The fotmal ( ang, fotmael, "

foot The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg mad ...

-measure"; la, fotmal), also known as the foot ('), formel, fontinel, and fotmell, was an

English unit English units are 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 d ...

of variable

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar q ...

particularly used in measuring production, sales, and

duties A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; fro, deu, did, past participle of ''devoir''; la, debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may ...

lead Lead is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metals, heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale of mineral hardness#Intermediate ...

. __NOTOC__ Under the

Assize of Weights and Measures Weights and measures acts are acts of the British Parliament determining the regulation of weights and measures. It also refers to similar royal and parliamentary acts of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and the medieval Welsh states. T ...

, it was equal to 70 Merchants' pounds and made up of a

load Load or LOAD may refer to: Aeronautics and transportation *Load factor (aeronautics), the ratio of the lift of an aircraft to its weight *Passenger load factor, the ratio of revenue passenger miles to available seat miles of a particular transpo ...

.. & & Elsewhere, it was made of 70

avoirdupois pound The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. Various definitions have been used; the most common today is the international avoirdupois pound, which is legally defi ...

s and made up load. According to Kiernan, in 16th-century

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

, the fotmal was divided into "boles" and made up of a

fother The load, also known as a fodder, fother, and charrus ( la, carrus, "cartload"), is a historic English unit of weight or mass of various amounts, depending on the era, the substance being measured, and where it was being measured. The term wa ...

, meaning it was considered to be 84

s. It continued to be used until the 16th century.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Citation, last=Gill, first=M.C., author2-last=Harvey, author2-first=W.S., display-authors=1, ref={{harvid, Gill, 1998, date=1998, contribution=Weights and Measures Used in the Lead Industry, title=British Mining, volume=No. 61, pages=129–140, publisher=Northern Mine Research Society, location=Sheffield, contribution-url=https://www.nmrs.org.uk/assets/pdf/BM61/BM61-129-140-weights.pdf Obsolete units of measurement Units of mass