Ancient Measurements => Lines

[Michael Schmitt]

Dear colleagues,

At 21:07 06.10.2004, Michael A. Ivie  wrote:
>Dear Chris,
>
>Christine von Hayek at the then-British Museum (Natural History) had a
>fantastic little scale with English, French and German lines on it. They
>were all different.  She included the various sizes of each in her 1973
>paper "Reclassification of the subfamily Agrypninae (Coleoptera:
>Elateridae)" published in  Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History)
>Entomology Supplement 20: 1-309.

Here, on p. 11 is given: 1 English line = 2.117 mm, 1 German line = 2.191
mm, 1 French line = 2.250 mm.

Dr. von Hayek refers to a "six inch ivory ruler by Janson of Russell
Street, London" that "shows that the English, French and German lines
differ in length".

                                 Best wishes
                                   Michael


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