Old Folding Ruler - Unit of Measure

I have an old folding ruler that is marked in inches and metric on one side and "werschok" & "gamla" on the other. The ruler is also marked "London Import" & "Bojiig". Can anyone tell me about these units of measure or the ruler itself? Wondering how old it might be and what it was used for.

I have an old folding ruler that is marked in inches and metric on one side and "werschok" & "gamla" on the other. The ruler is also marked "London Import" & "Bojiig". Can anyone tell me about these units of measure or the ruler itself? Wondering how old it might be and what it was used for.

Apparently Russian units. From Rowletts Units of Measure:
arshin
a traditional Russian unit of distance. Peter the Great standardized the arshin at exactly 28 English inches, or 71.12 centimeters, early in the 1700s. The arshin was also used in several other countries adjacent to Russia. The arshin is also used as a unit of area equal to one square arshin; this would be equal to 5.4445 square feet or 0.5058 square meter.

He does not list the werschok, but another source lists 1 Arschin = 16 Werschok
and 1 Werschok = 4.44 Centimeters

There appear to be some cities named gamla, but nothing measurement related.

Old Russian units combined with Swedish word "gamla" suggest perhaps a Finnish origin from late 1800's or early 1900's being one explanation. "Gamla" meaning "old" in pluralis could be the old Swedish inches, 2,474 cm, when "new" inch was the Russian inch adapted from the englishmen, and therefore 2,54 cm.
Finland was part of Sweden until 1809 and an autonomic part of Russian Empire till 1917. Both swedish and russian units were used till metric system was adapted (thanks, frenchmen).

Just realized that I forgot to thanks you guys for the help! Greatly appreciated!!!

Hi,
According to Stanley's book on rules a wershok [vershok] is a Russian 'inch' of exactly 1.75 'London' inches [London is the same as a modern inch.
Gamla is a shortened version of Gamla Tun, an old Swedish inch of 0.97 London inches
As for Bojiig, nothing, this is not the name of a place or a unit of measurement, at least not in the book which only covers European units.
Can I suggest that it may be an old spelling for Beijing formerly Peking and as such outside of Europe.
These rules are not uncommon and were still some in stock when the Smallwood factory closed in the 1960's so you can still buy new ones would you believe.
However they are collected by people like myself. if you want to sell, contact me on 0116 2603242
As to use, international traders only I would guess.
Hope this helps
regards
Peter

Im a swiss carpenter and only work with a folding ruler. All Swiss carpenters use the ruler (2M) made in Sweden they are the best. Its made out of swedish pine wood. I bought a truck load of them and sell them. Each price: $21. The more you oder the cheaper it gets. Happy working with a folding ruler.

Last edited by Blicker on Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.