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Unit of length From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The ligne (pronounced [liɲ] ), or line or Paris line,[1] is a historic unit of length used in France and elsewhere prior to the adoption of the metric system in the late 18th century, and used in various sciences after that time.[2][3] The loi du 19 frimaire an VIII (Law of 10 December 1799) states that one metre is equal to exactly 443.296 French lines.[4]
It is vestigially retained today by French and Swiss watchmakers to measure the size of watch casings,[5][lower-alpha 1] in button making and in ribbon manufacture.
There are 12 lignes to one French 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 triple prime, ‴.[5] One ligne is the equivalent of 0.0888 international inch.
This is comparable in size to the British measurement called "line" (one-twelfth of an English 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.)
Ligne is used in measuring the width of ribbons in men's hat bands,[7] at 11.26 per international inch.[8]
The button trade uses the term ligne (sometimes "line"), but with a substantially different definition: 1⁄40 inch (0.635 mm).[9][10]
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