Line (unit)

The line was not recognized by any statute of the English Parliament but was usually understood as {{frac|4}} of a barleycorn,{{cite dictionary |dictionary=Oxford Dictionary of English |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |entry=Barleycorn |quote= a former unit of measurement (about a third of an inch) based on the length of a grain of barley}} (which itself was recognized by statute as {{frac|3}} of an inch{{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 |year=1884 |volume=XVI |page=277}}) making it {{frac|12}} of an inch, and {{frac|144}} of a foot. The line was eventually decimalized as {{frac|10}} of an inch, without recourse to barleycorns.{{refn|Jefferson,{{sfnp|Jefferson|1790}} republished by Niles.{{sfnp|Niles|1814|p=22}}}}

The US button trade uses the same or a similar term but defined as one-fortieth of the US-customary inch (making a button-maker's line equal to {{convert|0.635|mm|in|abbr=on}}).{{cite web |title=An Easy Guide to Button Measurement and Sizing |url=https://www.sunmeibutton.com/button-measurement/ |date=2019-06-19 |publisher=Sun Mei Button Enterprise Co., Ltd.}}{{cite book |title=The Metric System {{!}} Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Manufactures, United States Senate, Sixty-seventh Congress, First and Second Sessions on S. 2267 a Bill to Fix the Metric System of Weights and Measures as the Single Standard of Weights and Measures for Certain Uses.|page=216 |date=October 11, 1921 |publisher=By United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Manufactures}}

Botanists formerly used the units (usually as {{frac|12}} inch) to measure the size of plant parts. Linnaeus's Philosophia botanica (1751) includes the Linea in its summary of units of measurements, defining it as {{lang|la|Linea una Mensurae parisinae}} [{{lit|One line of the Parisian measure}}]; Stearns gives its length as {{convert|2.25|mm|in|abbr=on}}. Even after metrication, British botanists continued to employ tools with gradations marked as linea (lines); the British line is approximately {{convert|2.1|mm|in|abbr=on}} and the Paris line approximately {{convert|2.3|mm|in|abbr=on}}.{{cite book |author=Stearn, W.T. |year=1992 |title=Botanical Latin: History, grammar, syntax, terminology, and vocabulary |edition=Fourth |publisher=David and Charles}}

Entomologists in the UK and other European countries in the 1800s used lines as a unit of measurement for insects, at least for the relatively large mantids and phasmids. Examples include Westwood,{{cite book |author=Westwood, J.O. |year=1859 |title=Catalogue of the Orthopterous Insects in the Collection of British Museum. Part I: Phasmidae. |publisher=British Museum, London.}}{{cite book |author=Westwood, J.O. |year=1889 |title= Revisio Insectorum Familiae Mantidarum, speciebus novis aut minus cognitis descriptis et delineatis. – Revisio Mantidarum. |publisher=Gurney & Jackson, London.}} in the UK, and de Haan{{cite book |author=Haan, W.de |year=1842 |title=Bijdragen tot de Kennis Orthoptera. in C.J. Temminck, Verhandelingen over de natuurlijke Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche Bezittingen. volume 2.}} in the Netherlands.

Gunsmiths and armament companies also employed the {{frac|10}}-inch line (the "decimal line"), in part owing to the importance of the German and Russian arms industries.{{sfnp|Hogg|1991}} These are now given in terms of millimeters, but the seemingly arbitrary 7.62 mm (0.30 in) caliber was originally understood as a 3-line caliber (as with the 1891 Mosin–Nagant rifle). The {{convert|12.7|mm|in|abbr=on}} caliber used by the M2 Browning machine gun was similarly a 5-line caliber.{{sfnp|Hogg|1991}}

Other similar small units called lines include:

• The Russian {{lang|ru|liniya}} (ли́ния), {{frac|10}} of the diuym which had been set precisely equal to an English inch by Peter the Great{{sfnp|Cardarelli|2004|pp=121–124}}
• The French {{lang|fr|ligne}} or "Paris line", {{frac|12}} of the French inch ({{langx|fr|pouce}}), 2.256 mm and about 1.06 L.
• The Portuguese {{lang|pt|linha}}, {{frac|12}} of the Portuguese inch or 12 "points" ({{lang|pt|pontos}}) or 2.29 mm
• The German {{lang|de|linie}} was usually {{frac|12}} of the German inch but sometimes also {{fract|10}} German inch
• The Vienna line, {{frac|12}} of a Vienna inch.

Albert Johannsen.

[https://archive.org/details/manualpetrograp02johagoog "Manual of petrographic methods"].

p. 623.

Karl Wilhelm Naegeli; Simon Schwendener.

[https://books.google.com/books?id=s0bPAAAAMAAJ "The Microscope in Theory and Practice"].

p. 294.

• English units used prior to 1824
• Imperial units defined by the British Weights and Measures Act 1824
• List of unusual units of measurement

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{Citation |last=Cardarelli |first=F. |date=2004 |title=Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins, 2nd ed. |publisher=Springer | isbn=1-85233-682-X |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6KCx8Ww75VkC }}.

• {{Citation |title=Military Small Arms of the 20th Century, 6th ed. |last=Hogg |first=Ian V. |author2-last=Weeks |author2-first=John |display-authors=1 |ref={{harvid|Hogg|1991}} |publisher=Guild Publishing |year=1991}}.
• {{citation |last=Jefferson |first=Thomas |title=Report on the Subject of Measures, Weights, and Coins |location=New York |date=4 July 1790 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fuNGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA20 }}.
• {{citation |editor-last=Niles |editor-first=Hezekiah |contribution=Jefferson on Weights and Measures: Letter from the Secretary of State to the Speaker of the House of Representatives: New-York, July 4, 1790 |title=The Weekly Register |volume=V (Sept. 1813 – Mar. 1814) |location=Baltimore |publisher=Franklin Press |pages=20–26 |date=1814 |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fuNGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA22 }}.

{{DEFAULTSORT:LINE}}

Category:Units of length

Category:Obsolete units of measurement