Inch

First Mention: 1000

Use: Measurement tool and instrument of confusion.

What exactly is an inch? Is it just enough for a pinch? Is it a thumb and a little? Or is it a twelfth of a foot? The use of an inch as a measurement base has been traced back to 1066 during the Anglo-Saxon rule where an inch was equal to three barleycorn. It was not properly defined until 1324 where the legal definition was set by King Edward II of England as “three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end, lengthwise.”

Objections to this definition were raised in the 1800s however as mathematicians such as Charles Butler observed that basing an entire measurement unit on the size of a barley grain may not be the smartest ideas. After all, not all barley grains are the same. Maybe if an average was taken of all the barley grains in the world then a reliable standard could be established. But still that is a lot of work, plus a lot of barley. Regardless the standard grain of barley was kept in the Exchequer Chamber in England.

Jumping a few decades in the future, the UK and most of the British Commonwealth defined the inch in terms of a yard. However, Canada decided to define the inch in terms of the metric system – 25.4 millimeters. It was soon decided to adopt the Canadian inch as the international inch. Way to go Canada, you gave us the inch…now here’s a cookie.