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The Mile In Variety

The Mile In Variety image
Parent Issue
Day
13
Month
September
Year
1893
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

English-speaking countries have four different miles - the ordinary mile of 5,280 feet and the geographieal or nautical mile of s,085, making a difference of about one-seventh between the two: then there is the Scotch mile of 5.9-J8 feet and the Irish mile of 0,780 feet: four various miles, every one of which is still in use. Then almost every country has its oivn standard mile, says the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The Romans had their mil pas6uum, 1.000 paces, which must have been about 3.000 feet in length, unless we ascribe to Ceesar's legionaries gTeat stepping eapacity. The Germán mile of to-day is 24,318 feet in length, more than four and a half times as as our mile. The Dutch, the Danes and the Prussians enjoy a mile that is 18,440 feet long, three and one-half times the length of ours; and the Swiss get more exercise in walking one of their miles than we get in walking flve miles, for their mile is 9,153 yards long, while ours is only 1,700 yards. The Italian mile is only a few feet longer than ours; the Roman mile is shorter, ■hile the Tuscan and the Turkish miles are 150 yards longer. The Swedish mile is 7.341 yards long, and the Vienna post mile is 8,796 yards in length. So. here is a list of twelve different miles, and besides this there are other measures of distance, not counting the French kilometer, which is rather less than two-thirdsof a mile. The Iirazilians have a miilia that is one and one-fourth times as long as our mile; the Xeapolitan miiio is about the same leugth; the Japanese ri, or mile. is two and one-half times ours; the lïussiant verst is flve-etghtha as long as our mile, while the Persian standard is a fesakh, four and a half miles long, which is said to be equal to the paragang bo familiar tothe readers of Xenophons "Anabasis." The league that is familiar to readers of French and Spanish books varies just as does the mile. In Iirazil it is three and four-fifths miles long, in France it was three miles, in Spain it was two and two-thirds miles, and once on a time in England it was two and a half miles long.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier