Denmark used a different mile and it was just as magnificent as our infamous superior number system.
One Danish mile was 12000 alen, where one alen was 2 feet. However the foot was slightly shorter than the English foot.
In total the Danish mile was 7532.48 metres.
Most places aren’t that far away in Denmark, so another common measurement was the fjerdingvej, which was a quarter mile.
Famous scientist Ole Römer made the suggestion to the king to measure all main roads in the period 1691-1698 using this standard.
If you walk on old roads, you might find the old milestones placed at the quarter miles. To differentiate the quarter miles from actual miles, they’d have 1-3 holes on the surface.
The whole thing was redone numerous times since then using different scales, where some stones we’re moved around so it’s completely useless today, but it always makes me happy when I find one.
bstix@feddit.dk 1 year ago
Only in Sweden and Norway.
Denmark used a different mile and it was just as magnificent as our infamous superior number system.
One Danish mile was 12000 alen, where one alen was 2 feet. However the foot was slightly shorter than the English foot.
In total the Danish mile was 7532.48 metres.
Most places aren’t that far away in Denmark, so another common measurement was the fjerdingvej, which was a quarter mile.
Famous scientist Ole Römer made the suggestion to the king to measure all main roads in the period 1691-1698 using this standard. If you walk on old roads, you might find the old milestones placed at the quarter miles. To differentiate the quarter miles from actual miles, they’d have 1-3 holes on the surface.
The whole thing was redone numerous times since then using different scales, where some stones we’re moved around so it’s completely useless today, but it always makes me happy when I find one.