > 17 Glebe Road West > Toronto M5P 1C8 Telephone 416-486-6071 > >
