THE YARD MEASURE. 149

the very names of our existing measures show
them to have been so derived. The fathom is that
near approach to man’s height which is comprised
between his finger-tips when his arms are out-
stretched to theirutmost. The yard, which imme-
diately concerns us, is most probably the geard or
girth around his chest. The edd was originally the
elbow-lengih, answering to the cubit, and so
universal that we find it in every country in Europe
and in Eastern lands as well: the Italian, adopting
his name for an arm, calls it the braccto; and
measures of nearly similar length are used in
Turkey, under the name of the Pic, and in Arabia,
under the name of the Guz. The foot is similarly
universal as a unit of measurement. The nail-
lengih, too, Was doubtless taken from the human
hand, though the space it at present represents is
too long to admit of it being referred to any of
those horny appendages to which we now apply
the name.

There is every reason to believe that in the days
of rough accuracy, and when rules or measuring-
scales were less within reach than now, workmen
actually employed their hands and feet as their
practical measures, just as the housewife now
metes out her dress-stuffs by the finger-length
when the yard measure is not at hand. For in-
stance, we are told by one writer that the French
workmen of the 16th century, when they wanted
a foot, obtained it by joining the tips of their ex-
tended thumbs and clenching their fingers.

The British long measure of that period started
with a barleycorn, which was thus identified with
corporeal units: three barleycorns one finger-
breadth ; four finger-breadths one palm; four
palms one foot; and so forth. The barleycorn
was an exception to the human origin of measures ;
and it was the only legal unit from at least the time
of Edward II.; for he enacted that three barley-
corns, dry and round, taken from the middle of the
ear and placed end to end should be one inch ; but
this barleycorn measure is mentioned long anterior
to his time.

Our yard measure is popularly said to have
been fixed by Henry I., as the exact length of his
own arm. William of Malmesbury is the authority
for this statement, which, however, metrologists
generally decline to accept as true. The arm alone
of a moderate man is much less than a yard long :
that measure is only approximated by including
half the width of the body. A rough yard measure
may, by the way, be arrived at by taking the end
of a string between the teeth and marking the
farthest point along it that can be reached by
the finger and thumb: this amounts to about the
same as measuring from the middle of the back
to the tips of the fingers. The British yard has,
with some degree of probability, been ascribed to

| preferred to the legal one we know not. The bars

the Saxon geard or chest girth, as we have pre-
viously hinted, on the strength of the agreement of,
the name with the amplitude of the measure. If
the Saxons did adopt the chest circumference as a
standard, they were singular in their choice, for

we do not find any analagous measure in use by

other people.

The earliest material yard measure of which we
have record is one ascribed to Henry the Seventh’s
time. It was found preserved at the Exchequer a
century ago, but only as a curiosity. At that time,
however, there was in actual use a similar measure
believed to have been placed there in the reign of
Elizabeth. How it was obtained, whether by
means of barleycorns, or by reference to mea-
sures most in repute among the people, we have
no means of judging. It served, however, as the
standard for many generations, and whoever wanted
a scale of legal accuracy took a bar to the Ex-
chequer, and had it adjusted thereby. And here
let us remark that for commercial purposes no high
accuracy is required : a few hundredths of an inch
one way or the other between different standards
would be of no consequence in mere sale and
barter transactions. But it so happens that
measures are wanted for scientific purposes, and
there they must be faithful representatives of some
acknowledged prototype. It was an application
from the sayans of France to those of England in
1742 for an interchange of standard measures (for
the purpose of comparing scientific experiments in
which lengths were concerned) that first directed
attention to the state of our official yard-scale. In
consequence of this the Royal Society had two bars
made, upon ,which they set off with the highest
available accuracy the length of a British yard,
not, however, the one preserved at the Exchequer,
but another which had been preserved in the
Tower of London. Why the Tower standard was

were sent to Paris, and one of them came back with
the French half-toise marked upon it, and this one
was laid up in the archives of the Royal Society.
Shortly afterwards it was compared with the Ex-
chequer standard and with several others of repute,
one of which was preserved at the Guildhall, and
another by the clockmakers’ company. It was then
found that the Royal Society’s yard was a little too
short, and a corrected mark, defining the Exche-
quer yard, was placed upon it. By and by, in
1758, the House of Commons took up the subject,
and appointed a committee to look into it. They
had two standards made by Bird, the famous
optician, from the Royal Society’s standard (pre-
sumably allowing for its deficient length) and these
were sealed up, and laid before the House. One
of them was a bar which was marked “ Standard
Yard, 1758,” and was to be kept sacred ; the other