Standard Units of Measure in New Britannia

And we could all drive cars, use guns instead of swords, and our characters could carry around smart phones instead of journals

 

Or they could change over the text on the housing/PoT page to be yards instead of meters without actually changing anything in game.

 

I suddenly feel like converting all those measurements to cubits.

 

1 cubit = 1.17 meters. Just for the record.

Whoops!

 

is that right? I figured if a cubit is half a yard and a yard is slightly smaller than a meter...

 

Quite right.. my bad.. I totally botches that one. lol

1 meter = 2.19 cubits.

 

I vote for stones and paces, even though I'm struggling not to make that gender insensitive joke about the rule of thumb ........


great thread by the way.

 

If a yard is 2 cubits, a fathom is 2 yards, and a pace is 5 feet,

I think just calling meters yards and not converting the numbers themselves would be optimal.

Then a row house would be 10 x 15 yards, or 20 x 30 cubits. A castle lot would be 80 x 120 yards..

If we go with paces, a row lot would be 6 x 9 paces, village is 12 x 18 paces, town is 18 x 24 paces, city is 24 x 36 paces, keep is 36 x 48 paces, castle lot is 48 x 72 paces.

Or if we go with fathoms, a row lot is 5 x 7.5 fathoms, village: 10 x 15 fathoms, town: 15 x 20 fathoms, city: 20 x 30 fathoms, keep: 30 x 40 fathoms, castle: 40 x 60 fathoms.

 

I think I should point out that meters in Unity (which is how the lots are measured) does not equal the same relative distance in the world. For example, our characters are 2 meters tall. Ceilings are something like 5 meters high.. doorways are 3 meters tall.. if my memory serves me well.

 

Probably the thing to do would be to wait until cubit sticks can be placed on the ground. Then get a bunch and lay them out corner to corner and physically measure the different lot sizes.

 

Ok it's been awhile but I had an inkling to start putting things together. I've merged some systems already here for prettier numbers. Acknowledging of course that most of this is useless to the average player but might be a nice technical reference for collectors or authors.

Distance
Barleycorn = Average length of 1 barleycorn or 1/3 of an inch
Inch = 3 barleycorns
Palm = 3 inches
Hand = 4 inches
Span = 3 palms = 9 inches
Foot = 3 Hands or 12 inches
Cubit = 2 span or 18 inches
Yard = 2 Cubit or 36 inches
Pace = 5 feet
Fathom = 6 feet or 4 cubits
Rod or Pole = 15 Feet or 5 Yards
Furlong or Stade = 40 Rods or 600 Feet
Mile = 5280 Feet
League = 3 Miles

Area
Acre = 4 rods x 1 furlong
Rood = ¼ Acre
Perch = 1 x 1 rods
Bovate = Approx. 15 acres

Administrative Units
I'm a little unsure how I would go about administrative units. The idea is that the base unit is founded on the production capacity of the land needed to support a household being about 1 bovate. I'm wondering if this would be a good fit.. better off dropped entirely or come up with something else?
Hide = 4 to 8 bovates
Knight's fee = 5 hides
Hundred = 100 hides

Volume - On volume this feels a little excessive but.. feel free to weigh in..
Dram = 60 drops or 1/8 fluid ounce
Teaspoon = 80 drops or 1/6 fluid ounce
Tablespoon = 4 dram
Pony = 6 dram
Jigger = 3 tablespoons or 2 pony
Jack = 5 tablespoons
Gill = 2 jack
Cup = 2 Gill or 4 jack (80 dram)
Pint = 2 cups (160 dram)
Quart = 2 pint
Pottle = 2 quart or ½ gallon
Gallon = 4 quarts

Dry Goods
Dry Gallon = 4 dry quarts
Peck = 2 Gallons
Kenning = 2 peck / 4 gallons
Bushel = 2 Kenning / 8 gallons

Cord of Wood = 128 cubic feet of firewood? I'm wondering if this could be applied to a quantity of logs or timbers..

Ale, beer & liquids - Like above I wonder if this is excessive but I know there will be plenty of brewing enthusiasts.. so I thought I'd better leave it all in.
Pin = 4.5 Gallons
Firkin = 2 pin
Kilderkin = 2 Firkin
Beer Barrel = 36 gallons
Hogshead = 54 gallons 1.5 barrels
Pipe = 3 barrels 108 gallons
Beer Tun = 2 Pipes, 216 Gallons

Wine - Merge these with above or keep them separate for flavor?
Rundlet = 18 wine gallons
Wine Barrel = 31.5 gallons
Tierce = 42 gallons
Hogshead = 2 barrels
Puncheon = 2 tierce
Pipe = 3 tierce
Tun = 2 pipe or 3 puncheon, 252 gallons

Weight
Grain (gr) = Approx average weight of 1 grain of wheat.
Scruple (s) = 20 gr
Pennyweight (dwt) = 24 gr
Dram (dr) = 3 s or 60 gr
Ounce (12 oz) = 8 dram = 20 dwt = 480 gr
Pound (lb) = 12 oz or 5760 gr,
Stone (st) = 8 lbs
Quarter = 28 lbs or 3 ½ st
Hundredweight (cwt) = 14 st
Ton = 20 cwt

I'm currently planning on putting this in a reference book in-game.

 

Wow. Very detailed, and an excellent reference. Good work!

 

For visual reference, a cord of wood is 4x4x8. (four feet tall, four feet wide, and 8 feet long)

 

Yup.. that sounds like about 4 large stacks of firewood doesn't it? Which would take about 80 logs to make with the current recipes. Maybe we should call it 4 logs?

 

Ya when we sold wood it was about the size of a pick up bed heaped up a bit.

 

This is a nice suggestion. Good thinking.

 

I've been thinking it might be fun to make up a conversion between actual measurements and in-game units.

For example: How much is a pile of sulfurous ash? We might say 1 unit of ash is 1 dram.

The point? Pure immersive flavor of course which I know doesn't interest everyone but it would be fun for those of us who are interested. It would allow us to write more meaningful story or recipe books that are actually useful rather than being purely made up.

If a cooking recipe called for say.. dram of salt.. and 1 unit of salt was 1 scruple then we would know the recipe calls for 3 units of salt.

Just a thought I'm playing with. Now that books have been delayed.. again.. this little project might end up back on the back burner.

 

I think that a Unity meter to an in-game yard might be a better conversion.. and leave 1 yard and 2 cubits. That would make the average height of a human in-game at about 6 feet tall.. which is much better than 2 meters as it is inside Unity.

 

Just for fun I'm crunching some numbers based on the Unity Meter = 1 yard conversion..

Avatar Average Height = 2 yards / 6 feet

Lot Sizes
Row = 30 sq Rod
Village = 3/4 of an Acre or 1 sq Furlong
Town = 1 1/2 Acres or 2 sq Furlong
City = 3 Acres
Keep = 6 Acres
Castle = 12 Acres

 

Hail Bowen Bloodgood, I'm with you on this, but Spoon has a point...meters are used to describe house plots, "The Row Property Deed in the Add-On Store measures 10 x 15 meters and includes the Wood & Plaster 2-Story Row House..." . So perhaps designating a cubit as 1/2 meter might unify the units...hehe, no pun intended.