What is an oblique sazhen, and is it in the shoulders?

Long since in Russia, to characterize a hero or just a big man, they said: "A slanting sazhen in the shoulders". What is this - sazhen? Is this accurate definition of chest width or artistic hyperbole? Let's figure it out. After all, the usual meter for us, a centimeter (along with a kilogram and a liter) as measures were taken relatively recently.

Already in ancient times man felt the need to determine the length. This was required for calculating distances, for building buildings, for measuring the quantity of goods (for example, fabrics). Therefore, people were looking for some kind of universal measure of magnitude. As a rule, the parameters of certain parts of the body of an adult male were taken as a basis. So in Kievan Rus was born sazhen - a measure of length, equal to the distance of two arms stretched in opposite directions. The origin of this term is associated with the Old Slavonic "hanging". In Ukrainian, there are still concepts of "reaching out," "saggni" (reach, reach). In Russian, this term is preserved in the word "oath", because when people swore, they stretched their right hand up.

Naturally, people are different, and that's why the scope of their hands is different. Sazhen in Kievan Rus ranged from a meter and 42 centimeters to a meter and 52 centimeters. Along with this measure of length there were walking, arshin, span, elbow. With the elbow it is clear - this is the size of the ulna, but what is the span? This is the distance between the thumb and finger that is maximally set apart. The magnitude is also relative - after all, a professional pianist has a much larger span than usual. And also the sazhens were different: mahovaya, Greek, customs and the already mentioned oblique sazhen.

It is fascinating that the British had the standard of measure of length ... were their kings. So, the official foot is the size of John the Landless's foot, and the yard is the distance from the last phalanx of the middle finger of the right arm extended to the tip of Henry I. As the parameters of a certain person were taken for the standard, there was not such a discord in the British Isles as in the Slavic Lands. Therefore, in the XVI century, the government sazhen was adopted - 2 meters 13.36 cm. But even in our country, everything was gradually unified. With the emergence of Russia to the seas and the development of navigation, the British adopted a sea fath. After all, the rope, to which the load was tied to measure the depth, was measured by the coverage of two hands. This is actually equal to simple fathoms. But since 1958 a uniform standard of this measure of length, equal to 1.8288 cm, has been adopted in shipping.

It remains only to find out what an oblique sazhen is. To measure her adult male growth raised her right arm with outstretched fingers. The distance from the end of the middle finger of the hand to the heel was equal to the oblique sazhen. Even taking into account that the growth of a man in antiquity was less than the height of modern man (about 165 cm), this measure of length was still equal to two meters and 48 centimeters. It is clear that the shoulders of this width simply does not happen in nature.

Arshin, pound, elbow and oblique sazhen became obsolete in 1917, when the Provisional Government adopted a continental metric system. Platinum meter is stored in London as a universal standard of length, although the British themselves, and after them the Americans, still measure the height and distances in yards and feet.