Technikatörténeti szemle 9. (1977)

A MÉRÉS ÉS A MÉRTÉK AZ EMBERI MŰVELŐDÉSBEN című konferencián Budapesten 1976. április 27–30-án elhangzott előadások I. rész - Bowsher, H. F.: Régi mértékegységek fejlődése

H. F. BOWSHER* EVOLUTION OF ANCIENT METROLOGICAL UNITS A thesis of this paper is that man throughout history has felt the need to relate his metrology to the basic characteristics of nature. With new experiences man becomes aware of new entities. He names these. Soon he recognizes relationships between the new and the old entities and names them. Metrology is the recognizing and naming of quantifiable relationships. Human logic requires principles upon which an understanding of nature can be built. These principles determine which relationships seem most significant. Metrology thus is largely a reflection of the assumed principles, but it also serves as an aid in modifying these principles so as to increase their range of validity and as an aid in extracting practical benefits for mankind from his environment. In actuality developments in practical metrology lag advances in technology and natural philosophies. Changes in metrological units are dependent on many factors. Some promote change while others oppose change. Thus the changes often occur very erratically and with little apparent rationality. The thesis that ancient metrology was based on the then current concepts of nature will now be discussed. A first look at early metrology would not suggest much rationality in that the ancients tolerated apparent inconsistencies, loose definitions, multiplicity of meanings and unexplained changes. This would suggest that commerce, construction, etc. were made unnecessarily complicated but also there was no basic theme underlying the metrology. Consider, for example, the cubit during the Hellenistic period. Some of its uses were as a unit of length, a unit of area, a unit of time, an angular unit of two degrees, and a calendar unit. Also the cubit had more than a dozen assigned values and according to much current literature these cubits were not parts of rational sets of length units but were related to each other and to other length units by very inconvenient factors. A great variety of uses and magnitudes were als assigned to many other ancient metrological units. Yet in defining units of metrology we would expect as a minimum the following rules to be employed. Each unit should be uniquely defined and be a member of a set which covers the range of magnitudes of interest. The members should be related in a manner to reduce calculational times and the likelihood of errors. The * Augusta, College, Georgia, USA