Re: Sizes

["David L. Bergart" <bodafu -at- CCVAX -dot- SINICA -dot- EDU -dot- TW>]

Ann Balaban <annb -at- DADD -dot- TI -dot- COM> passed on this info

  >For example, in Germany there was a common measurement
  >called Elle, which is somewhat like a yard. Depending upon where you
  >happened to be this was different. The one in Munich was shorter than
  >the one in Hamburg. Same with all other kinds of measurements ....

It used to be that musicians needed different instruments for each town they
played in because the pitch 'standard' wasn't.

  >I have some old cookbooks (pre-1850) that state everywhere what they
  >measure and how. For example, something like "one cup is approximately
  >3 large eggs when gathered before dawn and put into cold water".

Before temperature scales were weeded down to the two we use today,
there were all sorts of creative scales. My favorite used the temperature of
the dirt in the basement of a house in Paris (why am I not surprised?) as the
low temperature reference, and the rectal temperature of a cow (an ISO cow?)
in a field at noon on a sunny summer day as the high temperature reference.
Now *that* is what I call a standard.

David






____D__a__v__i__d_____B__e__r__g__a__r__t___________________________________
                                              bodafu -at- ccvax -dot- sinica -dot- edu -dot- tw