Next time you measure something, spare a thought for all those who did the development and thinking which has made the business of measuring things easy and accurate. Go back a few hundred years and some aspects of measurement were a bit dodgy. Once upon a time an inch was the length of three barleycorns placed end to end: imagine the hunt for the longest or shortest ones, depending on which way the advantage was needed! Even some towns had their own ways and means of standardisation.
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