Slightly OT: translation from older german. (2 Viewers)

[njlarsen]

Gundlack in 1878 published in German a paper, found in BHL at ser.4:Jahrg.26=no.141-144 (1878) - Journal für Ornithologie - Biodiversity Heritage Library (first of the two pages that interest me)
I have a decent understanding of what it says and also used some google translate for support, however, I am very much in doubt regarding units. First for the eggs:
Sie messen 0,030—0,023 oder 0,031+ 0,023 mill.
and then some measurements of the bird:
Die Maasse des alten Vogels sind: Totallänge 0,300; Flugbreite 0,430; Schwanz 0,116 mill.

Anyone knows what the units would be back then?
Niels

 

[etudiant]

Gundlack in 1878 published in German a paper, found in BHL at ser.4:Jahrg.26=no.141-144 (1878) - Journal für Ornithologie - Biodiversity Heritage Library (first of the two pages that interest me)
I have a decent understanding of what it says and also used some google translate for support, however, I am very much in doubt regarding units. First for the eggs:
Sie messen 0,030—0,023 oder 0,031+ 0,023 mill.
and then some measurements of the bird:
Die Maasse des alten Vogels sind: Totallänge 0,300; Flugbreite 0,430; Schwanz 0,116 mill.

Anyone knows what the units would be back then?
Niels

Germany was definitely metric by 1870.
I think the confusion arises because in Germany, the decimal is indicated by a comma, rather than a period, with the thousands, million etc separated by a period. So the measurement is 31x23 mm for the egg and 300 mm bird length, 430 mm wingspan and 116 mm tail length.

 

[WRL]

Germany was definitely metric by 1870.[...]

Almost. Officially the metric system was introduced on 1 January 1872 after founding of the Deutsche Reich in 1871.
Regarding the "mill." in the referred text I think it is simply (a continuing) typo, since "mill." is obviously the abbreviation for "Millimeter". And yes, the comma is (and was most likely already in 1878) the decimal delimiter for numbers in Germany. So the numbers make only sense when meant as "meters" (abbr. m or M sometimes).

@njlarsen: The name of the guy was Gundlach, not Gundlack. Big difference. I know, the latter is the way anglo-saxon toungues would (most likely) pronounce it anyway. ;-)
Sorry, a bit of coaching: "ch" in the German language is as guttural sound, not present in the English language. It is never pronounced as "k" or "ck".

 

[njlarsen]

Thanks, yes the numbers make sense if meter was the intended unit.

I am originally from Denmark and am aware of the use of comma rather than period as delimiter. I also must apologize for misspelling his last name, it was inadvertent. There must be a story to be told about this guy; he published the same title in Spanish, spent quite some time in the Caribbean, etc. Biodiversity Library has him as Johannes, but in this paper, the running heading says Jean Gundlach.
Niels

 

[njlarsen]

Thanks, yes the numbers make sense if meter was the intended unit.

The last hint of doubt has disappeared regarding what was intended. In the Spanish language version of Gundlach's work, the formatting of the numbers are like this:

Niels

 

[Paul Clapham]

There must be a story to be told about this guy; he published the same title in Spanish, spent quite some time in the Caribbean, etc. Biodiversity Library has him as Johannes, but in this paper, the running heading says Jean Gundlach.

Wikipedia has him as a German-Cuban naturalist named "Juan Gundlach". Gundlach's Hawk is (for the time being) named after him.

 

[njlarsen]

Wikipedia has him as a German-Cuban naturalist named "Juan Gundlach". Gundlach's Hawk is (for the time being) named after him.

Seeing this I checked again: the German language text used Jean Gundlach, not Juan ....

But the Spanish version had him as Don Juan Gundlach

Niels

 

[James Jobling]

This is The Key entry;
gundlachi/gundlachii
Johannes Christoph Gundlach (name changed to Juan Cristóbal Gundlach 1876) (1810–1896) German ornithologist, zoologist, entomologist, resident in Cuba 1839-1896 and Puerto Rico 1873, 1875-1876 (Accipiter, Buteogallus, Chordeiles, subsp. Colaptes auratus, Mimus, syn. Psittacara chloropterus, subsp. Quiscalus niger, subsp. Setophaga petechia, Vireo).