The existence of the Himt supports my hypothesis of the origin of the
Rhineland foot. The side of a Himt of quadrantal, or exactly cubical,
shape measures 12·385 inches, not 3/100 of an inch above the 12·356
inches of the Rhineland standard foot.
The Himt is then the Troy talent of 1000 ounces, 2/3 of the Arabic
kantar, which was 1500 Troy ounces, in just the same way that the
English wine-bushel = a cubic foot, the measure of 1000 old averdepois
ounces of water, was 2/3 of the Alexandrian talent of 1500 Egypto-Roman
ounces.
The Himt being the Troy talent-measure, 2/3 of the Arabic cubic foot, it
should have to the Arabic cubic cubit a proportion 2/3 of the normal
proportion 1/3·375 of any cubic foot to its cubic cubit. So the Himt =
6·852 gallons × 3/2 × 3·375 = 34·688 gallons, almost exactly the Arabic
cubic cubit, which became the Cargo of Marseilles, or the Setier of
Paris. Now this standard of 34·73 gallons or thereabouts is not uncommon
in Germany. In Hanover and Hesse-Cassel the Ohm = 34·26 gallons is a
wine-measure, in Saxony the Malter = 34·7 gallons is a corn-measure,
divided into 12 scheffels. Corresponding to this in England was an
ancient measure, the Amber (Hamberboune, Hamberbarrel). In other parts
of Germany where the cubic foot is smaller, being derived, as in
Hamburg, from a foot = 11·24 inches (or at least corresponding to this
foot), the cubic foot there gives a measure = 5·12 gallons, and when
increased in w.w. ratio = 6·4 gallons. This latter measure × 5 gives 32
gallons, and this number of gallons, either as an Ohm, wine-measure, or
× 8 = 32 bushels as a Malter, or corn-measure, is common throughout
Germany. There seems in many places to have been a double standard, the
smaller derived from a cubic foot, and the larger derived from the
Arabic cubic cubit and somewhat cut down to become a multiple of the
smaller measure.
The Viertel, = 1·713 gallons, the quarter of the Himt, is also an
important measure, not only as giving the clue to the Troy talent, but
also as a very widespread wine-measure.
It passed to France, there becoming the Velte = 1·62 gallons at
Bordeaux, 1·76 gallons at Paris, where its introduction into the series
of wine-measures broke the regular division of the Muid. At Bordeaux
this velte was probably the cause of the English wine-gallon increasing
from its original 216 cubic inches (1/8 of the cubic foot, or
wine-bushel of 1000 ounces) to 231 cubic inches. At the latter capacity
it became just half of the Bordeaux velte.
The shrinkage of the Bordeaux velte to 1·62 gallons may have been the
effect of adaptation to an English double wine-gallon, or it may have
been from the velte, when passing to Holland, having to adapt itself to
the other wine-measures of that country. The Dutch Velt or Welt took a
place between the Stoop, = 0·5337 gallons, and the Steekan, of 8
stoopen; and it thus became a measure of 3 stoopen = 1·601 gallon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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