Technikatörténeti szemle 10. (1978)

A MÉRÉS ÉS A MÉRTÉKEK AZ EMBER MŰVELŐDÉSÉBEN című konferencián Budapesten, 1976. április 27–30-án elhangzott előadások II. - Valtchev, A.–Atanasova, P.: A XIX. sz. közepén Bulgáriában használt mértékrendszerek változásai

Salt was measured by a bit. Cloth was measured by a span. Milk was measured by a pail—wooden vessel for milking that could contain different amount of okas. Pail was a measure of wine too, but was called a polvjak (half a pail). Traditionally used units for lenth and distance were the span of an adult, but for greater precision it was indicated whose the span was. A span was the distance between the top of the thumb and the top of the little finger. As a subdivision of a span, a finger was used, i.e. the thickness of the index finger. An elbow was a greather unit for lenth, i.e. the distance between the elbow and the top of the fingers (about 50 cm). In some places two elbows were denoted as one arshin. The arshin was used to measure yarn, rope or material. In other places one arshin equals to about 75 cm, which was the officially established Turkish unit. In separate or casual cases people used to utilize casual measures. Kilometric measures were not a bulgarian tradition. Usually distance was measured by a human walk or horse pace expressed in time—,,one day walk" or ,,one day on horseback". Time measures were defined from the sunrise and the sunset: before down, at sunset etc. Some popular clocks were: the sun position towards distant peaks or according to the shadow of known trees, and in sommer time according to the state of vegetation. During the night time was determinated by stars or by cock-crow. Longer periods of time were calculated using days and weeks. Some of those popular methods have been in use for a long time, even untill the second decade of this century. ' 2. The second substantial group of measuring methods were based on the turkish measures and weights. Bulgaria was a part of the Turkish state at that time and could not disregard the already established systems. While the first group of measures had mainly local importance and was chiefly used to assess quantitatively given objects or events, determined by the personal needs of the people, the second group had another application. This group of units was established mainly by the trade, by the mutual association between producers, dealers and consumers. Moreover, ways were sought for a certain unification and as possible wider use of certain means, not only in the region or in the country, but also abroad. It could be noticed that already in 18, 19 centuries together with the widely used popular traditional system of measures, the new system imposed by the turkish administration began to gain popularity. Most typical of this system was the basic measure unit for weight—the oka (a turkish word). With the progress of the trade and crafts, an attempt was made to establish new system of measures. The decrees in the code of sultan Selim I expressly demanded that measures and weights in use sould be strictly checked up and sealed to avoid any differences that may occur between them. Although the names of the measures described in this code were strictly fixed, kiie, moud, for example, their actual size was not defined. To measure food—stuff, the kile was predominant by use, but its size was different in the diverse parts on Balkans. According to documents, the following sizes of kile were established: in the Istambul region one kile equals twenty okas, while in other regions it is 30, 33, 40, 44, 50, 60, 64, 80, 90 or 100 okas. Another weight unit was the moud, which also varies from place to place. The dirkhem and the younka, one younka equals 600 dirkhems, vary not only from region to region, but also with the time and the kind of the goods being measured. The dujnjum was used to measure surface and 1 djunjum = 919.3 sq. m. Capacity units were also different for diverse