Dear Joe, I have added some remarks below your posting.
on 2003/06/01 10.29, Joseph B. Reid at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > The USMA mailing list seem to have died in the last few days. May I be > permitted to enlarge the subject to "measurement" instead of "metric system"? > > The Roman mile was "mille passuum" (thousand paces).. How did it become the > English mile of 5280 feet? > > The Roman pace was a double pace, the distance travelled between two landings > of the right (or left) foot. The English army pace was 5 feet, so the English > mile was 5000 feet. But the Anglo-Saxon furlong of 220 yards or 660 feet was > well established and did not fit into the 5000-foot mile. So Queen Elizabeth I > lengthened the mile to 8 furlongs or 1760 yards or 5280 feet.. When you look across the broad sweep of measuring history, you see the occasional attempt to decimalise some measures. Examples are the use of 1000 paces by the Roman army and the proposed decimalisation of several units in 'La Disme' in 1585. Also you see the occasional attempt at devising a binary system of measures. The English volumetric measures are an example here: 2 jacks = 1 gill 2 gills = 1 cup 2 cups = 1 pint 2 pints = 1 quart 2 quarts = 1 pottle 2 pottles = 1 gallon 2 gallons = 1 peck 4 pecks = 1 bushel Some problems entered here. You could use either: 3 bushels = 1 bag 12 bags = 1 chauldron or chaldron or 4 bushels = 1 coombe 2 coombes = 1 quarter 5 quarters = 1 load or wey 2 loads or weys = 1 last What you are pointing out is an attempt by Queen Elizabeth 1 to incorporating a decimal system with a binary method. This is similar to Gunther's incorporation of a decimal system (100 links = 1 chain) with a binary method of 22 yards being divided into 4 rods, poles, or perches. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia
