Von: rapantel@stuttgart.netsurf.de (Mike Pantel)
  Datum: 27.03.98, 17:25:39
Betreff: Historical linear measurement

Hello Researchers,

by surfing through the web I found the following internet site from
the University of Bremen:

http://www.wis.uni-bremen.de/wis/fup/faecher/GeschBisMa/mittelalter/Laen
genmasse.html

The information there (yes, it's in German) tells a lot of the
old length measurement units of the midage and later. A few of
them I will translate for you:

In the old times it was a right of the kings to decide what to
use as the length unit. Often they choose a part of their body
as the standard. This is the reason why in Germany nearly every
city have their own units in medieval times. As an example: In
the duchy of Baden in 1810 they have 112 different length units,
92 area units, 163 units for the cereal quantity and 80 units
for the weight. For longer distances the units often are too
small (results in big numbers) and therefore the people merge
time informations in the measurements.

Elle
This was a very common unit. It is defined as the length from
the top of the midfinger to the ellbow. The shortest in
Germany was 403.8mm (Erfurt) and the largest 811mm (Regensburg).
The most standard Elle measures 517.2mm.

Hand, Handbreite
Another old unit was the width of a hand. It's around 69mm or
4 finger width's.

Meile (mile)
A common unit for longer distances. The origin is the roman
word Milliarium which is the name of a milestone. The old roman
mile was 1479m long. In Germany the definition is different.
We have the bavarian mile = 25406 feet = 7415m, the prussia
mile = 24000 feet = 7500m and the saxony mile = 32000 feet or
9062m. Later the mile is defined as the 15th part of an
equatorial grade or 7420m. Since 1908 the mile wasn't used in
Germany (switch to the metric system). In USA the mile is
1609m today.

Poststunde
This unit looks like a time unit. It was 3707m.

Wegstunde, Reisestunde
A Poststunde with a half mile distance. This results in 3710m.

Fuß
The length of a feet. It measures from 283.2mm to 313.8mm and
was divided into 12 Zoll.

Stunde
If this unit was used for lengths then it can be translated
into 4500 to 5000m.

More sites around that topic are:
http://dg3.chemie.uni-konstanz.de/~stuebs/Pommern/Lexikon/maszeinheiten.
html
http://www.bev.gv.at/dup/eichwesen/bev_e_maasse.htm
http://www.botanik.uni-wuerzburg.de/WS/tabellen.html

Regards,
Mike

--
Raimund "Mike" Pantel       mailto: rapantel@stuttgart.netsurf.de
Listowner of Baden-Wuerttemberg Mailing List
Sponsor of Rootsweb Genealogy http://www.rootsweb.com