Swedish units of measurement explained

Traditional Swedish units of measurement were standardized by law in 1665, prior to which they only existed as a number of related but differing local variants. The system was slightly revised in 1735. In 1855, a decimal reform was instituted that defined a new Swedish inch as Swedish foot (2.96abbr=inNaNabbr=in). Up to the middle of the 19th century, there was a law allowing the imposition of the death penalty for falsifying weights or measures. After a decision by the parliament in 1875,^[1] Sweden adopted the metric system on 22 November 1878, with a ten-year transition period until 1 January 1889.

As part of the transition, the Swedish mil measurement was maintained, but was shortened from alnar – the equivalent of – to exactly 10km (10miles). This measurement is still in use in both Sweden and Norway (which were in a union at the time).

Old length units

The Swedish units of length included the following:

aln – "forearm" (cf. ell) (pl. alnar). After 1863, 59.373NaN3. Before that, from 1605, 59.38 cm as defined by King Carl IX of Sweden in Norrköping 1604, based on Rydaholmsalnen.
famn – "fathom", 3 alnar.
fot – "foot", aln. Before 1863, the Stockholm fot was the commonly accepted unit, at .
kvarter – "quarter", aln.
tum or verktum – "inch", kvarter or fot, making it 2.47cm (00.97inches).
linje – "line", after 1863 tum, . Before that, tum or 2.06 mm.
mil – "mile", also lantmil. From 1699, defined as a unity mile of alnar or . The unified mile was meant to define the suitable distance between inns. After the 1889 metric conversion the Swedish mil is defined as exactly 10 kilometers.
nymil – "new mile" from 1889, 10 km exactly. Commonly used to this day, only referred to as mil.
kyndemil – the distance a torch will last, approx .
skogsmil, rast – distance between rests in the woods, approx. .
fjärdingsväg – mil.
stenkast – "stone's throw", about, used to this day as an approximate measure.
rev – 160 fot, for land measurement, was 100 fot after 1855.
stång – 16 fot, for land measurement.
tum – "thumb" (inch), fot, . After 1863 decimaltum, fot, 2.96 cm, not much accepted by professional users in mechanics and carpentry who later switched to English inch (2.54 cm, abandoned only late 20th century) and metric system.
tvärhand – "hand", .

Old area units

kannaland – 1000 fot², or
kappland – .
spannland – 16 kappland
tunnland – 2 spannland or, about 1 acre
kvadratmil – Square mil, 36 million square favnar, from 1739.
hektar - 100x100m, still commonly used for land area of farms.

Old volume units

unit	relation to previous	metric value	Imperial Value
pot	-	0.966 L
tunna	2 spann	-
ankare	-	39.26 L
ohm	155 pottor	149.73 L
storfamn	-	3770 L (3.77 m³)	3770L (3.77m² or 3.77m²)
kubikfamn	-	5850 L (5.85 m³)	5850L (5.85m² or 5.85m²)

Old weight units

mark – 1/2 skålpund. Was used from the Viking era, when it was approx. .

unit	relation to previous	metric value	Imperial Value
skeppspund	20 lispund	170.03 kg	170.03kg (374.85lb)
bismerpund	12 skålpund	5.101 kg.	5.1013NaN3
lispund	20 skålpund	8.502 kg	8.5023NaN3
skålpund	2 mark	0.42507 kg	0.425073NaN3
mark	50 ort	212.5 g	212.5g
ort		4.2508 g	4.2508g

Nautical units still in use

unit	metric value	Imperial Value
nautisk mil	1852 m	1852m (6,076feet)
distansminut	1852 m	1852m (6,076feet)
sjömil (modern)	1852 m	1852m (6,076feet)

Old monetary units

daler – From 1534, Swedish thaler. From 1873, replaced by the krona.
riksdaler – From 1624, daler, from 1681 2 daler, from 1715 3 daler, from 1776 6 daler
skilling – From 1776, riksdaler
mark – From 1534, daler. From 1604, daler.
öre – From 1534, mark. Subsequently replaced by the skilling, but from 1855 reintroduced as riksdaler.

External links

Notes and References

Web site: Riksdagens protokoll 1875:54. 58. May 19, 1875. November 15, 2019.