Origin Theories
The precise origin of the measure is not definitely known. Some believe it derived from the double cubit, or that it originated from cubic measure, others from its near equivalents, such as the length of a stride or pace. One postulate was that the yard was derived from the girth of a person's waist, while another claim held that the measure was invented by Henry I of England as being the distance between the tip of his nose and the end of his thumb.
Tenth-century king Edgar the Peaceable is sometimes credited with having instituted the yard by a statute known as III Edgar 8.1, dated 959-63, from the Witenagemot at Andover. The statute, which survives in several variant manuscripts, says in effect that the measure of Winchester shall be observed throughout the realm. (A variant reading has it as Winchester and London.) The chief proponents of the Edgar theory were Henry William Chisholm (Warden of the Standards, 1867–77) and Captain George Tyrrell McCaw, CMG, OBE (editor of the Empire Survey Review).
The theory that Henry I invented the yard is based on a single line of text in William of Malmesbury's History of the Kings of England (Gesta Regum Anglorum). Translated from the original Latin, it reads: The measure of his own arm was applied to correct the false ell of the traders and enjoined on all throughout England. The part about Henry's nose was added some centuries later. Even though Watson dismisses as "childish" the suggestion that the original yard was the length of the king's arm, R. D. Connor, in The Weights and Measures of England, says that William of Malmesbury is generally a reliable informant for events taking place in his own lifetime, and that the French pied du roi supposedly derived from the foot of Charlemagne.
Read more about this topic: Yard
Famous quotes containing the words origin and/or theories:
“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The two most far-reaching critical theories at the beginning of the latest phase of industrial society were those of Marx and Freud. Marx showed the moving powers and the conflicts in the social-historical process. Freud aimed at the critical uncovering of the inner conflicts. Both worked for the liberation of man, even though Marx’s concept was more comprehensive and less time-bound than Freud’s.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)