Standard Units of Measure in New Britannia

So far SotA has seen two ancient units of measurement. Which has brought to mind for me the question: Just what are the commonly used units of measurement in New Britannia?

It also brings to mind the idea that most people don't know exactly what these measurements actually are.

The one measurement I think we should start with here is a cubit. What the hell is a cubit?

A cubit is an ancient form of measurement based on the length of the forearm. The problem with it is that there was no real standard. Different countries had different standards ranging from around 17 or 18 to 21 inches.. give or take. I personally prefer the biblical standard of about 18 inches. 18 inches is easy to recognize and convert to the English standard.. 1 1/2 feet. So I told you something is about 6 cubit long.. you can easily go.. oh ok.. about 9 feet.

The 2nd known measurement is the Hand. This is a little easier to deal with because it is still in use in some parts of the world (including the US) and has been standardized as 4 inches. It is used as a standard for measuring the height of horses.

The hand actually comes from the same system that gives us the cubit. It is based on the breadth of.. yes.. the hand.. (minus the thumb). It was further broken down into fingers.. about 1 inch each.

There is another unit that includes the thumb that would be about 5 inches.. the name escapes me though.. I'd have to look it up.

I'm pretty sure SotA also uses miles. The real question I would ask though is.. what else? How is weight measured in New Britannia? What other units of measure are there for distance? Will there be more ancient units of measurement and/or will they be mixed with other English standards?

I would argue against using any sort of metric standard because those are derived from more scientific measures that would not be available to natives.

 

Weight could be in stones. There's some Ultima precedent for that.

 

That is very true.. I had forgotten about that. I'm not really familiar with it though. I'll have to look it up or have someone explain it.

 

Ok just a quick overview.. like other ancient forms of measurement, the Stone had no set standard and was based on.. as you might guess, the weight of stones. Known examples include a range from 10-40 lbs. However, in Great Britain and Ireland it has been a standard for measuring body weight and is about 14 lbs.

Interestingly, the Stone did develop other standards depending on what was being weighed. For example, according to the 1772 Encyclopedia Britannica, a stone is defined as follows..

I think using the term though would require a single universal standard based on British measurement (as that seems most consistent with Ultima tradition).

Since we'll probably never have to worry about the weight of an individual but instead we will always be dealing with items.. I might suggest using a standard of 1 stone = 8 lbs.

 

As a point of interest I just discovered this little wiki on English units of measure.. which includes old world measurements such as the cubit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_units

Given the Ultima tradition of having English influences.. I would expect New Britannians to use some or most of these measurements.

The 8 lb Stone being called the Butcher's Stone.. used in the weighing of meats.

 

Leagues are mentioned in BotA.

 

I hope weight is measured in stones.

 

BotA mentions inches, feet, yards, miles, and leagues for distance. The only weight mentioned is pounds. Time units mentioned include minutes, hours, days, weeks, fortnight, months, and years.

 

I've a mind to write up a comprehensive list of all known units of measure along with suggestions in the near future.

 

I like using the cubit, especially since we have a cubit measure in the game. Understanding that it's 18 inches, I like using with it:

a Span, which is 9 inches, where a cubit is half a yard, a span is half a cubit. It is measured as the distance from tip of thumb to tip of pinky finger in an out-stretched hand.

Finally, I like using a Fathom. A Fathom is 6 feet/2 yards/4 cubits/8 Spans. A fathom is the distance from the tip of the finger of one hand, to the tip of the finger of your other hand, holding your arms outstretched.

Instead of using feet, using spans, cubits, yards and fathoms, which each is a double of the last, would be fantastic.

But if we're using feet, there's paces. A pace is 5 feet. there are 1000 paces in a mile. If you walked a 16'40" mile, you'd be walking exactly 1 pace per second.

 

You know we could write a book to publish in-game. That might prove interesting.

 

Yards of fabric are already used in crafting, which lends that it's an inch/feet system.

 

Oi.. yards and cubits doesn't seem like they would play nice together.. on the other hand.. multiple standards are still in use today. I suppose the trick here is under what conditions is a particular standard used?

 

Well, if a yard is three feet and we settle with a cubit is 18", wouldn't that make a yard =2 cubits?

 

It would indeed. I imagine then we'd use inches instead of 'fingers' Maybe it's meters I'm thinking of that wouldn't play nice?

 

Right, the whole metric system is based on 10s instead of 6s.

 

Well most other systems are based on comparisons rather than numbers. The cubit for example was based on the length from the elbow to the tip of the fingers. Feet, hands, fingers etc all used as a base estimate for measurements. The occurrence of 6s I think is more of an emergent property of standardizing measurements but that's somewhat irrelevant and a different topic.

Besides, we're not really interested in the histories behind them all, just what would be in use in New Britannia.. and as far as I'm aware there is no metric system in place in the world. Which I suppose brings us back to yards and cubits. (and 6s )

Honestly I need to go back and review everything. It's too much to remember all at once.

 

Since lots and houses are measured in metres, then maybe it would be simpler if a New Brittanian Cubit/Yard was the same thing as 1 meter? And that Yard & Cubit was just two names for the exact same measurement.
So a row lot can be said to be 10 by 15 cubits.

 

Why not simply use the metric system?

instead of the barbaric systems from the dark ages?

 

Meters are used in game mechanics and as something player's understand. The context of their use is outside of the game or in code.. not necessarily within the world itself.

Barbaric is a bit of a stretch and 'dark ages' is inaccurate. These measurements have their roots several thousand years before then. But the metric system would also be out of place. A scientifically based system in a world that does not have the level of science on which it would need to be based? Would make no sense.