TWENTY-FOUR INCH GAUGE
This working tool has what are probably its first mentions in 1724, in two exposures in which it is described as a ‘rule’. No length is given for it until Three Distinct Knocks of 1760 and Jachin & Boaz of 1762, in which the day is divided thus: ‘Six hours to work in six hours to serve God, six to serve a friend or brother’. The remaining were presumably allowed for rest and refreshment. It has been whimsically suggested that metrication should overtake this working tool! The French, we are told, do not moralize upon it. Where it is given a length the old French word pouce (inch) is used. Some German lodges use Zolf, also meaning an inch. But without metricating also units of time-which, thank goodness, no one seems to have proposed-twenty-four hours and twenty-four inches are likely to remind us for many years ahead of the worthy employment of each day.
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From ‘A Reference Book For Freemasons’ – compiled by Frederick Smyth and published in 1998.
R.W. Bro. Robert South