Ell

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For other uses, see ELL.

This derivation of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, depicts nine historical units of measurement: the Yard, the Span, the Cubit, the Flemish Ell, the English Ell, the French Ell, the Fathom, the Hand , and the Foot. The Vitruvian man was drawn to scale, so the units depicted are displayed with their proper historical ratios.

An ell (from Proto-Indo-European *el- "elbow, forearm), when used as an English unit of length, is usually 45 inches, i.e. 1.143 m (for the international inch). It was mainly used in the tailoring business but is now obsolete. It was derived from the length of the arm from the shoulder (or the elbow) to the wrist, although the exact length was never defined in English law.

Several different national forms existed, with different lengths, including the Scottish ell (approximately 37 inches), the Flemish ell (approximately 27 inches) and the Polish ell (0.78 metres, approximately 31 inches).Sometimes ell is used as an alias for the cubit.

An ell-wand or ellwand was a rod of length one ell used for official measurement. Edward I of England required that every town have one. It was sometimes referred to as the "Belt of Orion.[1][2]cs:Loket (délková míra) da:Alen de:Elle (Einheit) fr:Aune it:Auna sw:Ziraa nl:El (lengtemaat) ja:エル (単位) no:Alen nn:Alen pl:Łokieć (miara) sl:Vatel sv:Aln tr:Arşın

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Categories: Units of length | Human-based units of measure | Obsolete units of measure