Re: Merks and perches

On Sun, 25 Sep 2005 15:56:13 +0000 (UTC), Stanmapstone@xxxxxxx wrote:

>In a message dated 25/09/2005 16:11:54 GMT Daylight Time,
>philstoxicwaste@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
>The
>rod was evidently based on the actual length of an ox team driver's
>stick to control the animals at the front.
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>Like all units of land measurement, a perch, also known as a rod or a pole,
>originally varied according to the quality of ground: a perch of poor soil
>was longer than one of fertile soil, but in the course of the sixteenth century
>it became standardised at 16.5 feet. This inconvenient length was derived
>from the area of agricultural land that could be worked by one person in a day
>- hence the variability. The area was reckoned to be 2 perches by 2 perches
>(33 feet by 33 feet). Thus a daywork amounted to 4 square perches.
>Conveniently, there were 40 dayworks in an acre, the area that could be worked by a team
>of oxen in a day, and 640 acres in a square mile. It was significant that
>all of them were multiples of 4, a number that made it simpler to calculate the
>area of a four-sided field.
>'Measuring America' by Andro Linklater

In England, open fields were rarely conveniently shaped for such
measurement. If Linklater says that's the _origin_ of the measure
rather than a way in which it came to be used then he's surely
back-forming.

A perch was half the width of a standard selion or ploughed ridge.
Oliver Rackham, History of the Countryside, is (among others) quite
good on this topic. He illustrates with the terrier describing his own
Cambridge college lands in the mid C14th - with selions (ridges) each
roughly a furlong by two perches i.e half an acre each and groups of
selions measured by the furlong. Two perches (11 yds) by a furlong
(220yds) gives 2420 sq. yds - exactly half an acre. A "chain" - 22yds
comes into line with the system.

Though selions in different areas vary they're remarkably consistent
with this system apart from those filling in the edges of fields etc.
- many mediaeval ploughing systems survive to illustrate. Rackham sees
the 11x220 measure as sufficiently standard (judging by proven
examples) for the size of ridges to be one way of judging that
survivors are indeed mediaeval in origin.

"Furlong" (OE furlang "furrow long") best illustrates the ploughing
origin of these old terms. The communal open field system's origin is
lost in the mists of time - it may even go back to the C9th and have
spread gradually. To establish and maintain such a system locally
required an exact, agreed, convenient standard of measure in a society
where none was handily available. Land distributed by lot needed to be
measured exactly. Disputes then needed an exact measure to be resolved
by the local court leet. It's hard to prove that they chose the
communal pole used to guide the communal ox team as their measure but
it's an obvious candidate of the right length. Having established it,
it could then be used for all sorts of other purposes.
--
Phil C.
.

Relevant Pages

  • slashdotted - sr laser clock
    ... Hertz-Level Measurement of the Optical Clock Frequency in a Single ... fountain primary frequency standard. ... uncertainty within a factor of 3 of that of the cesium standard. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: For the times they are a-changin
    ... > I have a very basic question. ... It has a definition and a fixed measurement standard. ... There is no detectable intenral effect whatsover. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Another Question They Cannot Answer
    ... He also assures me that all SRians agree with this. ... that all measurable properties of that standard are not affected. ... I said nothing physical happens to the rod. ... There is a flaw in the measurement method, ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: beauty is symmetry
    ... >>I have a very basic question. ... It has a definition and a fixed measurement standard. ... >>does it skip a tick or few and becomes faster? ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: beauty is symmetry
    ... Van wrote: ... >I have a very basic question. ... It has a definition and a fixed measurement standard. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
Loading