Table of Swedish measurements
Date
1664
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p5
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (page): 213mm
width (page): 340mm
width (page): 340mm
Subject
Description
Print of tables of measurements entitled: 'Mensurae Regni Svethiae' (Measurements in the Kingdom of Sweden).
This was sent to the Royal Society by Georg Stiernhelm (1598-1672), a nobleman and member of the King of Sweden's Council of War, who was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Using this table, Stiernhelm explained his idea of a common unit for a universal measurement of liquids and dried goods.
This was sent to the Royal Society by Georg Stiernhelm (1598-1672), a nobleman and member of the King of Sweden's Council of War, who was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Using this table, Stiernhelm explained his idea of a common unit for a universal measurement of liquids and dried goods.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 18 November 1669, ‘Monsr. George Stiernhelm, a Swedish gentleman, and one of the council of war to the king of Sweden, was proposed candidate upon his desire expressed in a letter from Stockholm to the president dated September 21, 1669, and delivered at the meeting by Mr. Chamberlayne, who presented at the same time from Monsr. Stiernhelm several curiosities, as 1. An instrument called by the presenter linea Carolina, together with a written paper explaining the design and use of that line, viz. that, supposing common water to be alike all over the world, and taking a Batavian grain for the least common measure, it would teach to know all other measures both of liquids and dry things, and from thence to know also the capacities of all vessels, and the change of their shapes in any other shapes whatsoever assigned. 2. A printed table of the measures of liquids and dry things, and for surveying. 3. A printed scheme, called monile Minervae, the design of which did not appear to the members present. 4. A printed half sheet, intitled Goergii Stiernhelmii Babel destructa, se Runa Suethica, being a breviate of two volumes designed by the author for the press, undertaking first to shew the true origin of languages, which he makes to be the Scythian tongue; and then to discover the roots, that are universal and common to all languages, out of which he attempts to derive the first tongues, and thence the others, which proceed from them. 5. Four little boxes, each containing little balls, one silvered, the other gilded over, devised for estimating the weight of liquors. 6. Tables of quadrate and cubic numbers, printed at Stockholm in 1667’ (Birch 2:401-02).
Associated place