Length
The perch as a lineal measure in Rome, was 10 feet (3.05 m), and in France varied from 10 feet (perche romanie) to 22 feet (perche d'arpent - apparently 1/10th of "the range of an arrow". - about 220 feet). To confuse matters further, by ancient Roman definition, an arpent equalled 120 Roman feet.
In England, the perch was officially discouraged in favour of the rod as early as the 15th century, however local customs maintained its use. In the 13th Century Perches were variously recorded in lengths of 18 feet (5.49 m), 20 feet (6.1 m), 22 feet (6.71 m) and 24 feet (7.32 m); and even as late as 1820, a House of Commons report notes lengths of 161⁄2 feet (5.03 m), 18 feet (5.49 m), 21 feet (6.4 m), 24 feet (7.32 m), and even 25 feet (7.62 m). In Ireland, a perch was standardized at 21 feet (6.4 m), making an Irish chain, furlong and mile proportionately longer by 27.27% than the "standard" English measure.
The rod as a survey measure was standardized by Edmund Gunter in England in 1607 as one-fourth of a chain (of 66 feet (20.12 m)), or 161⁄2 feet (5.03 m) long.
Read more about this topic: Perch (unit)
Famous quotes containing the word length:
“What though the traveler tell us of the ruins of Egypt, are we so sick or idle that we must sacrifice our America and today to some man’s ill-remembered and indolent story? Carnac and Luxor are but names, or if their skeletons remain, still more desert sand and at length a wave of the Mediterranean Sea are needed to wash away the filth that attaches to their grandeur. Carnac! Carnac! here is Carnac for me. I behold the columns of a larger
and purer temple.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The grace of novelty and the length of habit, though so very opposite to one another, yet agree in this, that they both alike keep us from discovering the faults of our friends.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“They raise their minds by brooding over and embellishing their sufferings, from one degree of fervid exaltation and dreary greatness to another, till at length they run amuck entirely, and whoever meets them would do well to run them thro’ the body.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)