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At the time of Noah's Ark most measuring was done by a
craftsman and everyone requiring a unit of measurement abided
by that one craftsman's standard. The cubit of that time
was the length of a man's forearm or the distance from the
tip of the elbow to the end of his middle finger. This was
available but was not a standard dimension. Our foot rule
started out as the length of a man's foot, again variable
by as much as 3 or 4 inches. Fingers also were used, an
inch originally was the width of a man's thumb, 12 times
that made a foot! 3 times that was the distance from the
tip of a man's nose to the end of his outstretched arm --
approximately a yard. For thousands of years these were
the measurement rules.
The Babylonians were the developers of weight techniques
and as an improvement to comparing the weight of two objects
they compared the weight of an object with a set of stones,
finely shaped and polished and kept solely for that purpose.
It is believed these were the first weight standards used.
The Egyptians and Greeks used a wheat seed as the smallest
unit of weight which was very uniform and accurate for the
times. The weight of an average grain is still in limited
use as a standard weight in some places arond the world.
The Arabs established a small weight standard for gold silver
and precious stones using a small bean called a karob, which
is the origin of the word carat which is still used in the
weight of diamonds to-day.
Many of the methods of measuring weights and distances
were spread throughout the known world by the Romans as
they invaded the globe.
Proverbs 11.1
'A false balance is an abomination to the Lord but a just
weight is His delight'
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"The first hay-scales in town"
Two stone weights as seen in the Forbidden City in Beijing,
China.
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