ISBN: 9781231377161

RareBooksClub. Paperback. New. This item is printed on demand. Paperback. 838 pages. Dimensions: 9.7in. x 7.4in. x 1.7in.This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Pur… Plus…

RareBooksClub. Paperback. New. This item is printed on demand. Paperback. 838 pages. Dimensions: 9.7in. x 7.4in. x 1.7in.This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 Excerpt: . . . the balance, weighing became possible, and pondus appears, designating essentially a weight. Many steel yards and balances (see Balance) were unearthed amid the ruins of Pompeii. As the pondus seems to be a haphazard unit, so also is the stone (14 pounds), still used in England, and the base of such units as the hundredweight (cwt. ) or 112 pounds (8 stone), and the ton of 2240 pounds or 160 stone, also the bushel of 56 pounds (4 stone), etc. The earliest systems of linear units seem to be based upon either the cubit (20. 62 inches--52. 4 centimeters) or the digit (0. 73 inch, or 1. 85 cm. ), probably derived from the breadth of the finger. The cubit appears first in Egypt in the Fourth Dynasty, and the great pyramid yields the value above given. Nevertheless, as might be expected, considerable variation occurs, even in Egypt (20. 5 inches to 20. 7 inches). The cubit was divided into hundredths, but as incommensurate, approximate subdivisions the one-seventh, palm, and one-twenty-eighth, digit, were used. Several extant cubit rods give an average of 20. 65 inches. At the Nilometers it is 20. 75. As multiples of the cubit (mahi) the xylon, 3 cubits, walking staff, the neut, 4 cubits, and the khet of 40 cubits, are found along with the schoenus of 12, 000 cubits. About the same time a similar unit appears in Babylon, especially as the half of 20. 89 inches or span of 10. 44 inches, or 16 digits of 0. 653 inches. A cubit of 20. 5 inches is derivable from various buildings in Assyria and Babylonia, where a sexagesimal system existed. In Asia Minor the cubit derived from temples appears as 20. 55 inches at Ephesus, 20. 62 inches at Samos, while the stadium at Laodicea gives 20. 94 inches. Three-fifths of the cubit of 20. 75 inches, a combination of the Egyptian decimal and. . . This item ships from La Vergne,TN., RareBooksClub<