The early weights and measures of mankind / by General Sir Charles Warren.

  • Charles Warren
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The early weights and measures of mankind / by General Sir Charles Warren. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    58/164 (page 34)
    The Pyramid Coffer is a stone box, without a lid, with sides § cubit thick, bottom 4 cubit thick, and an interior space of the following dimensions : Length 9 cubits, breadth 3i cubits, and depth 4 cubits, giving a space of 112 cubits cubed. Note that if the breadth had been 3 cubits instead of 3^, the interior space would have been 108 cubits cubed. The bulk of the stone box is 108 cubits cubed. Thus, the volume over all is 220 cubits cubed. Now, 108 Coffer cubits cubed = the Pyramid double cubit cubed of 69,984 C.I., or 27 Babylonian cubic feet or 40-5 British cubit feet, and the interior space is -4=- more, or 28 Babylonian cubic feet, or 42 British cubic feet. I will now show how the architect of the Coffer calculated his dimensions: He had a difficult task to perform, and one which could not come out absolutely correctly with the fractions available. The task was as follows : The bulk of the stone Coffer was to be the content of the double cubit cubed (69,984 C.I.), with the content of the short sides, bottom, and long sides in the pro- portion 2, 3, 4, to the content 9. The interior space is more than the double cubit cubed (or 72,576 C.I.). It works out practically as follows : Description. Coffer Cubits Cubed. In Practice. Coffer Cubits Cubed. Two loug sides, in theory fx9x4 ... Two short sides, in theory f x 4‘5 X 4 Bottom, st x 10J x 4'5 48 24 36 4x9x4 !$x [(3* + *) = 4j]x4 4 x (9 + 4) x (3J + 4) 48-0 237 36-7 108 108-4 There is thus an extra bulk of = 259*2 C.I. to dispose of, which could only be got rid of by reducing the thickness of the bottom ^ —that is to say, by reducing the thickness of the bottom from 4 to —• inch, dhis error was probably discaided as too small. If we now accept the bulk ol Coffer, and sides, and bottom