Length of a foot

[Frank]

Hello,

was the length of a foot standardised in 1888 or were there different defintions of its length in different regions of the empire or something like that?

I think that is important considering the statements of the witnesses.

Best regards,
Frank

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello,

was the length of a foot standardised in 1888 or were there different defintions of its length in different regions of the empire or something like that?

I think that is important considering the statements of the witnesses.

Best regards,
Frank

Hello Frank

I presume you are talking about the length of a foot and not the length of a human foot, is that right? If so, I believe I am correct in saying that by 1888 in Great Britain, the recognized length "one foot" would have been then as now 12 inches, equivalent to 0.348 meters or 30.48 centimeters.

Best regards

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

P.S. I should add, to your statement, "I think that is important considering the statements of the witnesses" that any distance mentioned by a witness would be subject to the individual estimate of the particular witness in interpreting a distance, so it may or may not be accurate. Similarly you should know that in estimating time, most witnesses, being poor, did not have watches, and would estimate the time from the local church clock in many instances.

Best regards

Chris George

[Frank]

Of course I was not talking about a human foot. I just asked because in Germany the length of a foot ranged from 25 to 33 cm, depending in which region you were. But that was before the formation of a German national state in 1871.

I just wanted to go for sure.

Thanks for the quick answer,
Frank

[gary]

Hello Frank

I presume you are talking about the length of a foot and not the length of a human foot, is that right? If so, I believe I am correct in saying that by 1888 in Great Britain, the recognized length "one foot" would have been then as now 12 inches, equivalent to 0.348 meters or 30.48 centimeters.

Best regards

Chris

Sorry to be pedantic, but 0.348 metres equals 34.8 cms

[Frank]

It's just a typing error by Chris. A foot is 30.48 cm or 0.3048 m. Chris just forgot the '0'.

[ChrisGeorge]

Sorry folks... much going on here.

Chris

[Supe]

In any case, because of the Industrial Revolution and the concept of "interchangeable parts" (to a great extent pioneered by Connecticut gun manufacturies) the length of a yard/foot/inch was quite standardized in the UK and North America by the LVP.

Time, however, was something quite different, at least in the USA, with most communities clinging to 'local time," which meant noon was when the sun had risen to its highest point. Thus, times could vary considerably across what are now modern time zones. It was the increasing importnce of railroads that imposed time standards in this country. Even so, in the early 20th century many farming communities refused to accept "daylight saving time" and it wasn't until 1923 in my hometown that the farmers finally lost the annual referendum and the town ran on DST for part of the year.

Don.