Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests > Glass
Units of Measurement
Glen:
Connie, I agree with you on every point you make.
As an observation only, I also offer the following, out of interest:
Some USA glass auctions (based on several major auction houses for glass, personally known to me) give measurements in inches and fractions thus - eg. 6 5/8" No metric equivalent given.
Christie's in London and New York give measurements in inches and fractions first (as example above), followed by metric equivalent in parenthesis. Christie's in Amsterdam only give metric.
One major UK auction house (ceramics and glass) I came across gave the measurements in inches only - but "decimalised" the fraction eg. 4.75"
Glen
David Hier:
Money is almost always counted in units of ten, so why do people find it difficult to understand units of measurement that follow the same principal?
Frank:
Monetary units, now THEY are the bane of researchers! Not only do you need to determine what currency is being used (not always obvious) but to try and get that original price into an understandable 'modern' coomparison. This is best achieved, once the currency is known, by comparing to the average incomes in the country of the currency. This information is about the hardest to come by and only a few examples exist on-line.
UK is as good an example as any with £.s.d. being broken down historically by guinea (£1.05) 20 shillings 240 pennies, 480 half-pennies, 960 farthings, and 1,920 Qu's. Then of course there were third penny coins, groats, (4d) pieces of eight (Spanish currency origin), florins, crowns, half-crowns and slang - tanner, pony, bob, monkey etcetera.
Even more confusing is that the value of a coin was originally based om metal content so the value of a Guinea (Gold coin) was a variable. Fortunately most of glass research is in standardised currency forms.
The tendency in the past to sell glass wholesale by weight was very sensible as it was weight that determined the cost of transport. And of course Adam's example based on volume - which to a certain extent equated to weight. The use of volumetric weight rather than weight or volume alone is still commonly used in pricing transport.
Ivo:
--- Quote from: "Frank" ---
The tendency in the past to sell glass wholesale by weight was very sensible as it was weight that determined the cost of transport.
--- End quote ---
True from a British perspective - it had more to do with the excise on glass which was in place from 1750 to 1850. As far as I know elsewhere (Bohemia, Germany, France) glasses were sold by the dozen.
Leni:
I think imperial was originally based on a human scale, whereas metric is a scientific scale and is therefore more accurate. Personally, I find imperial is an easier measurement to visualise (but I realise that may simply be due to my age :oops: :roll: )
However, the problems with the Hubble telescope shows the importance of being very precise about exactly which scale is being used, and giving both measurements is a useful way round this. Personally, I wouldn't think it mattered which was put first, although the one used by the maker would seem logical.
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