I’ve been following some of the posts of David Kenworthy on the GHMB with considerable interest.
Mathematically we’re a bit from different sides of the fence, which is okay since I think we might both be still exploring where our respective paths lead us, but many of DavidK’s posts have provided me with inspiration, and even some awe (I’m not that easy to impress with math).
As when I took the hint from Jim Wakefield that I should be looking at the Indus Foot, which has proven to be a wonderful idea, I’m now attempting to take a hint from David concerning a “Scottish ell” and a “Holy rood”, whatever they are.
Apparently I’ve been a bit too focused on Egyptian metrology that such things should have escaped my radar?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ell
An ell-wand or ellwand was a rod of length one ell used for official measurement. Edward I of England required that every town have one. In Scotland, the Belt of Orion was called “the King’s Ellwand”.[6][7]
Several national forms existed, with different lengths, including the Scottish ell (≈37 inches or 94 centimetres), the Flemish ell [el](≈27 in or 68.6 cm), the French ell [aune] (≈54 in or 137.2 cm),[8]the Polish ell (≈31 in or 78.7 cm), the Danish alen (24 Danish inches or 2 Danish fod: 62.7708 cm), the Swedish aln (2 Swedish fot ≈59 cm) and the German ell [Elle] of different lengths in Frankfurt (54.7 cm), Cologne, Leipzig (Saxony) or Hamburg.
Select customs were observed by English importers of Dutch textiles: although all cloths were bought by the Flemish ell, linen was sold by the English ell, but tapestry was sold by the Flemish ell.[8]
The Viking ell was the measure from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about 18 inches (460 mm). The Viking ell or primitive ell was used in Iceland up to the 13th century. By the 13th century, a law set the “stika” as equal to 2 ells which was the English ell of the time.[9]
Two things a person should always be careful not to do are accepting data on Wikipedia’s word alone, and trying to identify antiquated units of measurement in under five minutes, but I am only one unit of measurement into this, launched several standard mathematical probes pointed at the mystery value of the Scottish ell, and they’ve come back that it’s likely none other then 1/2 of the Squared Munck Meg Yard according to this data.
What’s more, for the Flemish elle, 68.6 cm = 2.250656168 ft
Anyone who’s managed to follow my writing lately knows how much mileage I’ve been getting out of Petrie’s ~225 inch Stonehenge unit.
Can you see why some of my mentors like Michell or Munck have expressed considerable opposition against the metric system? Can you guess how much of the past year I’ve spend converting data from meters to feet? If you only knew, you probably wouldn’t want to.
We may yet find a valid meter or two within the workings of a particular system of numbers including our own, but the Flemish elle would be only the most recent example of measures expressed in meters potentially masking the nature of what we’re looking at.
Perhaps on the other hand, for
the Danish alen (24 Danish inches or 2 Danish fod: 62.7708 cm)
All I know to say at the moment is that 62.7708 cm reminds me much of 2 Pi x 10 = 62.83185307, and that 62.7708 cm = 2.059409449 ft. Royal Cubit in inches = ~20.62648062
the Polish ell (≈31 in or 78.7 cm)
78.7 cm = 0.2582021 ft; 1.5 Morton Royal Cubits = 2.578310078 ft
the Swedish aln (2 Swedish fot ≈59 cm
1.9357 cm = ~(1.216733603 x 5) / Pi cm – in feet, this perhaps resembles something that might have been modeled on the projected slope length of Silbury Hill or vice versa.
the German ell [Elle] of different lengths in Frankfurt (54.7 cm), Cologne, Leipzig (Saxony) or Hamburg.
54.7 cm = 1.794619 ft. What to call that? Some might call it 1.8 ft, I imagine, although I’m sure it deserves more thought than that.
Perhaps it’s naive of me as a metrologist, but I’m stricken with how often here not just the name of the “Egyptian” ell may be recycled here, but the value of the “Egyptian” unit as well (ell = Royal Cubit).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_(unit)
In traditional Scottish units, a Scottish rood (ruid in Lowland Scots, ròd in Scottish Gaelic), also fall measures 222 inches.[19]
It leaps out at me a bit that 222 / 12 = 18.5 feet. 18.5 x 2 = 37, and already up the page we encountered 37 looking like 36.98426666, 1/2 of a Squared Munck Megalithic Yard of 7.396853331 ft, times 10.
Lately, I think I’ve run into at least a half-dozen reminders that this Squared Munck Megalithic Yard is intimately related to the Remen, not the least of which being that 9 / 1.216733603 = 7.396853331.
This one might take more thought?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_units
Scots mile 320 falls or 5920 feet (1807 m), but varied from place to place. Obsolete by the 19th century.[12]
DavidK has a take on this but I’ve always been curious whether I should have my own take on it, and if so, what should it look like?
5920 / 5280 = 1.121212121 = 2.242424242 / 2 – should this be a little closer to 2.25 / 2, perhaps?
If a rood (fall) measured 36.98426666 / 2 = 18.492133333 ft, 18.492133333 x 320 = 5917.482665.
This figure is just slightly out of sync with 4 Squared Standard Remens. Synchronization is achieved by taking “320” to be 320 x 1.000723277.
18.492133333 x (320 x 1.000723277) = 5921.762644 = (1.216733603^2) x 4 x 10^n
In Morton Royal Cubits, 5921.762644 = 689.0283712, the reciprocal of 6.890283712 having been recently reported for Stonehenge, and 6.890283712 also recently reported as having some possible roles to play in astronomical (calendar) calculations, including being a possible 1/4 of a variation on the Anomalistic Month
(6.890283712 x 4 = 27.56113485)
I really shouldn’t take any of that very seriously for how quickly and haphazardly I just churned it out, but then again that was what happened when I got hold of Berriman’s Historical Metrology and more than 10 years later, most of the figures I came up in a matter of hours with are still holding water.
The Viking ell is also interesting
The Viking ell was the measure from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about 18 inches (460 mm).
460 mm = 1.50919 ft
Although this may be near to sort of a metrological grey area where the Greek Cubit (John Michell, Dimensions of Paradise pg 108-109: Greek Cubit 1.512 – 1.52064) seems to want to take a slight and still unexplained divergence from Michell’s metrological schemes.
Up until that, 1/100 of the mean diameter of the Stonehenge sarcen circle (100.6036766 ft) might serve as the ratio been Michell’s long and short units.
Followers of Michell’s work might be inclined to see the ratio as 1.008.
It still isn’t clear to me exactly what’s going here although I have candidates for the Greek Cubit going all the way back to my first encounter with Berriman’s book.
One might look in places like this
https://www.scan.org.uk/measures/distance.asp
As long as the Pyramid Inch doesn’t try to make a comeback on account of it. If the Pyramid Inch failed at its geodetic goals, its remaining raison d’etre may be little more than the desire to make “365.24” out of various parts of the Great Pyramid, when a calendar year of ~365 may have been intended instead.
That is after all in feet essentially 300 Remens.
Just some food for thought.
–Luke Piwalker
Luke Piwalker 
Piwalker
you are correct about the Scottish ell being 37 inches and the Holy rood is 111 inches and 666 is a holy number not the number of the beast but the opposite.
6x6x6=216
6+6+6 = 18
216 / 18 = 12
This is Pictish measure used at Callanish and also the Orkneys.
the Romans wanted the Pictish knowledge so bad their destoyed their empire over it
East coast of Scotland is the equivalent of Tatooine, the empire was destroyed
look up the pictish stone balls on google. they fitted into the cup marks in the megalithic rocks.
the Final Front Ear
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