Weights
and measures used in 1834
Source:
"l'Almanach 1834 de Neuchâtel en Suisse, imprimerie C.-H.
Wolfrath"
Free translation - some french terms left as is in Italic : if you
know their translation, please do let me know. (English suggestions in red by David Dowd)
The
Neuchâtel £ equals to 17 ounces. One ounce contains 24 "deniers" (English
= from Roman denarius, Pennyweight. Although the Neuchatel denier
was 11% smaller than the Imperial pennyweight (abolished 1985), it
was less than 2% different from the English silver dwt. of 1346) and
one denier contains 24 grains.
The
Neuchâtel foot equals to 130 "lignes" (English
= English printers' term LINE for 1/12th inch (though English watchmakers
preferred the French spelling)) of
the old French foot.
It
is divided into 12 "pouces" (English
= 0.024 691 358 metres, therefore equal to 0.972 1 Imperial inches),
the pouce into 12 lignes.
The "aune" (English
= probably Ell) is
equal to 45 inches 5 595/1000 lignes.
9 aunes equal
to exactly 10 meters of France.
The
common "toise" (English
= was the French equivalent of the English FATHOM though in France
it had importance on land as well as sea, and was the scientific
unit of
length prior to the
Metric System) has 10
feet - the one of hay 6 feet
The
field "perche" (English
= though not the same in size, obviously the same as PERCH in origin) equals
to 15 feet 8 inches, but divides itself into 16 parts.
The "faux" (English
= no true equivalent, being considerably bigger than the English
ACRE (but very close indeed
to the Irish
ACRE)) contains 2
poses.
The
pose is a square of 16 perches by 8 wide.
The "ouvrier
de vigne", (English
= looks like the Burgundian OUVREE which was exactly 1/10 English
ACRE (and so
called DECIMAL in India
under the Raj) which is the perche is
4096 square feet.
The
wood toise is a long solid of 10
feet, 5 high and 3 deep.
The
hay toise is a 6 feet cube
in all dimmensions.
The
manure "voiture" (English = Butt
but different content/size) must be 36 cubic feet.
The
Neuchâtel pot equals to precisely 96
French cubic inches.
21 pots equal
to 40 French "Mitres" (English
= 0.758 692 litres - presumably a bottle size - if I have calculated this
correctly, it is almost
exactly the French BOUTEILLE CHAMPENOISE)
The pot divides
itself in half - pot, third and quarter
of pot. 8 pots make a brochet.
16 pots equal to one setier, 20 pots equal one brande.
The muid equals 192 pots, or 12 setiers, or five
times 38 2/5 pots, produces in moût one gerle of
vintage.
The bosse equals 480 pots.
For dry substances, the pot divides the same as liquids,
except that the thirds are called Capet.
8
pots equal to 1 "émine", (English
= is the French version of Latin HEMINA (From Greek 'EMINA; Southern
French HEMINE
= 50 litres),
and
the nearest English measure is the old standard BUCKET (Neuchatel eimer
= 88% of English bucketful) 8 émines make
a fac and 3 facs a muid... which is also
192 pots.
But
in Land taxes the copet is a pot and the setier in
Le Landeron equals 8 pots.
The émine for
the oat contains 8 "picotins" (English
= presumably is a diminutive of a larger 'picot' (which is interesting
to me etymologically as picot originally meant 'point, prick' and various
barrel sizes in a number of countries had their own version of this
derivation, e.g., English puncheon [Fr. poincon] - but nobody knows
why!)) or 8 pots 1/3. The picotin is
therefore slightly larger than the ordinary pot.
The
diametre of all these measures, whether rases or to the brim, must always be the double
of their height.
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