Norway Weights and Measurement: Difference between revisions

Norway Weights and Measurement (view source)

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 <u>'''Lineas Measure:'''</u>
-'''mil --after 1824, 18,000 alen or 11.3 kilometers'''.&nbsp; '''In 1874 the distance of 10 kilometers or 6.2 English miles'''.
+'''mil -- after 1824, 18,000 alen or 11.3 kilometers'''.&nbsp; '''In 1874 the distance of 10 kilometers or 6.2 English miles'''.
 '''fjerding(er) '''- a quarter of a mil, then as now.&nbsp; Now equal to two and a half kilometers or 1. 5425 English miles.
-tomme(r) - about an inch, a term meaning thumb.&nbsp; There were 12 tommer in a fod (fot).
+'''tomme(r) '''- about an inch, a term meaning thumb.&nbsp; There were 12 tommer in a fod (fot).
+'''fod(der) or fo(tter)&nbsp;'''- a term meaning foot divided into 12 tommer.&nbsp; Or 0,31374 meters or 1.03 English feet.
+'''alen''' - two fodder or 0.6275 meters or two feet 3/4 inches in the englisth system.
+'''rote(r) or roder(r) -''' five alen.
+<u>'''Measure by weight:'''</u>
+'''lodd(er) '''- a metal weight on a scale usually equal to 1/32 of a pund.&nbsp; One half of an unse.&nbsp; In a cookbook of 1877 it was given the value of 15 grams.
+'''unse(r) '''- a weight equal to 1/16 of a pund; about an English ounce.
+'''mark''' - (plural is mærker) - a unit now equal to 1/4 of a kilogram, 250 grams.&nbsp; Formerly it was 8 unser, about one half an English pound.
+'''pund''' - a unit equal now to 498 grams or slightly more than an English pound.&nbsp; Same as the skålpund.
+'''Skålpund or skaalpund&nbsp;-''' Same as the pund.
+'''bismerpund '''- a unit usually equal to 12 pund or about 12 English pounds.&nbsp; However, in Vesby a bismerpund was noted as equal to 13 skaalpund.
+'''lispund''' - ususlly cited as 18 pund.&nbsp; However, in upper Østerdalen it was equal to 16 pund or 52 kilograms.
+'''laup - '''a round wooden box with handles which when used as a measure was about 33 pund.
+'''centner - '''one hundred pund.
+'''våg or vaag - '''the weight itself formerly used to balance scales or the arm of the scale.&nbsp; The våg was equal to bismerpund, 72 mærker, 18 kilograms or 39.5 pounds.
+'''lest -&nbsp;''' the nautical weight of about 400 pounds or in dry measure 12 tønne.&nbsp; When used to weigh timeber it was about 5200 pounds.
+'''skippund '''- before 1877 when one skippund was set at 160 kilograms, it was equal to one våg, but the weight varied from district to district.&nbsp; During the Middle Ages the skippund was much larger trade weight in both Scandinavia and Germany and was equal to slightly more than 300 pounds.&nbsp; In norway it varied in value up to 350 pounds.
+<u>'''Hud and Skinn'''</u>
+The words for hides and skins, i.e., tanned leather, deserve special mention.&nbsp; Leather in itself appers to have been a trade comodity used as it was for so many finished products from shoes to harness, to furniture, to book covers.&nbsp; Wealthy merchansts are known to have covered ther walls with engraved and painted leather panels.
+One hud (cow hide) was equal to 12 skinn, usually a Kalvskinn (calf skin) to 6 geitskinn (nanny goat hide).&nbsp; To complicate matters, a fettling was the foot on one skin, a amall piece of very little value.
+The abbreviations for all of these terms were not standardized and often depended solely on the writer's recorder's habit.&nbsp; Kalvskinn might be abbreviated ksk in one place and Klvs in another.&nbsp; Spelling, oftern phoetic, varies, of course.
+The plurals for the terms indicated - not used throughout - were generally formed by adding 'er'.&nbsp; The exceptions were the maculine nouns which retained the same spelling in the plural form.
+This discussion of the old weights and measures may have seemed more complicated whan is warranted, but these are terms which we have&nbsp;found in our use of the older local historical and genealogical source.&nbsp; An understanding of the terms should make the reference come alive.