652
The Chinese Long Measure.
DEC.
6. Tailors' and tradesmens' foot, 150 French lines, or 13 Eng. inch.
7. The foot used by engineers, 141.7 French lines, or 12, Eng. inch.
"The le," he says
" contains 180 fathoms of 10 feet each of the last mentioned lengths, which makes the le 1897 English feet, and 192 le measure a mean degree of the meridian nearly; but the European missionaries divided the degree into 200 le, each le measur- ing 1826 Eng. feet."
Malte Brun, in his Geography, gives the very same table in French lines as Milburne. I subjoin it, as I fancy Milburne has made a mistake in converting French into English measure. The propor. tion, according to which this is calculated, is, that 40,000 French feet, inches, or lines, equal 42,638 English feet, inches, or lines. Malte Brun, vol. I, page 618.*
Mathematical foot 147.7 French lines=13.120 English inch. Foot of the merchants 150 French lines 13.324 English inch. Ché's or carpenter's 143.1 French lines = 12.7114 English inch. Land-surveyor's 141.7 French lines 12.5870 English inch.
We have then the following results:
13.120 in.
Math. ft. Land surv.
Hutton. 13.524 in.
Milburne.
Cavallo.
Malte Brun and Rees' Cyclo.
13.125 in.
12.612 in.
12.65 in.
12.6
13.5228 inch Cheih at 180 le to 1° 13.5228 inch
Cheik at 200 le to 1°
=
12.168 inch
Cheil at 250 le to 1°
9.7344 inch
12.5870 in.
Dr. Hutton's Math. foot. Which nearly agrees with
Which agrees with none but is nearest to the land surveyor's of Malte Brun. Which is less than any, and unquestionably wrong.
These calculations, it will be seen, do not verify the length of the cheih given by any of the authorities, bụt I am disposed to believe, from a review of the whole, that at present the le is reckoned at 200 to the degree, and is therefore equal to 1825.55 feet or 608.52 yards. 2.89 ↳ will then be equal to one English mile.
While on this subject, I will add an estimate of the Chinese mow according to the land-surveyor's cheih, of Malte Brun. The table of land measure is as follows:
*
The table given in Rees' Cyclopædia agrees exactly with that of Malte Bun, as above expressed in English inches and hundredths of inches. It would therefore, only uselessly prolong this article to transcribe it.