Arshin: how many centimeters is it? And if in inches?

There are many Russian sayings in which the word "arshin" is found. Even if you don’t know the meaning of this word, but remember Tyutchev’s poem, which says that it is impossible to measure Russia with arshin, it immediately becomes clear that this is a measure of length.

All dimensions are in man

Since ancient times, man has made measurements based on the structure of his own body. All the ancient measures of length, known in Russia, are somehow connected with the length of any human limbs. The name “elbow” or “palm” speaks for itself. And in foreign languages ​​the same picture is observed. For example, “inch” is literally translated from Dutch as “thumb”, and English “foot” is nothing more than “foot”. Depending on the purpose of the measurement - whether it is necessary to measure something small, or comparable to a person, or large distances - the units of measurement were chosen.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, the basic concept of the Russian account was the vertex, the length of which in today's units is 4.445 cm. Why is it such a fractional and not an integer? This will be discussed later. If you ask the question "arshin - how many vertices is it?", You need to go through the following chain. Four points made up one quarter. Four quarters were arshins. These ratios allow you to accurately say how many centimeters are in the arshin. Exactly 71.12. And exactly three arshins in total were equal to fathoms. And a thousand fathoms were one mile away. Then, under Peter the Great, the number of fathoms in the composition of the verst was reduced to five hundred, which was a little more than the current kilometer, but this is not about that.

Europeanization of Arshin

When asked “arshin - how many palms are these?” it should be clarified that the “palm” in the measurement was called the width of the palm without a thumb. And exactly seven palms made up one arshin. Inch was the width of the thumb of an adult male. Peter the Great, adjusting all of Russia to European standards, brought all units of the Russian account to the ratio of inches. This unit was minimal in many European countries. Its length was 2.54 centimeters. It was this concept that Peter the Great brought from Europe, reducing the minimum dimension in the Russian account. And if the arshin consisted of sixteen points, then the question "arshin - how many inches is it?" from the eighteenth century they began to answer: "Twenty-eight." That is, one tip was 1.75 inches.

When did arshin appear

It is precisely unclear at what time the concept of “arshin” entered the Russian language. The concepts of “elbow” and “span” were used as early as the twelfth century, “fathom” - a century earlier. Mention of “arshin”, as well as of “top”, first appeared only in the sixteenth century, although they firmly entered the lexicon. What is arshin equal to? Initially, the so-called arm length - the distance from the fingertips to the shoulder. And this concept, whether of Turkish or Persian origin, eventually replaced the "elbow" from everyday life. But neither the size of the elbow, nor the size of the arshin was officially recorded. This allowed the merchant class to measure materials with its own arshin, which gave the expression a common sense. Therefore, the second tsar from the Romanov dynasty - Alexei Mikhailovich - in order to avoid scandals and to replenish his own treasury, he finally answered the question "arshin - how much is this?" He introduced the standard measure - state arshin.

This measure was branded on both sides with a government seal and sold very expensive for those times - seventy kopecks per unit. This was one of the reasons for the first rebellion during the reign of this king. It is curious that in the old days when measuring human growth, the count began after two arshins, that is, it was the minimum height of a normal adult. That is, they did not say that a person has a height of two arshins and ten points, but simply ten points.

World standardization

When the volume of commodity relations between countries significantly increased, standardization of measurements was required. The first in this business were the French, who themselves only at the end of the eighteenth century introduced the standard of length - “meter” into their everyday life. Having legislated this concept throughout the territory of his country, France initiated the signing of the Metric Convention. This convention was signed by representatives of seventeen leading world powers, including Russia.

After that, the meter gradually became an international unit of measurement, crowding out local units. The official ratios of international and local units were laid, for example, it was precisely indicated how many meters in arshin. In Russia, they finally switched to the metric system after the 1917 revolution. Only in sayings and in oral speech sometimes the old names slip - span, arshin, verst.