Line (length)
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The line (abbreviated L or l or ‴ or lin.) was a small
English unit English units were the units of measurement used in England up to 1826 (when they were replaced by Imperial units), which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. Various standards have applied to English units at ...
of
length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with Dimension (physical quantity), dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a Base unit (measurement), base unit for length is chosen, ...
, variously reckoned as , , , or of an
inch The inch (symbol: in or prime (symbol), ) is a Units of measurement, unit of length in the imperial units, British Imperial and the United States customary units, United States customary System of measurement, systems of measurement. It is eq ...
. It was not included among the units authorized as the British Imperial system in 1824.


Size

The line was not recognized by any statute of the
English Parliament The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised th ...
but was usually understood as of a barleycorn, (which itself was recognized by statute as of an
inch The inch (symbol: in or prime (symbol), ) is a Units of measurement, unit of length in the imperial units, British Imperial and the United States customary units, United States customary System of measurement, systems of measurement. It is eq ...
) making it of an inch, and of a foot. The line was eventually decimalized as of an inch, without recourse to barleycorns. The US
button A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole. In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, or ...
trade uses the same or a similar term but defined as one-fortieth of the US-customary inch (making a button-maker's line equal to ).


In use

Botanists formerly used the units (usually as inch) to measure the size of
plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...
parts. Linnaeus's ''Philosophia botanica'' (1751) includes the Linea in its summary of units of measurements, defining it as []; Stearns gives its length as . Even after metrication, British botanists continued to employ tools with gradations marked as ''linea'' (lines); the British line is approximately and the ligne, Paris line approximately . Entomology, Entomologists in the UK and other European countries in the 1800s used lines as a unit of measurement for insects, at least for the relatively large mantids and phasmids. Examples include Westwood, in the UK, and de Haan in the Netherlands.
Gunsmith A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds guns. The occupation differs from an armorer, who usually replaces only worn parts in standard firearms. Gunsmiths do modifications and changes to a firearm that may require a very ...
s and armament companies also employed the -inch line (the "decimal line"), in part owing to the importance of the German and Russian arms industries. These are now given in terms of
millimeter 330px, Different lengths as in respect of the electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the metre and its derived scales. The microwave is between 1 metre to 1 millimetre. The millimetre (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, i ...
s, but the seemingly arbitrary 7.62 mm (0.30 in) caliber was originally understood as a 3-line caliber (as with the 1891
Mosin–Nagant The Mosin–Nagant is a five-shot, Bolt action, bolt-action, Magazine (firearms), internal magazine–fed military rifle. Known officially as the 3-line rifle M1891, in Russia and the former Soviet Union as Mosin's rifle (, ISO 9: ) and inform ...
rifle). The caliber used by the
M2 Browning machine gun The M2 machine gun or Browning .50-caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed near the end of World War I by John Browning. While similar to Browning's M1919 Browning machine gun, which was chamber ...
was similarly a 5-line caliber.


Foreign units

Other similar small units called lines include: * The Russian ' (ли́ния), of the ''diuym'' which had been set precisely equal to an English
inch The inch (symbol: in or prime (symbol), ) is a Units of measurement, unit of length in the imperial units, British Imperial and the United States customary units, United States customary System of measurement, systems of measurement. It is eq ...
by
Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...
* The French ' or "Paris line", of the French inch ('), 2.256 mm and about 1.06 L. * The Portuguese ', of the Portuguese inch or 12 "points" (') or 2.29  mm * The German ' was usually of the German inch but sometimes also German inch * The Vienna line, of a Vienna inch. Karl Wilhelm Naegeli; Simon Schwendener
"The Microscope in Theory and Practice"
p. 294.


See also

*
English units English units were the units of measurement used in England up to 1826 (when they were replaced by Imperial units), which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon and Ancient Roman units of measurement, Roman systems of units. V ...
used prior to 1824 *
Imperial units The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed thr ...
defined by the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 *
List of unusual units of measurement An unusual unit of measurement is a unit of measurement that does not form part of a coherent system of measurement, especially because its exact quantity may not be well known or because it may be an inconvenient multiple or fraction of a base ...


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References


Citations


Bibliography

* . * . * . * . {{DEFAULTSORT:LINE Units of length Obsolete units of measurement