[Boatanchors] Fw: Re: SI units and the rest

[Kludge]

>From Wikipedia: 

A cable length or cable's length is a nautical unit of measure equal to one tenth of a nautical mile or 100 fathoms, or sometimes 120 fathoms. The unit is named after the length of a ship's anchor cable in the age of sail. The definition varies:

International: 1⁄10 nautical mile, or 185.2 m
Imperial (Admiralty): 1⁄10 Admiralty mile (608 feet, 185.3184 m), or 100 fathoms (600 feet, 182.88 m) 
The traditional British fathom varied from 5½ feet to 7 feet in the Merchant Navy.
U.S. customary (US Navy): 120 fathoms (720 feet, 219.456 m)

Best regards,
 
Michael, WH7HG BL01xh
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/NTH/index.aspx 
http://wh7hg.blogspot.com/ 
http://kludges-other-blog.blogspot.com 
Hiki Nô! 

-----Original Message-----
From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of WA5CAB at cs.com
Sent: Tuesday, 16 November, 2010 18:46
To: jfor at quik.com
Cc: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net; dartaviation at btopenworld.com
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Fw: Re: SI units and the rest

A cable (or cable's length) is either 100 or 120 fathoms (although I've not 
yet found what determines which figure is used where - possibly it depended 
upon which Navy was involved or had it made.  The cable itself would be 
quite large by present day standards - more than 10" in circumference).  

I meant did the museum area have a "standard" cable's length of cable on 
display.  But in retrospect I see it would be much more practical to have one 
fathom on display and a placard saying that cables were normally laid up in 
lengths of 100 (or 120) fathoms.  A fathom, of course, being six feet.

Can you imagine how large a pile 600' (or 720') of say 4" diameter cable 
would make?!

In a message dated 11/16/2010 10:00:44 PM Central Standard Time, 
jfor at quik.com writes: 
> It's probably a defined number of feet.
> 
> -John
> 
> =============
> 
> 
> >I'm curious.  Is there also a Standard Cable?  As in "A cable's length
> >from
> >shore"?
> >
> >In a message dated 11/16/2010 7:12:00 PM Central Standard Time,
> >dartaviation at btopenworld.com writes:
> >>--- On Wed, 17/11/10, CLIVE COLLINS <dartaviation at btopenworld.com>
> >>wrote:
> >>
> >>>From: CLIVE COLLINS <dartaviation at btopenworld.com>
> >>>Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] SI units and the rest
> >>>
> >>>Date: Wednesday, 17 November, 2010, 1:01
> >>>Greetings from the home of the
> >>>Imperial system, God bless it!
> >>>The original metre (note the spelling)was said to be one
> >>>ten millionth of the distance between the North Pole and the
> >>>equator. However the longitude was not given a reference for
> >>>the measurement by the French and didnt take into account
> >>>geographical terrain variations so today we settle for an
> >>>electronic version. By the way, for those who might be
> >>>interested and visiting London, the Britsh Standard foot and
> >>>yard are made of bronze and are located in Trafalgar square
> >>>on the South Africa House side of the plaza.
> >>>Those are the public versions including the standard
> >>>"chain" (twenty two yards) that is laid out on the ground.
> >>>The reference measures are kept at the British Standards
> >>>Institution in very closely controlled conditions.
> >>>Regards
> >>>Clive GW3WEQ North Wales Coast UK
> >>

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480
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