Measure for Measure

It was a phone call that I received 'Hands Free' in the car that caused me to contemplate a new unit of measurement for the 21st Century. The duration of the call was certainly a few minutes and I sort of went onto automatic pilot as far as steering, pushing the pedals, changing gear and indicating were concerned. The shocking realisation was the actual linear distance that I had travelled. I simply cannot remember how I got from my position at the commencement of the call to the location I found myself in at its end. I would like to apply the term 'mobimetre' to this phenomena of distance travelled, but with no comprehension of how, during a mobile telephone conversation. I can already see the media furore for the first reporting of a fatality under the new unit of measurement as a 'mobi-killer-metre'.

This new unit would sit nicely with what is termed The English Customary Systems of measurement for length and distance although these are based on the dimensions and conventions of the human body from well back in the mists of time.

The imperial unit of an inch relates to the width of a thumb. The term digit is approximately 0.75 inches and can be guaged by the width of a finger. A nail is the distance between the 2 joints on the middle finger or equivalent to 3 digits, therefore 2.25 inches. In natural progression the palm is a measurement of 3 inches and a hand at 4 inches. Not content with small dimensions in a rapidly developing economy and market place the hand based units were expanded and in a more animated and expressive way producing the rather double-entendre of a shaftment consisting of the width of a hand and up to an outstretched thumb equivalent to 2 palms or 6 inches, the term span being the width of an outstretched hand and the popular builders measure of a cubit equating to a forearm length. Beyond the cubit is the yard which is taken as the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the middle finger of the outstretched hand.

Not to exclude the nautical fraternity is the length of an full arm span from fingertip to fingertip at a Fathom or 6 feet. I can envisage some poor ships crew member being dangled over the side and encouraged to take on the shape of a star to ascertain the available depth to cater for the draft of the vessel. 

There will certainly have been a great laying on of hands and limbs in the process of early business using the body originated dimensions but what allowances were made for the improved health, vitality and bodily dimensions of successive generations? A good example of changes in body shapes and sizes is illustrated in the definition of a foot. The modern unit is of course 12 inches but with some variation from the Roman foot of 11.65" which persisted through to the Anglo Saxon invasions of England. The Germanic tribes brought their own scale of size with the foot increasing to 13.2 inches but this was superseded by the late 13th Century with a bit of a compromise but establishing the standard measurement at 12" which persists to today.

The early forms of measurement must have seemed like pioneering science at the time with practitioners amongst the architects and engineers of the pre-history and later civilisations being held, understandably, in great esteem. In my early years of Surveying the older members of the profession who trained me up did use measuring sticks in their daily workload or could accurately pace out a field or garden boundary to within a very close tolerance to a tape measure and over some distance. The unit of a pace was a mainstay of the Roman Empire being one full stride or two steps. The Roman Mile was a walked distance of 1000 paces. I would question the accuracy of this on the basis of the intricacies of the method of counting which towards the latter stages of the mile must have been a slow process of much muttering of 'CMXCV, CMXCVI, CMXCVII, CMXCVIII, CMXCVIX followed by a very satisfied M or even a very satisfying MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! unless of course the route march had just started from Rome to Hadrians Wall. The historic and iconic origins of the English Customary Systems of measurement are one of the main attractions and worthy of defending against all-comers. The imposition of the metric system failed in this country because it is based on a cold and emotionless set of principles. Measurement in the metric unit does require a ruler or tape measure when we are otherwise physically equipped and able to apply the imperial measurements simply by sticking up two fingers, the middle finger and a palm or looking down our noses and finger pointing at those wanting to know how big it is or how far there is to go.