TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
    PAGE
GENERAL VIEW OF THE EVOLUTION OF MEASURES 1
 
CHAPTER II
 
THE STORY OF THE CUBITS
 
1. The Egyptian common or Olympic cubit 14
  The meridian mile 15
  Greek itinerary measures 16
  The Roman mile 17
2. The Egyptian royal cubit 18
3. The great Assyrian or Persian cubit 23
4. The Beládi cubit 26
  The Bereh or equatorial land-mile 27
5. The Black cubit 28
  Comparative lengths of the five ancient cubits 30
 
CHAPTER III
 
THE STORY OF THE TALENTS
 
1. The Alexandrian talent 33
  The Medimnos 34
2. The lesser Alexandrian or Ptolemaïc talent 35
3. The Greek-Asiatic talent 36
  The Metretes 37
4. Roman weights and measures of capacity 38
  The new Roman pound 40
5. The Olympic talent 42
6. Greek coin-weights 43
7. The Arabic talent 44
  Measures of capacity derived from Arabic linear measures 47
 
CHAPTER IV
 
THE INVOLUTION OF LINEAR MEASURES FROM WEIGHTS
THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH AND OF THE RHINELAND FOOT
 
1. The English foot 49
2. The Rhineland foot 52
3. The pán of Marseilles 53
4. The filiation of the English foot, of the Rhineland foot, and of the pán of Marseilles 55
 
CHAPTER V
 
ENGLISH LINEAR MEASURES
 
1. The yard, the foot, the inch 58
2. Standards of the linear measures 59
3. The hand 61
4. The ell 62
5. The rod, furlong, mile, and league 62
 
CHAPTER VI
 
LAND-MEASURES
 
1. Introduction 65
2. Evolution of geometric land-measures 66
3. The story of English land-measures 71
4. Feudal land-measures 75
5. Terms used in old land-measures 77
6. The yard and the verge 82
7. How the rod came to be 5-1/2 yards 84
8. How the acre came to be 160 square rods 87
9. Customs of Lancaster 88
10. Seed-measures of land 90
 
CHAPTER VII
 
ENGLISH COMMERCIAL WEIGHTS
 
1. The story of Averdepois 93
2. The Imperial pound 102
3. Scientific and medicinal divisions of the pound 104
4. The long hundredweight 105
5. Wool and lead weight 109
6. Trade-units of weight 112
 
CHAPTER VIII
 
ENGLISH MEASURES OF CAPACITY
 
1. The old wine-measures 114
2. The ale-gallon 117
3. Corn-measure 118
4. The quarter and the chaldron 120
5. Coal-measure 122
6. The Imperial gallon 123
7. Medicinal fluid-measures 126
 
CHAPTER IX
 
THE MINT-POUNDS
 
1. The Saxon or Tower pound 127
2. The Troy pound 129
  How the averdepois pound was of 7000 grains 133
3. The pride and fall of Troy 136
  The assize of bread 138
  The disappearance of the Troy pound 139
 
CHAPTER X
 
THE CUBIC FOOT AND THE TON REGISTER
 
Concordance of capacity, weight, and measurement 145
Volume and weight of water at different temperatures 146
 
CHAPTER XI
 
SCOTS, IRISH, AND WELSH MEASURES AND WEIGHTS
 
1. Scotland 147
2. Ireland 155
3. Wales 156
 
CHAPTER XII
 
MEASURES AND WEIGHTS OF SOME BRITISH DOMINIONS
 
1. The Channel islands 157
2. South Africa (Cape Colony) 166
3. India 167
4. Burma and the Straits 172
5. Canada and Mauritius 173
 
CHAPTER XIII
 
MEASURES OF VALUE
 
1. English money 174
2. Guernsey currency 183
3. Indian money 184
4. Decimal currency 188
 
CHAPTER XIV
 
MEASURES OF TIME
 
The lunar year 194
The compass-card 195
 
CHAPTER XV
 
MEASURES OF HEAT AND OF DENSITY 197
 
Compound industrial units 201
 
CHAPTER XVI
 
THE ELLS 202
 
CHAPTER XVII
 
FOREIGN LINEAR MEASURES
 
1. Teutonic countries 206
2. Latin countries 208
3. Russia and the East 212
4. The Hashimi cubit 214
5. The Halebi pík or arshīn 215
 
CHAPTER XVIII
 
FOREIGN WEIGHTS
 
1. Teutonic systems 218
2. East-European systems 219
3. Mediterranean systems 220
  Summary 224
  Original weights of the dirhems 226
 
CHAPTER XIX
 
FOREIGN MEASURES OF CAPACITY
 
1. The Teutonic system 227
2. The Mediterranean system 232
3. Hebrew weights and measures of capacity 237
 
CHAPTER XX
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEANING IN THE NAMES OF
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
 
1. General remarks 240
2. The nail and the clove; the inch and the ounce 242
3. The carat and the grain 245
4. The tun and the fother 252
 
CHAPTER XXI
 
THE OLD MEASURES AND WEIGHTS OF FRANCE
 
1. The Southern system 253
2. The Northern system 259
 
CHAPTER XXII
 
THE METRIC SYSTEM 271
 
CHAPTER XXIII
 
HOW THE METRIC SYSTEM WORKS IN FRANCE 284
 
CHAPTER XXIV
 
THE CONFLICT OF THE IMPERIAL AND METRIC SYSTEMS
 
1. General view of the Imperial system 295
2. The propaganda of the Metric system 300
3. The reform of the Metric system 306
 
CONVERSION-TABLES OF METRIC AND IMPERIAL MEASURES 310
 
INDEX 311
MEN AND MEASURES