Heraldry
Heraldry is a broad term, encompassing the design and study of armorial bearings, as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch of heraldry, concerns the design and transmission of the heraldic achievement; the achievement, or armorial bearings includes a coat of arms on an shield and crest, together with any accompanying devices, such as supporters, heraldic banners, mottoes. Although the use of various devices to signify individuals and groups goes back to antiquity, both the form and use of such devices varied and the concept of regular, hereditary designs, constituting the distinguishing feature of heraldry, did not develop until the High Middle Ages, it is often that the use of helmets with face guards during this period made it difficult to recognize one's commanders in the field when large armies gathered together for extended periods, necessitating the development of heraldry as a symbolic language but there is little actual support for this view.
The beauty and pageantry of heraldic designs allowed them to survive the gradual abandonment of armour on the battlefield during the seventeenth century. Heraldry has been described poetically as "the handmaid of history", "the shorthand of history", "the floral border in the garden of history". In modern times, individuals and private organizations, cities and regions use heraldry and its conventions to symbolize their heritage and aspirations. Various symbols have been used to represent groups for thousands of years; the earliest representations of distinct persons and regions in Egyptian art show the use of standards topped with the images or symbols of various gods, the names of kings appear upon emblems known as serekhs, representing the king's palace, topped with a falcon representing the god Horus, of whom the king was regarded as the earthly incarnation. Similar emblems and devices are found in ancient Mesopotamian art of the same period, the precursors of heraldic beasts such as the griffin can be found.
In the Bible, the Book of Numbers refers to the standards and ensigns of the children of Israel, who were commanded to gather beneath these emblems and declare their pedigrees. The Greek and Latin writers describe the shields and symbols of various heroes, units of the Roman army were sometimes identified by distinctive markings on their shields; until the nineteenth century, it was common for heraldic writers to cite examples such as these, metaphorical symbols such as the "Lion of Judah" or "Eagle of the Caesars" as evidence of the antiquity of heraldry itself. The Book of Saint Albans, compiled in 1486, declares that Christ himself was a gentleman of coat armour, but these fabulous claims have long since been dismissed as the fantasy of medieval heralds, for there is no evidence of a distinctive symbolic language akin to that of heraldry during this early period. The medieval heralds devised arms for various knights and lords from history and literature. Notable examples include the toads attributed to Pharamond, the cross and martlets of Edward the Confessor, the various arms attributed to the Nine Worthies and the Knights of the Round Table.
These too are now regarded as a fanciful invention, rather than evidence of the antiquity of heraldry. The development of the modern heraldic language cannot be attributed to a single individual, time, or place. Although certain designs that are now considered heraldic were evidently in use during the eleventh century, most accounts and depictions of shields up to the beginning of the twelfth century contain little or no evidence of their heraldic character. For example, the Bayeux Tapestry, illustrating the Norman invasion of England in 1066, commissioned about 1077, when the cathedral of Bayeux was rebuilt, depicts a number of shields of various shapes and designs, many of which are plain, while others are decorated with dragons, crosses, or other heraldic figures, yet no individual is depicted twice bearing the same arms, nor are any of the descendants of the various persons depicted known to have borne devices resembling those in the tapestry. An account of the French knights at the court of the Byzantine emperor Alexius I at the beginning of the twelfth century describes their shields of polished metal, utterly devoid of heraldic design.
A Spanish manuscript from 1109 describes both plain and decorated shields, none of which appears to have been heraldic. The Abbey of St. Denis contained a window commemorating the knights who embarked on the Second Crusade in 1147, was made soon after the event. In England, from the time of the Norman conquest, official documents had to be sealed. Beginning in the twelfth century, seals assumed a distinctly heraldic character. A notable example of an early armorial seal is attached to a charter granted by Philip I, Count of Flanders, in 1164. Seals from the latter part of the eleventh and early twelfth centuries show no evidence of heraldic symbolism, but by t
Cilice
A cilice known as a sackcloth, was a garment or undergarment made of coarse cloth or animal hair worn close to the skin. It is used by members of various Christian traditions as a self-imposed means of repentance and mortification of the flesh. Cilices were made from sackcloth or coarse animal hair so they would irritate the skin. Other features were added to make cilices more uncomfortable, such as thin twigs. In modern religious circles, cilices are any device worn for the same purposes; the word cilice derives from the Latin cilicium, a covering made of goat's hair from Cilicia, a Roman province in south-east Asia Minor. The reputed first Scriptural use of this exact term is in the Vulgate translation of Psalm 35:13, "Ego autem, cum mihi molesti essent, induebar cilicio.". The term is translated as hair-cloth in the Douay–Rheims Bible, as sackcloth in the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer. Sackcloth can mean burlap, but is mentioned as a symbol of mourning and was a form of hairshirt.
There is some evidence, based on analyses of both clothing represented in art and preserved skin imprint patterns at Çatalhöyük in Turkey, that the usage of the cilice predates written history. This finding has been mirrored at Göbekli Tepe, another Anatolian site, indicating the widespread manufacturing of cilices. Ian Hodder has argued that "self-injuring clothing was an essential component of the Catalhöyük culturoritual entanglement, representing'cleansing' and'lightness'."In Biblical times, it was the Jewish custom to wear a hairshirt when mourning, but not in order to cause harm to oneself, forbidden in the Jewish religion. In the New Testament, John the Baptist wore "a garment of camel’s hair"; some Christian denominations have worn sackcloth to mortify the flesh or as penance for adorning oneself. Cilices have been used for centuries in the Catholic Church as a mild form of bodily penance akin to fasting. Thomas Becket was wearing a hairshirt when he was martyred, St. Patrick reputedly wore a cilice, Charlemagne was buried in a hairshirt, Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany, famously wore one in the Walk to Canossa during the Investiture Controversy.
Prince Henry the Navigator was found to be wearing a hairshirt at the time of his death in 1460. St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Therese of Lisieux are known to have used them. In modern times they have been used by Mother Teresa, St. Padre Pio, Pope Paul VI. In the Discalced Carmelite convent of St. Teresa in Livorno, members of Opus Dei who are celibate, the Franciscan Brothers and Sisters of the Immaculate Conception continue an ascetic use of the cilice. According to John Allen, an American Catholic writer, its practice in the Catholic Church is "more widespread than many observers imagine"; some high church Anglicans, including Edward Bouverie Pusey, wore hairshirts as a part of their spirituality. In the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, influenced by the evangelical revival, penitents were dressed in sackcloth and called in front of the chancel, where they were asked to admit their sins. In some Methodist churches, on Ash Wednesday, along with receiving ashes receive a piece of sackcloth "as a reminder of our own sinful ways and need for repentance".
In Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, one of the antagonists, an albino numerary named Silas associated with the religious organization Opus Dei, wears a cilice in the form of a spiked chain around his thigh. The sensationalized depiction in the novel has been criticized for its inaccuracy in subsequent books and by Opus Dei itself, which issued a press release responding to the movie's depiction of the practice, claiming "In reality, they cause a low level of discomfort comparable to fasting. There is no injury, nothing to harm a person's health, nothing traumatic. If it caused any harm, the Church would not allow it."In Molière's play, the title character is shown to be a hypocrite when he wears a hair shirt with the hair lining facing outward, so that it can be seen, rather than felt. The Marvel Comics character Robbie Baldwin commissioned the creation of a suit with 612 internal spikes to represent each person who died in an explosion for which he felt responsible, so that he would be reminded of their pain in everything he did.
In Gustave Flaubert's "The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaler", Julian wears a hair shirt with iron spikes to do penance for his parricide. In Flannery O'Connor's novel Wise Blood, the protagonist Hazel Motes is discovered by his landlady to be wearing a barbed wire cilice around his torso after he has blinded himself, she finds that he has been walking miles each day with small rocks and glass in the bottom of his shoes. In George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire, members of the militant branch of the Faith of the Seven known as Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows wear hair shirts; the High Septon appointed in A Feast for Crows known as the High Sparrow wears one. Martin mentions in his new book Fire and Blood that Aegon the Third known as Aegon the Unlucky or Aegon Dragonsbane, was said to wear a hair shirt under his clothing which added to his melancholy demeanour due to the trauma he experienced during the Dance of the Dragons. In the U. S. WGN America telev
John III, Duke of Bavaria
John III the Pitiless, Duke of Bavaria-Straubing, of the House of Wittelsbach, was first bishop of Liège 1389–1418 and duke of Bavaria-Straubing and count of Holland and Hainaut 1418–1425. John was born in Le Quesnoy, he was Margaret of Brieg. His elder brother was William II of Bavaria, who succeeded their father as Count of Holland and Hainault in 1404, his sister was Margaret of Bavaria, who married in 1385 with Duke of Burgundy. As the youngest son of three, John was destined for a career in the church. At the age of 15, he became Prince-Bishop of Liège, with the support of Pope Boniface IX. John's rule was a disaster, his authoritarian style clashed with the burghers of the Prince-Bishopric. He was expelled several times and saw a counter-bishop being elected. John turned for help to his brother-in-law. In 1408 a Burgundian army led by his brother-in-law John the Fearless went to the aid of John III against the citizens of Liège, who were in open revolt. On the field of Othée, on 12 September 1408, the men of Liège were decisively defeated, Burgundian influence was extended over the city and over the bishopric of Liège.
The ensuing executions of leading insurgents led to John's nickname "the Pitiless". When his brother died in 1417 and was succeeded by his daughter Jacqueline as Countess of Holland and Hainaut and Duchess of Bavaria-Straubing, John the Pitiless rejected holy orders and surrendered his bishopric. In 1418, John III married Elisabeth, Duchess of Luxembourg, the widow of Antoine, Duke of Brabant. No children came from this marriage. With the aid of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, his wife's uncle, John III started a civil war against his niece Jacqueline and her husband Duke John IV of Brabant. John the Pitiless supported the city of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. A siege of Dordrecht in 1419 was unsuccessful, so John IV of Brabant agreed to start a joint administration with John III. Jacqueline herself as a woman, did not get a share in the political responsibility. John IV of Brabant gave up Holland and Hainaut and left the rule to John the Pitiless, his niece Jacqueline went to England in 1421 and married the king's brother, Duke of Gloucester.
She was unable to retain control over Hainaut much longer after John's death. John the Pitiless was known for the rich culture of his court. John the Pitiless died of poison in 1425 in The Hague, his Court Marshal Jan van Vliet had poisoned the pages of the ducal prayer-book, had been executed in 1424. Bavaria-Straubing was divided between the dukes of Bavaria, the major portion of which went to Bavaria-Munich. Counts of Hainaut family tree
Europe
Europe is a continent located in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, it comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Since around 1850, Europe is most considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas and the waterways of the Turkish Straits. Although the term "continent" implies physical geography, the land border is somewhat arbitrary and has been redefined several times since its first conception in classical antiquity; the division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East-West cultural and ethnic differences which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. The geographic border does not follow political boundaries, with Turkey and Kazakhstan being transcontinental countries. A strict application of the Caucasus Mountains boundary places two comparatively small countries and Georgia, in both continents.
Europe covers 2 % of the Earth's surface. Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 741 million as of 2016; the European climate is affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast. Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization; the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and the subsequent Migration Period marked the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Renaissance humanism, exploration and science led to the modern era. Since the Age of Discovery started by Portugal and Spain, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at various times the Americas all of Africa and Oceania and the majority of Asia.
The Age of Enlightenment, the subsequent French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic and social change in Western Europe and the wider world. Both world wars took place for the most part in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1949 the Council of Europe was founded, following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill, with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals, it includes all European states except for Belarus and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.
The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The currency of most countries of the European Union, the euro, is the most used among Europeans. In classical Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess; the word Europe is derived from her name. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, "wide, broad" and ὤψ "eye, countenance", hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean "wide-gazing" or "broad of aspect". Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to a Semitic term for "west", this being either Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set" or Phoenician'ereb "evening, west", at the origin of Arabic Maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav. Michael A. Barry, professor in Princeton University's Near Eastern Studies Department, finds the mention of the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of "night, sunset", in opposition to Asu " sunrise", i.e. Asia.
The same naming motive according to "cartographic convention" appears in Greek Ἀνατολή. Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is poor." Next to these hypotheses there is a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning "darkness", which produced Greek Erebus. Most major world languages use words derived from Europa to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu. In some Turkic languages the Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa; the prevalent definition of Europe as a geographical term has been in use since the mid-19th century. Europe is taken to be bounded by large bodies of water
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was a Jewish itinerant preacher in the early first century AD. Other titles for John include John the Forerunner in Eastern Christianity and "the prophet John" in Islam. To clarify the meaning of "Baptist", he is sometimes alternatively called John the Baptizer. John the Baptist is mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus and revered as a major religious figure in Christianity, the Bahá'í Faith, Mandaeism, he is called a prophet by all of these faiths, is honored as a saint in many Christian traditions. According to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure greater than himself and Christians refer to John as the precursor or forerunner of Jesus, since John announces Jesus' coming. John is identified as the spiritual successor of the prophet Elijah. According to the New Testament John the Baptist was Jesus Christ's cousin; some scholars maintain that John was influenced by the semi-ascetic Essenes, who expected an apocalypse and practiced rituals corresponding with baptism, although no direct evidence substantiates this.
John used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement. Most scholars agree that John baptized Jesus and some scholars believe Jesus was a follower or disciple of John; the New Testament texts in which John is mentioned portray him as rejecting this idea, although several New Testament accounts report that some of Jesus' early followers had been followers of John. John was sentenced to death and subsequently beheaded by Herod Antipas sometime between 28 and 36 AD after John rebuked him for divorcing his wife and unlawfully taking Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip I. John the Baptist is mentioned in all four canonical Gospels and the non-canonical Gospel of the Nazarenes; the Synoptic Gospels describe John baptising Jesus. The Gospel of Mark introduces John as a fulfilment of a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah about a messenger being sent ahead, a voice crying out in the wilderness. John is described as living on locusts and wild honey. John proclaims baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin, says another will come after him who will not baptize with water, but with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus comes to John, is baptized by him in the river Jordan. The account describes how. A voice from heaven says, "You are my Son, the Beloved. In the gospel there is an account of John's death, it is introduced by an incident where the Tetrarch Herod Antipas, hearing stories about Jesus, imagines that this is John the Baptist raised from the dead. It explains that John had rebuked Herod for marrying Herodias, the ex-wife of his brother. Herodias demands his execution, but Herod, who'liked to listen' to John, is reluctant to do so because he fears him, knowing he is a'righteous and holy man'; the account describes how Herod's daughter Herodias dances before Herod, pleased and offers her anything she asks for in return. When the girl asks her mother what she should request, she is told to demand the head of John the Baptist. Reluctantly, Herod orders the beheading of John, his head is delivered to her, at her request, on a plate. John's disciples bury it in a tomb. There are a number of difficulties with this passage.
The Gospel refers to Antipas as'King' and the ex-husband of Herodias is named as Philip, but he is known to have been called Herod. Although the wording implies the girl was the daughter of Herodias, many texts describe her as "Herod's daughter, Herodias". Since these texts are early and significant and the reading is'difficult', many scholars see this as the original version, corrected in versions and in Matthew and Luke. Josephus says. Scholars have speculated about the origins of the story. Since it shows signs of having been composed in Aramaic, which Mark did not speak, he is to have got it from a Palestinian source. There are a variety of opinions about how much actual historical material it contains given the alleged factual errors. Many scholars have seen the story of John arrested and buried in a tomb as a conscious foreshadowing of the fate of Jesus; the Gospel of Matthew account begins with the same modified quotation from Isaiah, moving the Malachi and Exodus material to in the text, where it is quoted by Jesus.
The description of John is taken directly from Mark, along with the proclamation that one was coming who would baptise with the Holy Spirit "and fire". Unlike Mark, Matthew describes John as critical of Pharisees and Sadducees and as preaching "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" and a "coming judgment". Matthew shortens the account of the beheading of John, adds two elements: that Herod Antipas wants John dead, that the death is reported to Jesus by his disciples. Matthew's approach is to shift the focus away onto John as a prototype of Jesus. Where Mark has Herod killing John reluctantly and at Herodias' insistence, Matthew describes him
Fleur-de-lis
The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys is a stylized lily, used as a decorative design or motif. Many of the Catholic saints of France St. Joseph, are depicted with a lily. Since France is a Catholic nation, the fleur-de-lis became "at one and the same time, political, artistic and symbolic" in French heraldry; the fleur-de-lis is represented in Unicode at U+269C in the Miscellaneous Symbols block. While the fleur-de-lis has appeared on countless European coats of arms and flags over the centuries, it is associated with the French monarchy in a historical context, continues to appear in the arms of the King of Spain and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and members of the House of Bourbon, it remains an enduring symbol of France which appears on French postage stamps, although it has never been adopted by any of the French republics. According to French historian Georges Duby, the three petals represent the three medieval social estates: the commoners, the nobility, the clergy, it remains unclear where the fleur-de-lis originated, though it has retained an association with French nobility.
It is used in French city emblems as in the coat of arms of the city of Lille, Saint-Denis, Clermont-Ferrand, Boulogne-Billancourt and Calais. Some cities, faithful to the French Crown were awarded a heraldic augmentation of two or three fleurs-de-lis on the chief of their coat of arms; the fleur-de-lis was the symbol of the core of the French kingdom. It has appeared on the coat-of-arms of other historical provinces of France including Burgundy, Picardy, Orléanais, Maine, Artois, Dauphiné, Saintonge and the County of La Marche. Many of the current French departments use the symbol on their coats-of-arms to express this heritage. In Italy, the fleur de lis, called giglio, is known from the crest of the city of Florence. In the Florentine fleurs-de-lis, the stamens are always posed between the petals. Argent on gules background, the emblem became the standard of the imperial party in Florence, causing the town government, which maintained a staunch Guelph stance, being opposed to the imperial pretensions on city states, to reverse the color pattern to the final gules lily on argent background.
This heraldic charge is known as the Florentine lily to distinguish it from the conventional design. As an emblem of the city, it is therefore found in icons of Zenobius, its first bishop, associated with Florence's patron Saint John the Baptist in the Florentine fiorino. Several towns subjugated by Florence or founded within the territory of the Florentine Republic adopted a variation of the Florentine lily in their crests without the stamens; the heraldic fleur-de-lis is still widespread: among the numerous cities which use it as a symbol are some whose names echo the word'lily', for example, Liljendal and Lelystad, Netherlands. This is called canting arms in heraldic terminology. Other European examples of municipal coats-of-arms bearing the fleur-de-lis include Lincoln in England, Morcín in Spain, Wiesbaden in Germany, Skierniewice in Poland and Jurbarkas in Lithuania; the Swiss municipality of Schlieren and the Estonian municipality of Jõelähtme have a fleur-de-lis on their coats. In Malta, the town of Santa Venera has three red fleurs-de-lis on its coat of arms.
These are derived from an arch, part of the Wignacourt Aqueduct that had three sculpted fleurs-de-lis on top, as they were the heraldic symbols of Alof de Wignacourt, the Grand Master who financed its building. Another suburb which developed around the area became known as Fleur-de-Lys, it features a red fleur-de-lis on its flag and coat of arms; the coat of arms of the medieval Kingdom of Bosnia contained six fleurs-de-lis, understood as the native Bosnian or Golden Lily, Lilium bosniacum. This emblem was revived in 1992 as a national symbol of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and was the flag of Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 to 1998; the state insignia were changed in 1999. The former flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina contains a fleur-de-lis alongside the Croatian chequy. Fleurs appear in the flags and arms of many cantons, municipalities and towns, it is still used as official insignia of the Bosniak Regiment of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the United Kingdom, a fleur-de-lis has appeared in the official arms of the Norroy King of Arms for hundreds of years.
A silver fleur-de-lis on a blue background is the arms of the Barons Digby. In English and Canadian heraldry the fleur-de-lis is the cadence mark of a sixth son. In Mauritius, slaves were branded with a fleur-de-lis, when being punished for escaping or stealing food; the Welsh poet Hedd Wyn used Fleur de Lys as his pen name when he won his chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the national poetry contest. Fleurs-de-lis appear on the logos of many organizations. During the 20th century the symbol was adopted by various Scouting organizations worldwide for their badges. Architects and designers use it alone and as a repeated motif in a wide range of contexts, from ironwork to bookbinding where a French context is implied; the symbol is often used on a compass rose to mark the north direction, a tradition started
Unit of measurement
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity and adopted by convention or by law, used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multiple of the unit of measurement. For example, a length is a physical quantity; the metre is a unit of length. When we say 10 metres, we mean 10 times the definite predetermined length called "metre". Measurement is a process of determining how large or small a physical quantity is as compared to a basic reference quantity of the same kind; the definition and practical use of units of measurement have played a crucial role in human endeavour from early ages up to the present. A multitude of systems of units used to be common. Now there is a global standard, the International System of Units, the modern form of the metric system. In trade and measures is a subject of governmental regulation, to ensure fairness and transparency; the International Bureau of Weights and Measures is tasked with ensuring worldwide uniformity of measurements and their traceability to the International System of Units.
Metrology internationally accepted units of measurement. In physics and metrology, units are standards for measurement of physical quantities that need clear definitions to be useful. Reproducibility of experimental results is central to the scientific method. A standard system of units facilitates this. Scientific systems of units are a refinement of the concept of weights and measures developed for commercial purposes. Science and engineering use larger and smaller units of measurement than those used in everyday life; the judicious selection of the units of measurement can aid researchers in problem solving. In the social sciences, there are no standard units of measurement and the theory and practice of measurement is studied in psychometrics and the theory of conjoint measurement. A unit of measurement is a standardised quantity of a physical property, used as a factor to express occurring quantities of that property. Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humans. Primitive societies needed rudimentary measures for many tasks: constructing dwellings of an appropriate size and shape, fashioning clothing, or bartering food or raw materials.
The earliest known uniform systems of measurement seem to have all been created sometime in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC among the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, also Elam in Persia as well. Weights and measures are mentioned in the Bible, it is a commandment to have fair measures. In the Magna Carta of 1215 with the seal of King John, put before him by the Barons of England, King John agreed in Clause 35 "There shall be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm, one measure of ale and one measure of corn—namely, the London quart; as of the 21st Century, multiple unit systems are used all over the world such as the United States Customary System, the British Customary System, the International System. However, the United States is the only industrialized country that has not yet converted to the Metric System; the systematic effort to develop a universally acceptable system of units dates back to 1790 when the French National Assembly charged the French Academy of Sciences to come up such a unit system.
This system was the precursor to the metric system, developed in France but did not take on universal acceptance until 1875 when The Metric Convention Treaty was signed by 17 nations. After this treaty was signed, a General Conference of Weights and Measures was established; the CGPM produced the current SI system, adopted in 1954 at the 10th conference of weights and measures. The United States is a dual-system society which uses both the SI system and the US Customary system; the use of a single unit of measurement for some quantity has obvious drawbacks. For example, it is impractical to use the same unit for the distance between two cities and the length of a needle, thus they would develop independently. One way to make large numbers or small fractions easier to read, is to use unit prefixes. At some point in time though, the need to relate the two units might arise, the need to choose one unit as defining the other or viceversa. For example an inch could be defined in terms of a barleycorn.
A system of measurement is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating them to each other. As science progressed, a need arose to relate the measurement systems of different quantities, like length and weight and volume; the effort of attempting to relate different traditional systems between each other exposed many inconsistencies, brought about the development of new units and systems. Systems of measurement in modern use include the metric system, the imperial system, United States customary units. Many of the systems of measurement, in use were to some extent based on the dimensions of the human body; as a result, units of measure could vary not only from location to location, but from person to person. Metric systems of units have evolved since the adoption of the original metric system in France in 1791; the current international standard metric system is the International System of Units. An important feature of modern systems is standardization; each unit has a universally recognized size.
Both the imperial units and US customary
