[NHCOLL-L:302] Re: Billings (1865) [Palaeozoic Fossils] - "lines"

[Arthur H. Harris]

a traditional unit of distance, equal to 1/12 inch (about 2.1167
millimeters). For measuring the thickness of buttons, there is also
a smaller line equal to 1/40 inch (0.635 millimeter). The line is
called the ligne (see above) in French, the linea in Spanish, the
linie in German, and the liniya in Russian. [from
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictL.html]

Going from memory, it also was used in printing to specify the size
of type, and adapted from that as a measurement in zoology.

William Douglas Boyce wrote:
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> On Thursday, October 21, 1999 at 17:00:51 NDT, Dave Rohr
> <drohr at sulross.edu> wrote:
> 
> In Billings' (1865) he often uses a unit of measurement called a "line".  I
> assume this is some fraction of an inch.  Do you know what it is?
> 
> Dave
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> People,
> 
> I don't know the answer to this question. Could someone help us out? Thanks
> in advance.
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Doug
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________________

Art Harris
-- 
Laboratory for Environmental Biology
Centennial Museum (Natural and Cultural History)
University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX  79968-0915
phone (915)747-6985; fax (915)747-5808; aharris at utep.edu
http://www.utep.edu/leb     http://www.utep.edu/museum