Theligne (pronounced[liɲ] ), orline orParis line,[1] is a historic unit of length used in France and elsewhere prior to the adoption of themetric system in the late 18th century, and used in various sciences after that time.[2][3] Theloi du 19 frimaire an VIII (Law of 10 December 1799) states that one metre is equal to exactly 443.296 French lines.[4]
The ligne is still used by French and Swiss watchmakers
There are 12 lignes to oneFrench inch (pouce). The standardized conversion for a ligne is 2.2558291 mm (1 mm = 0.443296 ligne),[4] and it is abbreviated with the letter L or represented by the tripleprime,‴.[5] One ligne is the equivalent of 0.0888 internationalinch.
This is comparable in size to the British measurement called "line" (one-twelfth of anEnglish inch), used prior to 1824.[6] (The French inch at that time was slightly larger than the English one, but the system of 12 inches to a foot and 12 lines to an inch was the same in both cases.)
^Par tradition ancestrale, les horlogers n’utilisent pas le millimètre mais la ligne pour désigner le diamètre d'encageage d'un mouvement.[5] [By ancestral tradition, watchmakers do not use the millimeter but the line to designate the casing diameter of a movement]
^Gates, E.J. (1915). "The Determination of the Limens of Single and Dual Impression by the Method of Constant Stimuli".The American Journal of Psychology.26 (1):152–157.doi:10.2307/1412884.JSTOR1412884.
^Stearn, W.T. (1992).Botanical Latin: History, grammar, syntax, terminology and vocabulary, Fourth edition. David and Charles.
^abSuzanne Débarbat."Fixation de la longueur définitive du mètre" [Establishing the definitive metre] (in French). Ministère de la culture et de la communication (French ministry of culture and communications). Retrieved2011-03-01.
^The Metric System | Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Manufactures, United States Senate, Sixty-seventh Congress, First and Second Sessions on S. 2267 a Bill to Fix the Metric System of Weights and Measures as the Single Standard of Weights and Measures for Certain Uses. By United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Manufactures. October 11, 1921. p. 216.
