You Never Knew This About Shoes
In 1324, King Edward 11 decreed that an inch was equal to three average-sized barleycorns laid end to end. The normal shoe was declared to measure thirty-nine barleycorns, and this size, for some reason, was designated with the number 13. Other sizes were graded from this standard, with one barleycorn difference between each successive size.
Today, the foot-measuring system used in England is one size different from the American system in both length and width. In metric countries, one size indicated a difference of about two-thirds or a centimeter.
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The largest pair of shoes ever made, apart from those specially built for elephantiasis sufferers, were a colossal size forty-two. They were built for a Florida giant named Harley Davidson, yes it’s the name of the British motorcycle manufacturer and the name of my cat. The total length of one shoe was some twenty-two and one-half inches!
