Weights Und Measures of New York. 109 



151bs., make the avoirdupoise pound of which, at that time, 

 authentic standards still remained, equal to 6998.5 grs. troy, 

 while on the comparison of the single pound it was equal to 

 7004 grs.* The avoirdupoise pound might, therefore, be fairly 

 taken at 7000 grs. troy. But this is evidently of the customary 

 weight as usually employed, and not of the pound discovered by 

 Kater, in the custody of the clerk of the British House of Com- 

 mons. Of the customary weight used in the mints of this country 

 and England, the weights of Sir George Shuckburgh made by the 

 celebrated Troughton may be considered as the most authentic 

 specimen. Assuming the true magnitude of the avoirdupoise 

 pound to be 7000 grs. troy, the weight of a cubic foot of 

 water, as calculated from the experiments of Shuckburgh, at its 

 maximum of density, and weighed with brass weights, is 999 

 ounces and -f'^^, the measure of the experimental solid being 

 performed upon a scale, whose standard temperature is 62° of 

 Fahrenheitf. The experiments of Shuckburgh have been 

 recently repeated by Kater;j;, and from these I have calcu- 

 lated the weight of a cubic foot of water at its maximum, 

 of density to be 999 ^^f^ ounces, assuming the measure of the 

 experimental solid to be made on a scale whose standard tem- 

 perature is the melting point of ice : no danger then need be 

 apprehended in taking the weight of a cubic foot of water at 

 1000 ounces avoirdupoise, and prescribing that the legal weight 

 shall be such as will give that determination. 



The discrepancy between this and the present received 

 weights (if accurate transcripts of the former British standards) 

 will not exceed three-tenths of an ounce in a hundred pounds, 

 a quantity absolutely insensible in the course of traffic, less 

 than the difference in the current standards of the avoirdupoise 

 pound, in 1743, and far less than the amount of discrepancy 

 discovered in the several States of the Union, as detailed in the 

 able report of Mr. Adams. 



For the unit of measures of capacity, I would propose the 

 adoption of the gallon. It is sufficiently large to prevent any 



• Philosophical Transactions Abridged, vol. xviii. 

 t Young's Natural Philosophy, vol. ii. 



% Third Report to the British Parliament on weights and measures. 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1821. 



