Does this sound right?

[TheMightyFavog]

I'm reading the original Sherlock holmes books, and came to a part where Watson is describing his time after getting out of the army. He syas that he is eraning 11 shillings and sixpence per day. I plugged that figure into a British inflation calculator and according to that, in 2010 money, that's the equivalanr of earning £230.00/day, which according to XE, is equal to $362.38/day. Multiply by 365, and Dr. Watson was pulling in the equivalant of approx. $132,000 and change/year. And Watson is describing his pay as being very meager..

That does not sound right at all, unless London of 1878 is like the London i lived in in 2007, very expensive.

[krispos42]

1. Well, there were 20 shillings to a pound sterling and 12 pence to a shilling

So a pound sterling was 240 pence. So he was making making 140 pence a day.


However, I found a currency calculator that says 140 pence from 1890 is now worth £34.44, not £230.



And £34.44 converts into about $54, which isn't much, less than $20,000/year.

[dimbear]

2. There are lots of mistakes in the Holmes stories.

Conan Doyle used to practically write them in his sleep.

For instance, we don't even accurately know what Dr. Watson's first name is.

For the trivia minded, know what Sherlock means? Hint: there's a famous singer with a similar name.