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Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

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Re: Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

#61

Post by cjohnson318 »

legitster wrote: post #13

These are beautiful - but the project kind of misrepresents how ancient measurements worked. Outside of building sites in Medieval Europe it would be common for the head architect to have the outline of his hand on a sign. The idea being that even "crude" measurements like hand-widths and thumb lengths would be universally agreed upon for the project. You can see some of this at work watching documentaries of the Gué…

My dad, a sign painter, would always splay his hand out and measure things from his pinky to his thumb, which was about 10 inches.

Re: Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

#62

Post by cjohnson318 »

dredmorbius wrote: post #51
btbuildem wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great observation! Measuring with ruler / tape / string isn't the most reliable way to do it -- using a full length of something like a stick, is. This is the basis of the simplest of jigs: cut a piece, then cut all the other pieces you want to be like that piece, by using that piece as a guide. The need for specific measurements seems to have arisen alongside industrialization of building processes - in the…

The human body was generally available to those making measurements, and (by the standards of the time) roughly sufficient for most purposes. An inch (of bronze or steel), a yard (of cloth), or fathom (of depth, measured by a sounding line) would have been immediately accessible to a tinker, a tailor, or sailor. (Units of measures applicable to spies are left as an exercise to the reader.) Metric measurements are sta…

> Units of measures applicable to spies are left as an exercise to the reader.

A garrote, about a foot, a key, about two inches, and a razor's edge, less than a millimeter.

Re: Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

#64

Post by dredmorbius »

cjohnson318 wrote: post #62
dredmorbius wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The human body was generally available to those making measurements, and (by the standards of the time) roughly sufficient for most purposes. An inch (of bronze or steel), a yard (of cloth), or fathom (of depth, measured by a sounding line) would have been immediately accessible to a tinker, a tailor, or sailor. (Units of measures applicable to spies are left as an exercise to the reader.) Metric measurements are sta…

> Units of measures applicable to spies are left as an exercise to the reader. A garrote, about a foot, a key, about two inches, and a razor's edge, less than a millimeter.

Excellent!

Thank you, reader!

Re: Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

#65

Post by wizardforhire »

I think the coolest thing from an experience perspective as far as a built environment with this is the opportunity to have spaces with different ratios and spacing.

I’m reminiscing about realizing from an American perspective why buildings in Europe felt so different. Old buildings sure, but new buildings feel weird! It finally dawned on me that the difference between imperial and metric had made its way to the build environment in subtle but pervasive ways that once seen could not be unseen. Case in point, European doors are wider, switches are lower, door handles are lower, rooms are just slightly off. Of course the reverse would be also be true. But contractors rounding to whole units for simplicity had standardized on a set of ratios that made things feel odd.

Would be cool to have an installation that embodied this. It’s subtle but talk about driving people crazy.

Re: Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

#66

Post by funnybeam »

wongarsu wrote: post #36
BitwiseFool wrote: post #4

While I am no apologist for the measurement system we use here in the United States, I realized something interesting when trying to explain why almost all of our units consist of easily divisible sub-units. Imagine you needed to split something up into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, etc.. If you imagine doing this with paper, it's fairly easy. Now imagine Metric, and the need to split something into 10 even pieces…

> Now imagine Metric, and the need to split something into 10 even pieces That's only true if you assume that in metric everything starts out as 1, 10 or 100 units. But that's not really what happens. For example kitchen appliances and furniture basically works on multiples of 60cm: an oven or dishwasher fits in a 60cm slot, and accordingly your cabinets will be one appliance wide (60cm), two appliances wide (120cm)…

Kitchen appliances and furniture basically work on multiples of feet. 1 foot = 30cm, so the reason the standard appliance is 60cm is because that’s the metric equivalent of 2 feet

Re: Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

#67

Post by Terr_ »

dredmorbius wrote: post #51
btbuildem wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great observation! Measuring with ruler / tape / string isn't the most reliable way to do it -- using a full length of something like a stick, is. This is the basis of the simplest of jigs: cut a piece, then cut all the other pieces you want to be like that piece, by using that piece as a guide. The need for specific measurements seems to have arisen alongside industrialization of building processes - in the…

The human body was generally available to those making measurements, and (by the standards of the time) roughly sufficient for most purposes. An inch (of bronze or steel), a yard (of cloth), or fathom (of depth, measured by a sounding line) would have been immediately accessible to a tinker, a tailor, or sailor. (Units of measures applicable to spies are left as an exercise to the reader.) Metric measurements are sta…

> (Units of measures applicable to spies are left as an exercise to the reader.)

Well, if they were spying while employed as a tinker, a tailor, or a sailor...

Wouldn't it simply be whatever was readily available to someone in their cover identity?

Re: Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

#68

Post by KineticLensman »

dredmorbius wrote: post #49
UncleSlacky wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also notably stealthy as a result of its wooden construction: From https://militaryhistorynow.com/2014/11/28/flying-under-the-r... "British aircraft designers got out to an early lead with the De Havilland DH. 98 Mosquito. Introduced in 1941, the twin-engine, fighter/bomber’s airframe was constructed of radar absorbing plywood. While not specifically designed to be stealthy from the outset, the plane’s low signature…

I didn't realise the Axis powers had radar. Apparently they did, though Axis technology greatly lagged the Allied powers': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Luftwaffe_and_Kriegsmar... > Axis powers lead in other areas, notably in drones (V-1), rocketry (V-2), tank design, air-to-surface missiles, and audio technology (recording, public-address, playback, broadcast),

They certainly did! Fun fact: the first 1941 British combat drop of the newly formed Parachute Regiment was the Bruneval raid on the French coast whose purpose was to capture a German Wurtzberg radar.

Many years ago I spent some time working at an Army base in Finland. They had a small museum on site which had some German radar kit. It looked surprisingly modern (e.g. satellite dish type aerials) and was virtually unique because elsewhere in Europe the same hardware had all been destroyed

Re: Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

#69

Post by dredmorbius »

Terr_ wrote: post #67
dredmorbius wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The human body was generally available to those making measurements, and (by the standards of the time) roughly sufficient for most purposes. An inch (of bronze or steel), a yard (of cloth), or fathom (of depth, measured by a sounding line) would have been immediately accessible to a tinker, a tailor, or sailor. (Units of measures applicable to spies are left as an exercise to the reader.) Metric measurements are sta…

> (Units of measures applicable to spies are left as an exercise to the reader.) Well, if they were spying while employed as a tinker, a tailor, or a sailor... Wouldn't it simply be whatever was readily available to someone in their cover identity?

Well, that would leave the issue of conversion factors, from cover to spy units ;-)

Re: Rulers of the Ancient World: period correct measuring tools

#70

Post by arlort »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #48
legitster wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More importantly, we missed a real opportunity to switch to a base-12 number system.

Now we have to wait for the French to have another revolution.

And for people to start growing 6 fingers per hand instead of 5
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