toises

The toise is an obsolete unit of length that was used in France and other parts of Europe before the adoption of the metric system. It was part of the traditional French system of measures and appeared in various forms in early modern surveying, architecture, and everyday commerce.

Definition and approximate length: The toise was defined as six royal feet (pieds du roi). Because the foot itself varied by region and era, so did the length of the toise. The most commonly cited value places the toise at about 1.95 meters, based on a pied of roughly 0.324–0.326 meters. Consequently, one toise equals about 72 pouces, with each pouce around 2.7 cm, though regional variants existed.

Variants and usage: There were regional varieties such as the Parisian toise (toise parisienne) and the meridional toise (toise méridienne), each used in different locales or fields. The toise was especially employed in land surveying, cartography, and construction, where a longer unit facilitated measurements over distances.

Decline and legacy: The French Revolution era saw the introduction and rapid spread of the metric system, and the toise was phased out as an official unit by the late 18th or early 19th century. Today it survives mainly in historical texts and discussions of pre-mmetric measurement methods, serving as a reference point for the history of measurement.