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

Semis or Semissis 2592 Septunx 3024 Bes or Bessis 3456 Dodrans 3888 Dextans 4320 Deunx 4752 As or Libra 5184 IBM Programs A considerable amount of information concerning ancient units has been published. Since no known systematic cataloging has been done, storing of this published information on IBM cards has been started. The following items are punched on data cards: Name of unit, published magnitude, type (i. e. length, area, volume etc), reference of source of information, nationality of users of unit, time period of use and museum where artifact is stored from which unit's magnitude was determined or the name of the ancient monument from which the unit's stated magnitude was based. Approximately 2000 IBM cards have been punched. To aid in determining the extent of the diffusion of units from one country to another or the impact of one country on the metrology of another, historical information has been stored on IBM cards. Various programs have been written to extract the desired types of information. Approximately 3000 data cards have been punched. To determine if an ancient monument may have been built with intended alignment with some celestial object, a program was written to determine celestial coordinates for some directions built into the monument. Coordinate corrections for the refraction of the light by the earth's atmosphere were included. For the sun and moon, the celestial coordinates for the lower limb, the center and the upper limb are computed. Naturally celestial coordinates of the celestial objects at the time of the building of the monument must be compared with the monument's alignments. A program has also been written to express the measured dimensions of ancient monuments in terms of proposed values of ancient units. This type of information can often be used as evidence that a certain unit may have been used in the designing and construction of the monument or as an aid in re-establish ing the magnitude of a unit known to have been used in the construction. Acknowledgment: I am grateful to Louis K. Bell for having introduced me to ancient metrology and for his continued assistance.