Weights and Measures of New York. 115 



its recovery in case of loss, it is declared (until the measure of 

 the pendulum shall be transfered to some appropriate public 

 building), that the said yard has been found, by experiments 

 made with a pendulum, with a brass rod, at Columbia College, 

 New York, in the latitude of 40° 42' 43", to bear to the pen- 

 dulum of that place vibrating seconds in vacuo, and at the level 

 of the sea, at the temperature of melting ice, the proportion of 

 one million (1,000,000) to one million, eighty-six thousand, 

 one hundred, and fifty-eight (1,086,158).* That the yard shall 

 be divided into three equal parts, called feet, and each foot 

 into twelve equal parts, called inches, ^nd shall be measured 

 between two points, engraven upon golden disks, inserted into a 

 brass rod. ; 



This yard will be identical with that adopted in England, 

 each being taken at its standard temperature, according to the 

 principle of comparison pointed out by Wollaston, and used by 

 Kater in his experiments on the measures of France. I am 

 not fully satisfied that this principle is correct, being rather 

 inclined to think that measures should be compared at a com- 

 mon temperature ; but it is that which is now received in prac- 

 tice, and has, besides, certain conveniences as applied to this 

 subject, in keeping the proposed system of weight and measures 

 of capacity more near in magnitude to those received in 

 England. 



3. That the unit of weight shall be the pound of such mag- 

 nitude, that the weight of a cubic foot of distilled water at its 

 maximum density, weighed in vacuo with brass weights, shall 

 be sixty-two and a half (62^^) pounds, that the pound shall be 

 divided into sixteen equal parts, called ounces, of which parts 

 the cubic foot of distilled water, under the same circumstances, 

 shall weigh one thousand (1000) ounces, 



4. The unit of measures of capacity, whether dry or 

 liquid, shall be the gallon, which shall be a vessel of such 

 capacity as to contain at the mean pressure of the atmosphere 

 at the level of the sea, ten pounds of distilled water at its 

 maximum density ; that all other measures of capacity shall be 

 deduced from the gallon by continual multiplication or division 



• The length of the said pendulum is 39.10168 inches. 



I 2 



