Research Paper

in
Metrology

JOHN PATRICK TANGLAO

BET-AT-NS-1C
MR.DANIDEN YULDE
 HISTORY OF MEASUREMENT

The earliest recorded systems of weights and measures originate in the 3rd or

4th millennium BC. Even the very earliest civilizations needed measurement for

purposes of agriculture, construction, and trade. Early standard units might only

have applied to a single community or small region, with every area developing

its own standards for lengths, areas, volumes and masses. Often such systems

were closely tied to one field of use, so that volume measures used, for example,

for dry grains were unrelated to those for liquids, with neither bearing any

particular relationship to units of length used for measuring cloth or land. With

development of manufacturing technologies, and the growing importance of trade

between communities and ultimately across the Earth, standardized weights and

measures became critical. Starting in the 18th century, modernized, simplified

and uniform systems of weights and measures were developed, with the

fundamental units defined by ever more precise methods in the science

of metrology. The discovery and application of electricity was one factor

motivating the development of standardized internationally applicable units.

 EARLIEST KNOWN SYSTEM

The earliest known uniform systems of weights and measures seem all to have

been created at some time in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC among the ancient

peoples of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, and perhaps

also Elam (in Iran) as well.

Early Babylonian and Egyptian records and the Hebrew Bible indicate that length

was first measured with the forearm, hand, or finger and that time was measured

by the periods of the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies. When it was

necessary to compare the capacities of containers such as gourds or clay or

metal vessels, they were filled with plant seeds which were then counted to

measure the volumes. When means for weighing were invented, seeds and

stones served as standards. For instance, the carat, still used as a unit for gems,

was derived from the carob seed.

Units of length

The Egyptian cubit, the Indus Valley units of length referred to above and the

Mesopotamian cubit were used in the 3rd millennium BC and are the earliest

known units used by ancient peoples to measure length. The units of length used

in ancient India included the dhanus, or dhanush (bow), the krosa (cry, or cow-

call) and the yojana (stage).

The common cubit was the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the

middle finger. It was divided into the span of the hand or the length between the

tip of little finger to the tip of the thumb (one-half cubit), the palm or width of the
hand (one sixth), and the digit or width of the middle finger (one twenty-fourth).

The Royal Cubit, which was a standard cubit enhanced by an extra palm—thus 7

palms or 28 digits long—was used in constructing buildings and monuments and

in surveying in ancient Egypt. The inch, foot, and yardevolved from these units

through a complicated transformation not yet fully understood. Some believe they

evolved from cubic measures; others believe they were simple proportions or

multiples of the cubit. In whichever case, the Greeks and Romans inherited the

foot from the Egyptians. The Roman foot (~296 mm) was divided into both

12 unciae(inches) (~24.7 mm) and 16 digits (~18.5 mm). The Romans also

introduced the mille passus (1000 paces) or double steps, the pace being equal

to five Roman feet (~1480 mm). The Roman mile of 5000 feet (1480 m) was

introduced into England during the occupation. Queen Elizabeth I (reigned from

1558 to 1603) changed, by statute, the mile to 5280 feet (~1609 m) or 8 furlongs,

a furlong being 40 rod (unit)s (~201 m) of 5.5 yards (~5.03 m) each.

 METRIC CENVERSION

The metric system was first described in 1668 and officially adopted by France in

1799. Over nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it became the dominant system

worldwide, although several countries, including the United States and China,

continue to use their customary units. Among the numerous customary systems,

many have been adapted to become an integer multiple of a related metric unit:

The Scandinavian mile is now defined as 10 km, the Chinese jin is now defined

as 0.5 kg, and the Dutch ons is now defined as 100 g. The American system is

unusual in that its units have not been adapted in such a manner

SOURCE OF INFORMATION

Weights and measures have taken a great variety of forms over the course of

history, from simple informal expectations in barter transactions to elaborate

state and supranational systems that integrate measures of many different kinds.

Weights and measures from the oldest societies can often be inferred at least in

part from archaeological specimens, often preserved in museums The

comparison of the dimensions of buildings with the descriptions of contemporary

writers is another source of information. An interesting example of this is the

comparison of the dimensions of the Greek Parthenon with the description given

by Plutarch from which a fairly accurate idea of the size of the Attic foot is

obtained. Because of the comparative volume of artifacts and documentation, we

know much more about the state-sanctioned measures of large, advanced

societies than we do about those of smaller societies or about the informal

measures that often coexisted with official ones throughout history.

Units of mass

The grain was the earliest unit of mass and is the smallest unit in

the apothecary, avoirdupois, Tower, and troy systems. The early unit was a grain

of wheat or barleycorn used to weigh the precious metals silver and gold. Larger

units preserved in stone standards were developed that were used as both units

of mass and of monetary currency. The poundwas derived from the mina used by

ancient civilizations. A smaller unit was the shekel, and a larger unit was

the talent. The magnitude of these units varied from place to place. The

Babylonians and Sumerians had a system in which there were 60 shekels in a

mina and 60 minas in a talent. The Roman talent consisted of 100 libra (pound)

which were smaller in magnitude than the mina. The troy pound (~373.2 g) used

in England and the United States for monetary purposes, like the Roman pound,

was divided into 12 ounces, but the Roman uncia (ounce) was smaller. The carat

is a unit for measuring gemstones that had its origin in the carob seed, which

later was standardized at 1/144 ounce and then 0.2 gram.

A Scandinavian mile (Norwegian and Swedish: mil, [miːl], like "meal") is a unit of

length common in Norway and Sweden, but not Denmark. Today, it is

standardised as 1 mil being 10 kilometres (≈6.2 mi), but it had different values in

the past.[1][2]
The word is derived from the same Roman source as the English mile. In

Sweden and Norway, the international mile is often distinguished as an "English

mile" (engelsk mil), although in situations where confusion may arise it is more

common for Scandinavians to describe distances in terms of the official SI

unit kilometre.

In Norway and Sweden, the old "land mile" or "long mile" was 36,000 feet:

because of the different definitions of foot then in use, in Norway this was

11,295 m and in Sweden 10,688 m. There was also a "skogsmil" ("forest mil")

that was half as long as the normal mil. i.e. a bit over 5 km, and equal to an even

older unit of measurement, the "rast" ("rest", "pause"), so named since it was

seen as the distance a man would normally be able to walk between rests.[3][1]

When the metric system was introduced in Norway and Sweden in 1889 (the

actual law having been passed in 1875), the mil was redefined to be exactly

10 km.

In 1887 the metric system was introduced to Finland. The traditional

Finnish peninkulma, called mil in Swedish (that defined the same length), was

then redefined to be exactly 10 km. In Finland, however, it has been much less in

use than in Sweden.

 Metrology

is the science of measurement.[1] It establishes a common understanding of

units, crucial in linking human activities.[2] Modern metrology has its roots in

the French Revolution's political motivation to standardise units in France, when

a length standard taken from a natural source was proposed. This led to the

creation of the decimal-based metric system in 1795, establishing a set of

standards for other types of measurements. Several other countries adopted the

metric system between 1795 and 1875; to ensure conformity between the

countries, the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) was established

by the Metre Convention.

References

"What is metrology? Celebration of the signing of the Metre Convention, World Metrology Day 2004".

BIPM. 2004. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2018-02-21.

O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (January 2004), "History omeasurement", MacTutor History

of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.

^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (January 2004), "History of

measurement", MacTutorHistory of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.

Measures and Weights in the Islamic World. An English Translation of Professor Walther

Hinz's Handbook “Islamische Maße und Gewichte“, with a foreword by Professor Bosworth,

F.B.A. Kuala Lumpur, ISTAC, 2002, ISBN 983-9379-27-5. This work is an annotated

translation of a work in German by the late German orientalist Walther Hinz, published in

the Handbuch der Orientalistik, erste Abteilung, Ergänzungsband I, Heft 1, Leiden, The

Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1970.

Scales and Weights: A Historical Outline, Bruno Kisch. (New Haven: Yale University Press,

1965). Based in part on the Edward C. Streeter collection at Yale Medical Historical Library