Introduction

The core of the “traditional” Godwinnian system of weights & measures, which is used as the standard system not only in Godwinnia itself but also in all the other nations of the Godwinnian Commonwealth apart from (in some respects) Suthsaexe too, actually dates back only to 1705 AD when the somewhat more complicated system of units that had evolved during earlier centuries was rationalised at the request of Queen Edith (Reigned 1694-1736 AD).
Those reforms established two basic series of units, for measuring ‘Weight’ (from which the concept of ‘Mass’ had not yet been differentiated in those days) and ‘Length’, and also a series of units for measuring ‘Fluid Volume’ that was defined in terms of those first two scales: All three of these series were basically duodecimal in nature, although some of the other old units were also kept or redefined to provide additional, non-duodecimal subunits on an official basis in various cases where this seemed potentially useful… and of course some of the other old units remained in use on a “local” basis in the hinterlands for at least a while, or for certain specialised purposes even in the heartlands, too.
Series of units for measuring various other characteristics of reality (such as those associated with Electricity) were added to the system at more recent dates, after the concepts involved were discovered or defined. In certain cases the “basic” units adopted were the same ones that were also used in the British ‘Imperial’ system (although these were not necessarily identical to the units used in the RL version of the “Imperial” system, because some of those — such as Amperes & Volts — were actually borrowed from the ‘Metric System’ and the differences between these two worlds’ histories include the fact that on Godwinnia’s world that latter system was never invented…), although — again — typically with duodecimal rather than with decimal scales as in Britain, but in many cases uniquely ‘Godwinnian’ units were developed instead. A conference held in the city of Kingston (the main administrative centre for Godwinnia’s lands in what people from the “RL” Earth would call the eastern parts of North America) in 1871 AD formally codified the definitions for many of those units, and established the system of labels that would be used to denote their different levels of multiples and subdivisions consistently.
Recent decades have seen the Godwinnian Commonwealth’s scientists & technicians adopt a modified form of this system for some purposes, especially when dealing with foreigners who find Base-12 mathematics tricky or in certain fields of scientific activity where the details measured tend to be either too small or too large for the standard series of units to be very useful: This generally uses Base-10 multiples & divisions of the traditional system’s fundamental units, with a standardised set of prefixes & suffixes to denote the relevant power of ten in any particular case. The traditional system still remains overwhelmingly favoured for “everyday” purposes, however, even by most of those scientists and technicians.

‘World-Working’ Units

This is the label that Godwinnians give to those series of units that define certain fundamental aspects of reality, such as gravity or atmospheric pressure, and the ones used for measuring the world (or the “Greatworld”, meaning the Universe) as a whole. It is also usually considered to include the various series of units that people commonly use to measure basic factors, such as weights and lengths, for everyday purposes.

The World

Latitude and Longitude are measured in the same way as in the British system and other “Western” systems in general, although the main units used are called ‘RoundBits’ rather than Degrees, and the Greenwich Meridian has been acknowledged as marking 0o for Longitude since the year 1871. Attempts at introducing a 144-‘RoundBit’ scale both for this purpose and for geometry have been made from time to time, but that idea has never caught on and isn’t actually considered to be an official detail of the Godwinnian system yet.
The force of Gravity is known in the Godwinnian form of Anglish as ‘EarthPullingness’: One ‘True EarthPulling’, i.e. ‘Standard Gravity’, is defined as the level of this force that applies at sea-level at 45o of latitude which is the same definition that’s used in the ‘Imperial’ system (and in the ‘Metric’ system, too). This is equal to an acceleration of 32.1740 feet (or 386.088 inches) per second per second, in both the British system and the Godwinnian one.
Atmospheric pressure is known in Godwinnian Anglish as ‘SkyPushingness’: One ‘True SkyPushing’ (i.e. ‘Standard Atmosphere’) is defined in the same way as in the British system, as the level of this force that would apply at mean sea-level under one Standard Gravity if the Air was a perfect gas and was at a temperature of 15o Centigrade/Celsius. This is equal to a barometric pressure of 29.9213 inches of Mercury (when the latter is at a density of 13.595 grams per cubic centimetre), or to a force of 14.691 [British] pounds per square foot.
Both the Beaufort Scale and the Richter Scale are in use, with basically the same definitions as on the “RL” Earth, to measure Wind-speed and the strength of Earthquakes respectively.

Time

The measurement of this factor was originally based on the “Solar Day”, as in many other cultures, and still follows the familiar-to-“Westerners” pattern of ‘Hours’, ‘Minutes’ and ‘Seconds’. The islands of Godwinnia proper are placed in the “GMT–1 hour” time-zone.
The calendar used is basically the ‘Gregorian’ one, but the names used for the months are based on Old English originals that differ in actual meaning from those used in the common ‘Western’ set and the year is considered to begin with their equivalent of April rather than their equivalent of January. (The Godwinnian Catholic Church has its own rule for setting the dates of Easter, too…).

Length

The basic unit for measuring lengths, widths, depths and other distances, for most purposes is the Inch This was defined in 1705 AD as equal to the British measurement of the same name, and had only differed from that value by a tiny fraction before then anyway. This is officially defined as having 12 ‘Lines’ as its main subunits, with the old unit of the ‘Barleycorn’ (which is effectively, although not actually officially, included in the modern system too) equal to 4 Lines, although in practice a binary division (½ inch, ¼ inch, and so on) is actually more commonly used for most purposes at this scale.

12 Lines =1 Inch (which can also be divided into 3 ‘Barleycorns’ @ 4 Lines each),
12 Inches = 1 Foot (which can also be divided into 3 ‘Hands’ @ 4 inches each),
12 Feet = 1 Yoke (which can also be divided into 3 ‘Ells’ @ 4 feet each… and extensive contact with the British during the last few centuries has meant that the 3-foot-long ‘Yard’, which was also a traditional unit in Godwinnia, has managed to remain in common use on a quasi-official basis too…),
12 Yokes = 1 Rope (which can also be divided into 3 ‘Bights’ @ 4 Ells each),
12 Ropes = 1 Longfurrow (of 144 Ells, which can also be divided into 3 ‘Shortfurrows’ @ 4 Ropes each; this is equal to 576 yards, or just under 1/3 of an English ‘Mile’…),
12 Longfurrows = 1 League (which, in this system’s one main break with regularity, can also be divided into 4 — rather than just 3 — ‘Miles’ that are 3 ‘Longfurrows’ each in length; this is equal to 6’912 yards, making 1 Godwinnian Mile [@ 1’728 yards] equal to a small fraction over 98% of an English [1’760-yard] mile…).
This system also includes the ‘Dayzride-Length’ of 12 Leagues (48 Godwinnian Miles, or about 47 1/8 English ones), divisible into 3 ‘Longwalk-Lengths’ of 16 [Godwinnian] Miles each, although in practice even official documents are much more likely to use multiples of the League instead at this scale.

Special Units

Units of a less standardised nature are also used for measuring lengths or distances in certain types of situation _
Depths of water are commonly given in Fathoms, of 6 [standard] Feet each, which are a traditional unit in Godwinnia as well as in Britain… and as this distance is exactly half of 1 Yoke its name is sometimes used when describing that distance in other contexts, too.
The extensive nature of Godwinnia’s contacts with the British over the last few centuries, combined with Britain’s strength at sea during that period, has led to Godwinnia officially adopting the British Nautical Mile (which was originally defined as 1’000 Fathoms in length but has more recently been “corrected” to 6’080 Feet) for use in navigational matters, at sea and now in the air as well. This unit can be divided into 12 equal parts that are called ‘Cables’. Speeds measured in Nautical Miles per Hour are said to be in ‘Knots’.
Distances on Astronomical scales are normally defined in terms of how much time light would take to travel that far in a vacuum (with one ‘Light Year’ equal to approximately 5.987342945x10^12 [Godwinnian] Miles), in ‘Astronomical Units’ (with one of these being equal to the Earth’s average distance from the Sun, which is approximately 8 ‘Light Minutes’) or in Parsecs, as in other “Western” cultures.
The Speed of Light (and of all other Electromagnetic Radiation, too) in a vacuum is approximately 3.93429x10^7 [Godwinnian] Miles per Second.

Area

This factor is normally defined in terms of ‘Square Inches’, ‘Square Feet’, ‘Square Ells’ and so on, up to ‘Square Leagues’, although the ‘Square Line’ is much more commonly (and just as officially) called a ‘Point’ instead. However some traditional units have also been retained for the specific purpose of measuring land, although in some of those cases they originally took the relative productivity of the land involved as well as its actual linear measurements into consideration so that their effective sizes in olden times varied somewhat from area to area: According to modern reckoning a ‘Rood’ now equals half of a Square Rope (@ 10’368 Square Feet), a ‘Fieldstripe’ consists of 4 Roods i.e. 2 Square Ropes (or 41’472 Square Feet, compared to the 43’560 that are in an English ‘Acre’), a ‘Yardland’ is 36 Fieldstripes which also equals half of a Square Shortfurrow, and a ‘Hide’ of 4 Yardlands (or 144 Fieldstripes) is therefore equal to 2 Square Shortfurrows.

Weight

The basic unit for measuring this trait is the Ounce, which — even before its “modern” definition in 1705 AD — was equal in size to the traditional British unit that could be called either the “Apothecaries’ Ounce” (under which name it was used, in those days, for measuring medicinal materials) or the “Ounce Troy” (under which name it is still used for measuring precious metals) rather than to the slightly lighter “Ounce Avoirdupois” that the British used for weighing materials of most if not all other types: It consequently exceeds the ‘Ounce Avoirdupois’ in size by a factor of approximately 09.7%, as it is equal to 480 ‘Grains’ rather than just to 437.5 of the latter unit. Most sets of weights for balances that are to be used for everyday purposes have divisions of the Ounce on a binary basis (½, ¼, and so on) for the lower end of the series, but those used for various “official” purposes are defined in ‘Pennyweights’ at 12 to the Ounce (and therefore of 40 Grains each, as compared to the British unit of the same name which was a twentieth of the Ounce Troy and thus weighed only 24 Grains: This difference arose because the richer silver deposits of Godwinnia had allowed their old ‘Pennies’ to be that much larger than were the old English ones…) instead.

40 Grains = 1 Pennyweight,
12 Pennyweights =1 Ounce,
12 Ounces = 1 Markweight, or Mark (= 1 Pound Troy, or just over 82% of 1 Pound Avoirdupois; sometimes called the “Godwinnian Pound” by outsiders),
12 Markweights = 1 Stone (= just over 9.87 Pounds Avoirdupois),
12 Stones = 1 Grossweight (just a fraction under 118½ Pounds Avoirdupois, and thus roughly comparable to the British ‘Hundredweight’ of 112 lb…),
12 Grossweights = 1 GreatgrossWeight (or ‘Greatweight’) (which is just a tiny fraction under 1’422 Pounds Avoirdupois, and thus roughly 63% of a Ton…).

Special Units

Units of a more specialised nature may also be used for measuring weights in certain types of situation: The weights of precious stones are normally given in Carats, for example, although the size of this particular unit was modified for easier conversion into the main scale in 1913 when it was reduced slightly to make 1 Carat equal exactly 3 (rather than approximately 3 1/6) Grains.

Mass

This factor is defined as the weight that the objects concerned would have under one ‘True Earthpulling’ (Standard Gravity), and the units used are simply the relevant ones for Weights with the prefix ‘True-’ added (e.g. ‘TruePound’).

Volume

“Dry” volume is normally measured in terms of ‘Cubic Inches’, ‘Cubic Feet’, and so on…
The basic unit for measuring Fluid Volume is the Fluid Ounce, which was defined in 1705 AD as being the volume that 1 Ounce of pure Water occupies at its point of maximum density and also as 2 Cubic Inches. (Later & better calculations may have shown that those two definitions don’t quite give the same volume as each other, leading to the latter one being dropped for official purposes, but the comparison would probably be still close enough for most everyday purposes.) It can be subdivided into 12 Fluid Pennyweights, for which the alternative name of ‘Drams’ is also officially recognised.

12 Drams = 1 Fluid Ounce (equal to roughly 109.7% of its British namesake),
12 Fluid Ounces = 1 Pint (which can be divided into 4 ‘Gills’, of 3 Fluid Ounces each, and is equal to roughly 66% of a British Pint or roughly 82% of an American one),
12 Pints = 1 Gallon (which can be divided into 4 ‘Quarts’, of 3 Pints each, and is equal to just fractionally under 99% of 1 British gallon),
12 Gallons = 1 Keg,
12 Kegs = 1 Barrel,
12 Barrels = 1 Tun.

Density

This factor is normally defined in terms of some number of one of the usual units of Weight (or of Mass) and one of the usual units of Volume. An official Godwinnian unit of Density has actually been created, the HeldBit which represents a density of one TrueOunce per Cubic Inch, but even scientists and engineers — who were the groups most expected to find this concept convenient — hardly ever use it.

Temperature

This factor is measured on the Edgarsson Scale, which is named after the Godwinnian scholar named Edmund Swithin Edgarsson who invented it. This scale defines the range over which pure Water is liquid at a pressure of 1 Standard Atmosphere as extending from 0 ‘Smallthings’ or ‘Degrees’ (at the freezing/melting point) up to +144 ‘Smallthings’ or ‘Degrees’ (at the boiling/condensing point), with larger units called the ‘Edgar’ and the ‘Range’ that each consist of 12 and 144 ‘Smallthings’ respectively although neither of these two has ever enjoyed widespread use. The symbol normally used for this ‘Smallthing’ is the same circle that other Western cultures use for their various types of ‘Degree’, with a letter “E” added after this in cases where confusion with a different scale seems potentially quite likely otherwise. The temperature of “Absolute Zero” is -393.3504oE (although most Godwinnians would give the section of this number that I’ve quoted after a decimal point in duodecimal terms instead), but an alternative scale called the Fromfullstart Edgarsson one which actually begins at that point — thus defining the freezing/melting point of water as +393.3504oFE — is sometimes used instead when this seems relevant.

Stuff-Working Units

This is the label that Godwinnians give to those series of units that are mainly used in fields of activity such as Chemistry or Materials Science.
The ‘TwelveGrain’ is quite widely used instead of the larger ‘Pennyweight’ in these sciences, although it is only a semi-official unit, and some use is also made of the larger ‘GrossGrain’ or ‘TwicetwelveGrain’ (which works out as 3/10 of an Ounce) too.

Relative Atomic Mass is measured by comparison to the isotope Carbon-12, as in other modern cultures. It is often defined in terms of either a Grain Atomic Mass, which is the number of Grains that as many atoms of the element or isotope concerned as there are in twelve Grains of Carbon-12 would weigh, or a TwelveGrain Atomic Mass which — logically enough — is twelve times that former value…

The number of atoms in the ‘Grain Atomic Mass’ of any substance is known as Geelling’s Number, after a Godwinnian chemist by the name of Wulfstan Geelling who was the first person to publish an accurately-calculated value (of 3.902878.08. x10^22) for this factor. Its equivalent for the ‘TwelveGrain Atomic Mass’ is known as “Geelling’s Higher Number’, and is 4.683453696 x 10^23: This amount of a substance is known as one Geelling of that material (Conversion factor, for any Metric enthusiasts out there: One Geelling = 0.776 Moles / 1 Mole = 1.286 Geellings), and a concentration of one Geelling of a material in one [Godwinnian] Pint of solution is known as one ‘Geelling-Pint’ which is often shortened to as one “Geep”. (Conversion factor, for any Metric enthusiasts out there: A one-Geepish solution is = 2.06812 molar / a one-molar solution is roughly 0.4835309 Geepish…)
An older and less “systematic” way of measuring chemical concentrations, which has basically been considered obsolete for quite a long time but still turns up in some old texts, was in ‘Grains in each Dram’ (“GieD”), which worked out as parts in 40 by weight-to-volume.

One of several factors for which specific scales of measurement have been developed is Proofness, which is the strength of alcoholic beverages. This is measured in ProofBits, with a rating called ‘FullProof’ somewhat over halfway up the scale that basically matches the British concept of “Proof”. The original version of this scale defined pure alcohol as having a strength of 84 ProofBits, with ‘FullProof’ at 48 ProofBits (i.e. 4/7 pure alcohol, as on the British scale): However this was officially replaced by the so-called “New Scale”, which defines pure alcohol as 144 ProofBits and Full Proof as 84 ProofBits which is actually a fractionally higher (58.3.%, as against roughly 57.14%) concentration, in 1913.

Thing-Working Units

This is the label that Godwinnians give to those series of units that are mainly used for measuring various forces fields of activity such as Physics or Engineering. People who regularly use these scales in the context of items that don’t weight very much often tend to refer to Pennyweights by the less official but more “systematic” term ‘OunceTwelfths’, and divide these not into Grains but into ‘OunceTwicetwelfths’ (that weigh 2½ Grains each), instead.

Standard Multipliers

-Bigload = (12^9) basic units
-Load = (12^6) basic units
-Bigbit= (12^3) basic units
-Bit = 1 basic unit
-Smallbit = (12^-3) basic units
-Scrap = (12^-6) basic units
-Smallscrap = (12^-9) basic units

PushWorking Units

These are the various series of “mechanical” units, that are used for measuring the movement and/or heating of physical objects.</br> Pushingness is the name that Godwinnians give to the concept of “mechanical force” itself, i.e. the amount of energy that is needed to accelerate a specified mass by a specified amount in a specified time. Its basic unit in their system is the PushBit, which is defined as the amount of force necessary to accelerate a mass of one TrueOunce by one Inch per second per second. (This converts into other scales [roughly] as a weight of 1.24323 Grains, 0.0057 of a [British] ‘Poundal’, 0.00079 [S.I.] ‘Newtons’ or 79 ‘Dynes’.).
Onpushness is the name that Godwinnians give to the concept of “mechanical stress”. Its basic unit in their system is the OnpushBit, which is defined as a force of one ‘Pushbit’ applied across an area of one Square Inch. (This converts approximately into other scales as 1.224567 of either an [S.I.] ‘Pascal’ or a ‘Microbar’, and thus as roughly 0.000012 of 1 ‘True SkyPushing’…).
The concept of Work is measured in WorkBits, one of which is defined as one ‘PushBit’ working over a distance of one Inch.(This converts approximately into other scales as 0.005714 of a [British] ‘Foot-Pound’ or 0.00002 of an [S.I.] ‘Joule’…). This is inconveniently small for many practical purposes, so that either the ‘WorkBigbit’ (of 1’728 ‘WorkBits’, which converts as 9.87429 Foot-Pounds or 0.034674 Joules) or the ‘WorkLoad’ (of 1’728 ‘WorkBigbits’, which converts to approximately 17’062.773 Foot-Pounds or 51.91667 Joules) is often employed instead.
The amount of Heat that would raise the temperature of 1 Fluid Ounce of pure water at a pressure of 1 Standard Atmosphere from 24 to 25 Smallthings (or ‘Degrees Edgarsson’) has been defined as 1 HeatBit. This is an old unit, and is no longer considered truly official, but remains in quite widespread use for defining energy requirements simply because it is so much more convenient in size than the ‘WorkBit’. (It equals roughly 47.63 Joules, or almost 2’400’000 WorkBits… or roughly 0.92 ‘WorkLoads’) The concept of Energy is defined in terms of the amount of work — either “mechanical” or thermal in nature — that is carried out during one Second: One DoingBit is the unit that represents one ‘WorkBit’-worth of energy expenditure during one second. .(This converts roughly into other scales as 0.005714 of a [British] ‘Foot-Pound’ per Second or 0.00002 of an [S.I.] ‘Watt’…). Again, the larger ‘DoingBigbit’ (of 1’728 DoingBits; equivalent to roughly 9.87429 Foot-Pounds per Second or 0.034674 Watts) and ‘Doing Load’ (of 1’728 DoingBigbits; equivalent to roughly 17’062.773 Foot-Pounds per Second or 51.91667 Joules) are more commonly used — for practical reasons —instead: 12 DoingLoads-worth of work is also defined as one HorseWorking which is a unit that converts into the British system as approximately 0.9645 ‘HorsePower’… The use of the term ‘Donkeyworking’ for a unit one-third the size of a ‘Horseworking’ is only semi-official, and is relatively uncommon.

SparkWorking

ShockWorking

electrostatics

LodeWorking

magnetism

NoiseWorking

sonics

LightWorking

illumination/luminosity, other EM radiation?

FirstbitWorking

atomic/subatomic physics

For Outlanders’ Ease...

Conversion tables

Glossary

FasterMaking = acceleration
Fromfullstart = ‘Absolute’
Hold[ing]ness,
or Stay[ing]ness = capacity, inertia, resistance
Morewards = larger than, positive[ly]
Lesswards = smaller than, negative[ly]
Pull[ing]ness = any attractive force
Push[ing]ness = any propulsive or repulsive force
True = ‘Standard’