On measurements
The decision for my characters to use American-style measures in Tales of the Tempest was deliberate. To those who are unfamiliar with them, I'm sure they're sometimes befuddling and annoyingly archaic, but it's that archaic character that, to me, makes them more suitable for use in a pseudo-historical setting. The SI system is much more orderly, and I'm comfortable with it even if I don't use it day-to-day, but for various reasons it struck me as the sort of thing unlikely to arise in a lower-tech culture. Before SI, there were various similar (but not identical) systems all based on human dimensions. The US system retains that nomenclature even though its measures are now standardized to exact SI equivalents.
So this is intended as a guide for my readers outside the US who may not have reason to be familiar with the kinds of measures I usually employ. Some of them are not even very familiar to Americans outside certain specialized contexts. This is for guidance only. Although I give close to exact SI equivalents here, my characters typically estimate things like distances and weights, or measure by their own body dimensions, so most times they will be approximate.
Foot -- Based on the length of a human foot, a measure much like this one was once used in practically all Western cultures, and quite a few others as well. The modern US foot is 30.48 cm, a length probably based on a shod foot as it's rather longer than the vast majority of bare English feet, and this is also more practical for measurement by pacing. It might also have something to do with standardizing the inch.
Inch -- A smaller unit based on any number of different natural measures before it was standardized. One was the width of a man's thumb; another was the length of three barleycorns place next to each other. One inch is 2.54 cm, and there are 12 inches in a foot.
Mile -- This was originally the length of 1,000 paces of a Roman legion on the march, but different European countries developed different standards over the centuries. The modern US mile is 5,280 feet, or about 1.6 km. This rather curious number was probably arrived at because it allowed the mile to be divided up into an even number of furlongs. When a character estimates a distance as a day's march, that's about 20 miles. Kitaro and Tamarick travel much faster than that on their own, and will cover in excess of 30 miles in a day.
Furlong -- There are 8 furlongs in a mile. It derives its name from the furrow in a plowed field. Since it was a whole lot of work to turn a plow and ox team around, you wanted your furrows to be as long as practical, so this was the distance a man with a plow and an ox could till before they needed a rest. Before it was standardized it varied quite a bit by locality, depending on local soil conditions. (Areas with hard, rocky soil had shorter furlongs than areas with deep, rich topsoil.) The only context you still find this measure being used is horse racing, probably because in the old days race tracks were laid out around the perimeters of cultivated fields. A furlong was then a good approximation of the length of a long side of the track. It is roughly 1/5 of a km. For an historical character used to seeing tilled fields, it's a natural enough unit for estimating distances of less than a mile.
Yard -- The origin of this measure is obscure, but one good practical guess is the distance from the center of the chest to fingertips of a man with his arms outstretched. One yard is 3 feet, or 91.44 cm; nearly a meter. Its main uses are now ground distances for sports, particularly American football, and, oddly, cloth. As a measurement for cloth it probably became customary because it was easy to measure out the length with your arm as you pulled it off the bolt.
Span -- I had Kit use this once casually, when estimating Tam's height. (He guessed "over 8 span", which is correct.) It's the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger with the fingers spread. It's equivalent to 9 inches or 22.86 cm, although I doubt it was often used all that precisely. It might have been more proper to use the Hand. This is the width of the palm, 4 inches or 10.16 cm, and is still in use to measure the height of horses.
Acre -- One furlong by one Chain is an acre, or the amount of land one man with a plow and an ox could till in a single day. This amounts to 4,840 square yards or about 0.4 hectares. Despite the odd number it was both useful and easy to measure back in the old days. A landowner who knew how much land he had in acres knew exactly how many man-days it would take to get it under plow, and a chain was a standard surveying measure of 1/10 of a furlong. Indeed, you only still find it in old surveying records, although the acre remains in common use.
Pound -- Weight was considerably more complicated. There was more than one pound, divided into more than one number of ounces, applied to different classes of things. For simplicity I employ only the one in modern American use, the avoirdupois pound of 16 Ounces. A pound is equal to 454 g. This despite the fact that the Regellan Empire is heavily modeled on the Roman, and the Roman libra (pound) of about 327 g was divided into 12 uncia (ounces) not 16. I would inevitably screw that up at some point if I tried to use it. As with all historical peoples, my characters do not distinguish between mass and weight.
Grain -- If I ever have need to refer to measures of less than an ounce, perhaps because Kit is making some very precise medicinal concoction, it'll be the grain. There are 7,000 grains in a pound, so one grain is about 64.78 mg. It's still used to measure gunpowder, and very occasionally in medicine.
Gallon -- Volume was complicated too, and there were different gallons used to measure different kinds of liquids and a separate system for bulk solids. I'm talking about liquid gallons here. The British "Imperial" gallon and the US gallon are not even the same, as the British standardized on the ale gallon and the Americans on the wine gallon. I typically have the US gallon of 231 cubic inches, amounting to about 3.785 liters, in mind. The Imperial gallon is 277.42 cubic inches, or about 4.546 liters. (The odd number is because a later standard was adopted making it the volume of 10 pounds of water.)
Pint -- Volume typically divides up by halves. Under the gallon you have the half-gallon, the quart, and the pint which is thus 1/8 of a gallon. However, when Tam orders a pint of beer, it's the larger Imperial pint he's getting. He'd better, or he'll be very upset. And yes, he knows exactly how big it should be. (It's not hard to tell. When a British-style pub near me switched their beer size from Imperial to US pints, it was painfully obvious.) There are 16 US liquid ounces in a US liquid pint. (But 20 Imperial ounces in an Imperial pint, so an Imperial ounce is a bit smaller even though the pint is larger.) This has more to do with what my idea of a proper pint of beer should be than consistency in nomenclature. I suppose I might posit a parallel development with the real world in terms of differing gallon sizes, even if I mainly stick with just one to avoid confusion.
Gill -- still occasionally used as a measure of alcoholic spirits. A gill is a quarter pint, and therefore 4 ounces (118 ml) in the US system and 5 (142 ml) in the Imperial.
Nipperkin -- In Along the Forest Road Crispian refers once to this measure, which is technically 1/8 of a gill and thus some fraction of an ounce depending. It's safe to think of it as just a very small amount; it was never precise.
Bushel -- This and the Peck are the only bulk dry measures I'm likely to use, since a farmer would use them to measure his produce. One bushel is about 35.24 liters. It divides up into 4 pecks and each peck is 2 dry gallons. (This peck is the measure referred to in the old tongue-twister "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.")
Confused? Well, as I said in a note at the top of one of my chapters, now you know why they invented the SI.
So this is intended as a guide for my readers outside the US who may not have reason to be familiar with the kinds of measures I usually employ. Some of them are not even very familiar to Americans outside certain specialized contexts. This is for guidance only. Although I give close to exact SI equivalents here, my characters typically estimate things like distances and weights, or measure by their own body dimensions, so most times they will be approximate.
Foot -- Based on the length of a human foot, a measure much like this one was once used in practically all Western cultures, and quite a few others as well. The modern US foot is 30.48 cm, a length probably based on a shod foot as it's rather longer than the vast majority of bare English feet, and this is also more practical for measurement by pacing. It might also have something to do with standardizing the inch.
Inch -- A smaller unit based on any number of different natural measures before it was standardized. One was the width of a man's thumb; another was the length of three barleycorns place next to each other. One inch is 2.54 cm, and there are 12 inches in a foot.
Mile -- This was originally the length of 1,000 paces of a Roman legion on the march, but different European countries developed different standards over the centuries. The modern US mile is 5,280 feet, or about 1.6 km. This rather curious number was probably arrived at because it allowed the mile to be divided up into an even number of furlongs. When a character estimates a distance as a day's march, that's about 20 miles. Kitaro and Tamarick travel much faster than that on their own, and will cover in excess of 30 miles in a day.
Furlong -- There are 8 furlongs in a mile. It derives its name from the furrow in a plowed field. Since it was a whole lot of work to turn a plow and ox team around, you wanted your furrows to be as long as practical, so this was the distance a man with a plow and an ox could till before they needed a rest. Before it was standardized it varied quite a bit by locality, depending on local soil conditions. (Areas with hard, rocky soil had shorter furlongs than areas with deep, rich topsoil.) The only context you still find this measure being used is horse racing, probably because in the old days race tracks were laid out around the perimeters of cultivated fields. A furlong was then a good approximation of the length of a long side of the track. It is roughly 1/5 of a km. For an historical character used to seeing tilled fields, it's a natural enough unit for estimating distances of less than a mile.
Yard -- The origin of this measure is obscure, but one good practical guess is the distance from the center of the chest to fingertips of a man with his arms outstretched. One yard is 3 feet, or 91.44 cm; nearly a meter. Its main uses are now ground distances for sports, particularly American football, and, oddly, cloth. As a measurement for cloth it probably became customary because it was easy to measure out the length with your arm as you pulled it off the bolt.
Span -- I had Kit use this once casually, when estimating Tam's height. (He guessed "over 8 span", which is correct.) It's the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger with the fingers spread. It's equivalent to 9 inches or 22.86 cm, although I doubt it was often used all that precisely. It might have been more proper to use the Hand. This is the width of the palm, 4 inches or 10.16 cm, and is still in use to measure the height of horses.
Acre -- One furlong by one Chain is an acre, or the amount of land one man with a plow and an ox could till in a single day. This amounts to 4,840 square yards or about 0.4 hectares. Despite the odd number it was both useful and easy to measure back in the old days. A landowner who knew how much land he had in acres knew exactly how many man-days it would take to get it under plow, and a chain was a standard surveying measure of 1/10 of a furlong. Indeed, you only still find it in old surveying records, although the acre remains in common use.
Pound -- Weight was considerably more complicated. There was more than one pound, divided into more than one number of ounces, applied to different classes of things. For simplicity I employ only the one in modern American use, the avoirdupois pound of 16 Ounces. A pound is equal to 454 g. This despite the fact that the Regellan Empire is heavily modeled on the Roman, and the Roman libra (pound) of about 327 g was divided into 12 uncia (ounces) not 16. I would inevitably screw that up at some point if I tried to use it. As with all historical peoples, my characters do not distinguish between mass and weight.
Grain -- If I ever have need to refer to measures of less than an ounce, perhaps because Kit is making some very precise medicinal concoction, it'll be the grain. There are 7,000 grains in a pound, so one grain is about 64.78 mg. It's still used to measure gunpowder, and very occasionally in medicine.
Gallon -- Volume was complicated too, and there were different gallons used to measure different kinds of liquids and a separate system for bulk solids. I'm talking about liquid gallons here. The British "Imperial" gallon and the US gallon are not even the same, as the British standardized on the ale gallon and the Americans on the wine gallon. I typically have the US gallon of 231 cubic inches, amounting to about 3.785 liters, in mind. The Imperial gallon is 277.42 cubic inches, or about 4.546 liters. (The odd number is because a later standard was adopted making it the volume of 10 pounds of water.)
Pint -- Volume typically divides up by halves. Under the gallon you have the half-gallon, the quart, and the pint which is thus 1/8 of a gallon. However, when Tam orders a pint of beer, it's the larger Imperial pint he's getting. He'd better, or he'll be very upset. And yes, he knows exactly how big it should be. (It's not hard to tell. When a British-style pub near me switched their beer size from Imperial to US pints, it was painfully obvious.) There are 16 US liquid ounces in a US liquid pint. (But 20 Imperial ounces in an Imperial pint, so an Imperial ounce is a bit smaller even though the pint is larger.) This has more to do with what my idea of a proper pint of beer should be than consistency in nomenclature. I suppose I might posit a parallel development with the real world in terms of differing gallon sizes, even if I mainly stick with just one to avoid confusion.
Gill -- still occasionally used as a measure of alcoholic spirits. A gill is a quarter pint, and therefore 4 ounces (118 ml) in the US system and 5 (142 ml) in the Imperial.
Nipperkin -- In Along the Forest Road Crispian refers once to this measure, which is technically 1/8 of a gill and thus some fraction of an ounce depending. It's safe to think of it as just a very small amount; it was never precise.
Bushel -- This and the Peck are the only bulk dry measures I'm likely to use, since a farmer would use them to measure his produce. One bushel is about 35.24 liters. It divides up into 4 pecks and each peck is 2 dry gallons. (This peck is the measure referred to in the old tongue-twister "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.")
Confused? Well, as I said in a note at the top of one of my chapters, now you know why they invented the SI.