Barleycorn (unit)

Under the 1300 Composition of Yards and Perches, one of the statutes of uncertain date that was notionally in force until the 1824 Weights and Measures Act, "3 {{not a typo|barly cornes}} dry and {{not a typo|rounde}}"{{cite book|first=Owen |last=Ruffhead |authorlink2=Owen Ruffhead |title=Statutes at Large {{!}}From the second year of the reign of King George the Third {{!}} And an Appendix consisting of O[illegible]s and Curious Acts, some of which were never [b]efore printed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Un1RAAAAYAAJ&q=%22quod+tria+grana%22&pg=PA421 |accessdate=12 February 2012 |year=1765 |publisher=Printed by M. Baskett |page=A421 |quote=Ordinatum est quod tria grana ordei sicca & rotunda faciunt pollicem... |trans-quote=Let it be declared that 3 grains of barley, dry and round, make an inch... |oclc=22642053 |volume=9}}{{cite book |publisher=Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors |first=W. |last=Fowler |title=Transactions |chapter= On the ancient terms applicable to the measurement of land |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/transactions04survgoog/page/n295/mode/2up |url=https://archive.org/details/transactions04survgoog |accessdate=8 January 2012 |year=1884 |volume=XVI |page=277}} were to serve as the basis for the inch and thence the larger units of feet, yards, perches and thus of the acre, an important unit of area. The notion of three barleycorns composing an inch certainly predates this statute, however, appearing in the 10th-century Welsh Laws of Hywel Dda.

In practice, various weights and measures acts of the English kings were standardized with reference to some particular yard-length iron, brass, or bronze bar held by the king or the Royal Exchequer. The formal barleycorn was {{frac|1|108}} of its length.{{cite book | last = Zupko | first = Ronald Edward | authorlink = Ronald Edward Zupko | title = British Weights and Measures: A History from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century |location=Madison, Wisconsin | publisher=University of Wisconsin Press | year = 1977 | isbn = 978-0-299-07340-4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pWUgAQAAIAAJ&q=%22particular+rod%22 | page = 21 }}

As modern studies show, the actual length of a kernel of barley varies from as short as {{cvt|4|–|7|mm|order=flip}} to as long as {{cvt|12|–|15|mm|order=flip}} depending on the cultivar.{{cite book|last1=Ullrich|first1=Steven E.|title=Barley: Production, Improvement, and Uses|date=2011|page=454|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nFfyy66UioC&pg=PA545}}{{cite journal|last1=Sýrkorová|first1=Alena|title=Size Distribution of Barley Kernels|journal=Czech Journal of Food Sciences|date=2009|volume=27|issue=4|pages=249–58|doi=10.17221/26/2009-CJFS |url=http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/publicFiles/10118.pdf|display-authors=etal}} Older sources claimed the average length of a grain of barley was {{cvt|0.345|in}}, while that of a grain of "big" was {{cvt|0.3245|in}}.{{cite book|title=Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica|volume=2|date=1824|location=Edinburgh|page=462|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FMcnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA462|chapter=Brewing}}

• Line, {{1/4}} of a barleycorn or {{frac|1|12}} of an inch
• List of unusual units of measurement
• Poppyseed, {{1/4}} or {{frac|1|5}} of a barleycorn

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{{Imperial units}}

Category:Units of length