On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, Richard Baker wrote: > I thought that's the sort of arcane fact that only Americans know. > (dictionary.reference.com tells me it's 14lbs, but also says that it > varies with the article weighed[!] so that a butcher's stone is 8lbs, a > stone of cheese 16lbs, of hemp 32lbs and of glass 5lbs. I don't think > I've ever heard anything quite so absurd.)
Being too lazy to do research, I ask: might this system have originated as a means to keep people from needing to deal with any but the simplest of fractions? If a trader in glass is forced to use a hemp-stone, he might find himself constantly needing needing to figure awkward fractions whereas a glass-stone allows him to deal in whole numbers most of the time. (Never mind that hemp is lighter than glass per volume - glass is probably traded and worked in small bits, whereas hemp is transported and sold in great bales.) Marvin Long GCU Lithoprocktologism Austin, Texas Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Poindexter & Ashcroft, LLP (Formerly the USA) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
