Ancient Measurements => Lines

[Michael A. Ivie]

Through the courtesy of Max Barkley at the Natural History Museum, I have
finally found the following data on the various "lines" used in early taxonomic
literature.  On Page 11 of  C. M. F. von Hayek's 1973 "Reclassification of the
subfamily Agrypninae (Coleoptera: Elateridae)" [published in  Bulletin of the
British Museum (Natural History) Entomology Supplement 20: 1-309] she states: "A
six inch ivory ruler produced by Janson of Russell Street London, shows that the
English, French and German lines differ in length."  She then lists:
1 English line = 2.117 mm
1 German line = 2.191 mm
1 French line = 2.250 mm

Mike

"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.  Unfortunately, my copy walked several
> years ago, and I have not been able to replace it, but it had all kinds of
> wonderful information.  If I remember correctly, it was in the back in an
> appendix.  It could also have been in the 1979 Additions and Corrections,
> published in the Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology
> 38: 183-261, as my copy had them bound together.
>
> Mike
>
> christian thompson wrote:
>
> > In the early literature, at least for insects (Entomology), many
> > european authors gave measurements in LINES (lignes in French), but
> > there seems to be confuse about whether this was a uniform standard
> > across European countries and what a line is equal to.
> >
> > Some earlier workers, Scopoli (1763, Entomologia Carniolica) printed a
> > scale in the front of his work. His line was equal to 2.14 mm. Fairchild
> > (1967, Pacific Insects 9: 75) wrote that the line of Wiedemann (another
> > earlier worker from 1810-30) used a line equal to 2.18.  Once I copied
> > information from an "Webster's Unabridged Dictionary" which had a table
> > indicating that a line from France was equal to 2.256 mm, 2.12 for
> > England, 1.9 mm for Chile. Unfortunately I copied that information when
> > I was a graduate student back in the mid 1960's and didn't note the
> > edition of the Webster's.
> >
> > If any one have better information or citations on lines as a unit of
> > measurement in taxonomy, I would appreciate them..
> >
> > F. Christian Thompson
> > Systematic Entomology Lab., USDA
> > c/o Smithsonian Institution
> > MRC-0169 NHB
> > PO Box 37012
> > Washington, DC 20013-7012
> > (202) 382-1800 voice
> > (202) 786-9422 FAX
> > cthompso at sel.barc.usda.gov e-mail
> > www.diptera.org  web site
>
> --
> __________________________________________________
>
> Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D.
> Department of Entomology
> Montana State University
> Bozeman, MT 59717
> USA
>
> (406) 994-4610 (voice)
> (406) 994-6029 (FAX)
> mivie at montana.edu

--
__________________________________________________

Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D.
Department of Entomology
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717
USA

(406) 994-4610 (voice)
(406) 994-6029 (FAX)
mivie at montana.edu