PENN JERSEY
HARVESTORE
th ANNIVERSARY
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lelp you throughout south central Pennsylvania
(©sits and certificates insured to $20,000 by FDIC
NK LIKE US YOU WILL WANT TO
tOUT THE SOLAIR SYSTEMS
Y, BEEF, AND SWINE BARNS.
the roof louvrers that
on and close to keep you
Is comfortable.
We Wish to extend neighborly Best Wishes to
FOR THEIR
Do You Think?
We think no true farmer at heart will feel com
fortable when his animals sleep in smelly damp air
and wet stalls and scrape alleys.
Penn-Jer sey Harvestore Systems, in c.
on their 10th Anniversary Celebration-
How Did Measurements Originate?
Do you know the
relationship between the
ground on which your home
is built and 16 men coining
out of church one Sunday
morning 400 years ago? It’s
one of the many fascinating
oddities on which our present
units of measurement are
based, according to the
Pennsylvania Land Title
Association.
The length of the left feet
of the first 16 men out of
church on a given Sunday
four centuries ago
established the length of the
rod as we know it today. It
takes 160 square rods to
make one acre which is one
of the more common units of
measuring ground.
The first known standards
of measurement were
established around 6000 B. C.
by advanced races along the
Nile and on the plains of
Chaldea. The prime
measurement they
developed was the cubit,
which is referred to
frequently in the Bible. The
cubit was the bent forearm
from the point of the elbow to
the tip of the middle finger of
the outstretched hand -
about 18 to 19 inches. In 4000
B. C. the cubit was stan
dardized at what is now 18.24
inches.
The cubit was used in
building all of the pyramids.
Each side of the pyramid
measures 500 cubits, and all
measures are in multiples of
fractions of cubits or half of
the meridian mile.
Egyptians also used the
span, which was the length
between the tips of the
thumb and little finger of the
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Sept. 14,1974
outstretched hand. The span
also represents half a cubit.
Other small
measurements used during
this time were the palm, the
digit and the foot. The palm
was the breadth of four
fingers, which was a sixth of
a cubit or about three inches.
The digit, one twenty-fourth
of a cubit, was the breadth at
the middle of the middle
finger, or three-quarters of
an inch. The foot, which was
adopted about the time the
pyramids were being built,
equaled two-thirds of a cubit,
four palms, or 16 digits and
measured about 12.16 inches.
Significantly, the ancients’
knowledge of astronomy and
land measurement was so
accurate that even modem
science cannot improve too
much on meridian
measurements made in
Egypt and Chaldea some
6000 years ago, says the
Pennsylvania Land Title
Association.
The meridian mile, the
unit still used throughout the
world today, was already
established by 5000 B.C. as
400 cubits or 1000 Egyptian
fathoms. The fathom was an
ancient Egyptian
measurement equal to the
length of the outstretched
arms, which is about six feet.
It is still used internationally
PENN JERSEY
HARVESTORE
10th ANNIVERSARY
'Best
WujkeA
PENN JERSEY
MARVESTORE
10th ANNIVERSARY
LANCASTER LABORATORIES, INC.
2425 New Holland Pike
in nautical measurement.
The inch was invented by
the ancient Romans.
Originally called the
“thumb-breadth,” the inch
divided the foot into twelve
units. Later there were other
ways of measuring the
“inch”. In 1150 King David I
of Scotland decreed that the
inch was the mean measure
of the thumbs of three men.
In 1324, King Edward II of
England ruled that three
barley corns taken from the
middle of the ear and placed
end to end equalled an inch.
Things became so con
fused that by the 13th cen
tury all English land
measurements were made in
accordance with the foot
measurement store in St.
Paul’s Church and with the
iron “ell” in the king’s
palace. Even today the
standard measurements of
length can be found im
bedded in many old public
buildings in England as a
means of settling
measurement disputes.
Another measurement
oddity concerns the pop
pyseed. During the 1700’s,
the inch was divided into
three barley corns. Each
corn equalled four pop
pyseed and each poppyseed
equalled twelve human
hairs.
"Bert Wiakei
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