Hi teacup,

> You write 25.4 mm. Not to put too fine a point on
> this but the claim at that other board is for an
> Egyptian inch of 63/64ths of a British inch. I
> know this doesn't change the substance of your
> objection to the claim. Just thought I would
> mention it to be fair.

Thanks ... you're right: I don't think I did take that properly into account. So: that would presumably be an inch of exactly 25 mm (well: 25.003125 mm); of which there'd be 20.95 (or just under 21) in an RC - if the 25 mm unit existed at all in the minds of the AE!

On the subject of the ancient inch, you might be interested in this discussion of Chinese measures in the Neolithic: [www.uni-tuebingen.de]. Keightley argues that there were inches of various lengths in existence, and suggests, IIRC, that at least some of the variations might have been due to differences in people's hand and finger measurements. He also suggests that more units of measure might be found if more attention were paid to measuring various artefacts such as jades and pots.

Hermione
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