Toise

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The toise [ ˈtwaːz (ə) ] is an old French unit of length. It was a normal unit of the old French measure of length and roughly corresponds to the German fathom . The term is also used for the measuring standard of the unit.

Different toises

From the 12th to the 19th century there was the Toise with regionally varying lengths and names. From the 17th century, the Toise of Paris played a more important role, driven by the increasing importance of the capital and the major scientific projects of the time.

Toise de Paris

The origin of the Toise de Paris is not known. It remains to be seen whether it can be traced back to a Toise carlovingienne , as the differences between the Carolingian foot (32.24 cm) and the Parisian Pied de Roi (king's foot) (32.48 cm) are clear, even if the dimensions differ have changed over time.

The Toise de Paris was divided into 6 pieds de Roi à 12 pouces à 12 lignes (6 feet à 12 inches = thumb width à 12 Paris lines ) or 1 Toise = 864 lines.

It was represented by an iron standard that was fixed in the courtyard of the Grand Châtelet de Paris next to the stairs and that was first mentioned in writing in 1394. It remains to be seen whether the concrete iron rod remained the same over the centuries until 1668.

The length of this Toise de Paris is usually given as 1,960 m.

Toise du Châtelet

There were subsidence on the stairs of the Grand Châtelet that bent the iron standard. That is why it was replaced in 1668, probably at the instigation of Colbert in his capacity as surintendant des Bâtiments, Arts et Manufactures (roughly: building and trade minister), by a new iron gauge now attached to a pillar inside, but by 5 lines shorter than the old one was.

The details of this incident are not known, it was mentioned briefly by Jean Picard in his Mesure de la Terre and in De Mensuris . However, it became known that the craftsmen complained about the shortened scale and suggested that the Toise , which was kept in the Écritoire aux Maçons as a secondary standard, should be officially used. But they could not prevail against Colbert. Since then, the old Toise is often referred to as the Toise des maçons or Toise de l'Écritoire , while the new unit of measurement has been called the Toise du Châtelet .

The length of the Toise du Châtelet is given as 1.949 m.

This unit of measurement was not only used in everyday life. Starting with Picard's Paris - Amiens meridional arc , it was the unit of measurement with which the degree measurements of the various meridional arcs were carried out in order to determine the shape of the earth and thus solve the great physical problem of the time, whether it was flattened at the poles . The detailed article by Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert in the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers gives an impression of the importance of this question for the time. The different measurement results for the length of a degree from 56,979 to 57,422 Toises were not only due to new astronomical knowledge about the shape of the earth, but also to the improved measuring devices and methods over the decades. In the various discussions about the correct results, it was believed to have found a mistake by Picard, which may have been based on a too short Toise he used, which went down in the specialist literature of the time as erhur de Picard and la toise de Picard , but ultimately it did was based only on unavoidable measurement tolerances.

The Toise attached to the Grand Châtelet was stolen in 1755 and damaged again in 1758.

70 years after its renovation by Colbert, in the summer of 1758, at the beginning of a lecture at the Académie Royale des Sciences , La Condamine reported the rumor that the measure for the shorter version was half the width of the 12-foot wide entrance portal to the old Louvre Just to go on straight away that this could of course in no way have ensured the accuracy required for a scale used in the great surveys of the time.

Toise du Pérou

In 1735 the Paris Académie Royale des Sciences had two copies of the Toise du Chatelet made. Both iron rods were initially used for the French earth measurements in Lapland and Peru and were manufactured with the aim of being exactly as long as the original Toise du Châtelet and exactly the same length as each other. One of the two copies was made under the direction of Godin , the other under La Condamine , both of whom were members of the Académie. In both cases the work was carried out by the instrument maker Claude Langlois. There are contradicting information about the manufacturing method:

"Langlois constructed for the Académie the Toise du Pérou (a toise is 6 pieds de roi )
  [.. and] computed the pied de roi as the edge of the cube that contains 70 Paris livres of water."

"Langlois produced the Toise du Pérou for the Académie (one Toise corresponds to 6 pieds de roi )
  [.. and] calculated the pied de roi as the edge of the cube that contains 70 Paris livres water."

- Stecchini-2007

“Langlois in 1735 […] constructed two copies of the Châtelet Toise […]”

"Langlois around 1735 [...] made two copies of the Châtelet Toise [...]"

- Roche-1998

The Toise du Pérou was used from 1736 for degree measurements near the equator in the then Viceroyalty of Peru , which were directed by Bouger , La Condamine and Godin. It was not until 1751 that it returned to Paris with Godin , where it is kept to this day.

The Toise du Nord went on a parallel expedition to Lapland near the Pole . There, too, the radii of curvature of neighboring latitudes were determined.

Toise de l'Académie

Since the Toise du Nord was damaged on the expedition, the Toise du Pérou was the more precise yardstick. On the basis of the latter, Louis XV. the Toise on May 16, 1766 as a legal measure of length. At the instigation of the Académie, 80 copies of the Toise du Pérou were made and distributed in the provinces. As a result, this Toise was also known as Toise de l'Académie or Toise de Paris . It replaced the Toise du Châtelet as the standard. The copies were made by Canivet, Langlois' nephew, who took over the instrument making after the death of his uncle around 1756.

From the toise to the meter

Picard already intended to make the Toise independent of the existence of an iron rod and to define its length by an unchangeable physical quantity. However, his idea of ​​determining the length using the seconds pendulum failed immediately after Jean Richer provided evidence in Cayenne between 1671 and 1673 that the length of the seconds pendulum depends on gravity .

After the degree measurements in Lapland and Peru had clarified the flattening of the earth at the poles and, based on further measurements, it was believed that the length of a meridian had been determined precisely , the idea that had been pursued for a long time was realized during the French Revolution , the ten millionth part of the earth quadrant on the meridian of Paris to define the new decimal metric unit of length, the meter , and to derive the length of the Toise from this meter.

With the laws of August 1st, 1793 and of 18th Germinal III (April 7th, 1795) a provisional meter based on the degree measurement of 1740 was decided. According to the degree measurements made by Delambre and Méchain in the years 1792 to 1798, the final meter was established by the law of 19 Frimaire VIII (December 10, 1799) .

For the exact determination of the length ratio between the meter and the Toise , the longitudinal extension of the definitive original meter at 0 ° Celsius was previously determined by experimental comparison with the longitudinal extension of the Toise du Pérou at 16.25 ° Celsius. The result adopted for the legal definition was 443,296 of the lines drawn on the Toise du Pérou :

The Toise de l'Académie is therefore 864000 / 443296 m = 27000 / 13853 m ≈ 1,949.036 m long.

This ratio was determined again around 1888 and reported about it:

“Recent comparisons of measurements have shown that at 13 ° R. [= 16.25 ° C.] The length of the gauge 1949.093 mm, the line gauge 1949.001 mm of the international meter is "

- Lueger-1904

The slight deviations in the meridian length found in the later measurements meant that the unit of length was again determined by a metal rod, i.e. the original meter made of platinum.

Metric toise

With the introduction of the metric system in 1812 Napoléon introduced the exactly 2 m long Toise usuelle or Toise métrique with 6 pieds usuels as a transition from the old to the new measuring system . It was valid until January 1, 1840, and even longer in Haiti.

The (metric) toise of French-speaking Switzerland had six pieds until 1876 and was exactly 1.80 m long. In the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel there was the Toise, the fathom, for various areas from 1856. The underlying land foot , Pied du pays, can be assumed to be 0.293258 meters or 130 Parisian lines . Its division was duodecimal . It was 1 land foot to 0.97753 new Swiss feet and should not be confused with the Neuchâtel field foot, Pied de champ, which was 0.287148 meters tall.

  • 1 toise commune / common fathoms = 10 land feet = 2.93258 meters
  • 1 toise de muraille / wall cord = 100 square land feet by 2 land feet = 5.044 stars
  • 1 toise de foin / hay flock = 6 times 6 times 6 land feet = 5.4476 stars
  • 1 toise de bois / wooden fathom = 10 times 5 times 3 land feet = 3,783 stars

Source for Neuchâtel

In the 20th century there was in Quebec nor the Toise Quebecoise with 1.949 043 6 m length and the official symbol T .

Bessel's Toise

The Toise was still used in the 19th century by Bessel , who mathematically compensated for the measurements of a total of ten different degree measurement projects, some of which were carried out in the previous century , in order to obtain a better approximation for the earth quadrant. He published the first results in 1837, but corrected them in 1841 due to changes in the results of the French degree measurement, which were relevant as input values ​​for his calculation. In the definition EPSG : 2007, the ellipsoid from 1841, determined using the approximation method, is listed with a comment on inaccuracy, which indicates the lack of international standardization of the Toise in the 18th century:

“Original Bessel definition is a = 3272077.14 and b = 3261139.33 toise. This used a weighted mean of values ​​from several authors but did not account for differences in the length of the various toise: the "Bessel toise" is therefore of uncertain length. ”

“The original Bessel definition uses a = 3272077.14 and b = 3261139.33 Toise. This was calculated from the weighted average of the [degree] values ​​of various [international] authors, but did not calculate the differences between the different Toise lengths [in the circulation at the time]: The length of the Bessel-Toise is therefore uncertain. "

- US Army Map Service Technical Manual; 1943. See http://epsg.io/7004-ellipsoid

In fact, in the Astronomical News Volume 19 No. 438 of 1842, Bessel gives the parameters a and b of the ellipse of the meridian plane in [Bessel-] Toise, but the length of the earth quadrant determined in meters. Due to the time difference between 1799 and 1842, it can be assumed with some certainty that Bessel only converted with the definitive original meter, i.e. he stated the result of the earth quadrant as a multiple of 443.296 lines on the Toise du Pérou at 16.25 ° Celsius. Since the earth quadrant indicates exactly a quarter of the total circumference of the ellipse, the calculation of which is necessary for its determination, and n, which is flattening , is available without units, a determination of a and b in meters should be possible with these parameters alone. From this, the necessary factor of the [Bessel] Toise resulting from the approximation method for the conversion into meters can be determined. The [Bessel] Toise can then be understood as the weighted mean of the different Toise lengths occurring in the ten degree measurements.

See also

literature

  • Carl Friedr. Wilh. Peters : On the history and criticism of the Toisen Maass rods . A contribution to the definitive classification of the measurements based on the old French system in the metric system. In: Metronomic Contributions . No. 5 . Dümmler, 1885, ZDB -ID 504748-1 .
  • Larrie D. Ferreiro: Measure of the Earth . The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World. Basic Books, New York 2011 (353 pages).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c toise (4). Toise table . sizes.com, accessed March 16, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b c Paul Guilhiermoz: De l'équivalence des anciennes mesures. A propos d'une publication récente . In: Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes . tape 74 , 1913, pp. 267 , doi : 10.3406 / bec.1913.448498 ( persee.fr ). , P. 273
  3. ↑ The length of this Toise, which disappeared since 1688, is based on retrospective calculations from later times; more precise information is the result of calculations with several decimal places, but which have no direct, concrete reference to the original Toise at the Grand Châtelet.
  4. ↑ Mesure de la Terre (Measurement of the Earth), Art. 4, p. 8 and De Mensuris (Latin: About the units of measurement), p. 317 in the anthology Mesure de la Terre published posthumously by Philippe de La Hire around 1685 . Imprimerie royale, Paris (392 pages, full text in the Google book search).
  5. ↑ Ecritoire aux Maçons , very freely transferred: Guild office of Maurer
  6. ↑ If the emphasis is on the place where the standard is located, it is usually referred to as the Toise du Grand Châtelet , while the unit as such is consistently referred to as the Toise du Châtelet (see e.g. the cartouche of the Nouvelle Carte de la France from 1744)
  7. ^ Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert: Figure de la Terre . In: Denis Diderot, Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (ed.): Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers; Fermages - Fordicides . tape 14 . Chez les Sociétés typographiques , Lausanne, Bern 1779, p. 433–454 ( full text in Google Book Search).
  8. ↑ Figure de la Terre . In: Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné ... Volume 14 , p. 444 ( full text in Google Book Search).
  9. ↑ Picard, Pierre (sic) . In: Denis Diderot, Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (ed.): Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers; Per - Plano . tape 33 . Yverdon 1774, p. 482 ( full text in Google Book Search).
  10. ^ Meetings of July 29th and August 2nd, 1758 . In: Académie Royale des Sciences (ed.): Procès-verbaux. T77 (1758) / Académie royale des sciences . 1758, bpt6k55753q / f690.item, p. 686–688 ( digitized on Gallica ).
  11. ^ Charles Marie de La Condamine: Remarques sur la Toise . In: Académie Royale des Sciences (ed.): Procès-verbaux. T77 (1758) / Académie royale des sciences . 1758, bpt6k55753q / f701.item, p. 697-724 ( digitized on Gallica ).
  12. ↑ Copy from Remarques sur la Toise , pp. 699, 700:
    De la Toise de M. Picard
    M. Picard dans son traité latin des mesures inseré dans ... dit avec son laconisme (...) que l'ancienne toise des massons fut reformé et raccourcie de 5 lignes en 1668, sans nous apprendre aucune circonstance, on sait seulement par tradition que pour donner au nouvel Etalon la veritable longueur qu'il devait avoir on se servit de la mesure de la largeur de la porte interieure du grand Pavilion qui sert d'entrée au vieux Louvre du côté de la place, cette ouverture suivant le Plan devait avoir douze pieds de Largeur, on en prit la moitié pour fixer la Longueur de la nouvelle toise, qui se trouva plus courte de cinq lignes que l'ancienne.
  13. ^ Heinrich Wilhelm Dove: About measure and measure . Representation of the measurements, measuring instruments and measuring methods customary in time, space and weight determinations. 2nd Edition. Verlag der Sanderschen Buchhandlung, Berlin 1835, p. 19-20, 13, 30, 169 ([Pages {{Google Book Online] | NoText = j | BookID = 3Kw-AAAAYAAJ | Page = 19 | Linktext = 19 | Emphasis = toise}} - 20 , 13 , 30 , 169 in Google Book Search [accessed March 16, 2014]).
  14. ↑ Langlois, Claude. In: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008, archived from the original on March 18, 2014 ; accessed on March 18, 2014 (English).
  15. ^ Heinz-Dieter Haustein: Weltchronik des Messens: Universal history of measure and number, money and weight . de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, chap. Absolutism and Enlightenment, p. 208 ( page 208 in Google Book Search [accessed March 18, 2014]).
  16. ^ Livio C. Stecchini: The Derivation of European Units. A History of Measures . 2007, accessed March 18, 2014 .
  17. ^ John Roche: The Mathematics of Measurement . A critical history. 1998, p. 54 ( page 54 in Google Book Search).
  18. ↑ Terry Quinn: One toise at a time . In: Physics World . tape 24 , no. 10 , 2011, p. 49 , doi : 10.1088 / 2058-7058 / 24/10/41 .
  19. ^ Julien-David Le Roy: The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece . Getty Publications, Los Angeles 2004, pp. 18 ( Page 18, lower half in the Google book search, French. Original - Original title: Les ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce . Translated by David Britt).
  20. ↑ Mesure de la Terre , Art. 4, p. 8
  21. ↑ Jean Baptiste Rondelet: On the metric measures and their relation to the old measures . In: Theoretical-practical guide to building art . 1st German edition. tape 5 , 10th book, 1st section, 1st chapter. Hofbuchhandlung Karl Wilhelm Leske, Leipzig / Darmstadt / Vienna 1836, p. 21 ( digitale-sammlungen.de .. Frz ed Volume 5, 1834, page 6 in the Google Book Search - in French: Traité théorique et pratique de lart de bâtir Translated by J. Hess after the sixth French edition..).
  22. ^ Otto Lueger: Toise . (Peru-Toise). In: Lexicon of all technology and its auxiliary sciences . 2nd Edition. tape 8 . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1910 ( Toise at Zeno.org .).
  23. ↑ Christian Noback , Friedrich Eduard Noback : Complete paperback of the coin, measure and weight ratios, the government papers, the exchange and banking system and the customs of all countries and trading places. Volume 1, FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1851, p. 729.
  24. ^ Association of practical merchants: The latest illustrated trade and goods lexicon or encyclopedia of all trade sciences for merchants and manufacturers. Volume 2, Verlag Ernst Schäfer, Leipzig 1857, p. 241.