ery sg 



A 



JOURNAL 





NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS, 



JUNE 1799. 



ARTICLE I. 



An Account of fame Endeavours to a/certain a Standard of IVeight and Me^SQi,^^SPSit(' 

 George Shuckburgh EfELrN, Bart. F.R.S. and J.S.* ' •'"' ''''^- • •' 



H' *\uy \ttB I', r.i 

 AVING for fome years turned my thoughts to the confideration of an iH\^al'ia61e and 

 imperifliable ftandard of weight and meafure, as being a thing in a philofophical view highly 

 defirable, and likely to become extremely beneficial to the public, I had, fo early as the year 

 1780, taken up the idea of an uhiverfal meafure, from whence all the reft might be deriveiiji 

 by means of a pendulum with a moveable centre of fufpenfion, capable of fuch adjuftmepts as' 

 to be made to vibrate any number of times in a given interval; and by comparifon of the 

 difference of the vibrations, withthe difference of the lengths of the pendulum (which difference 

 alone might be the ftandard meafure), to determine its pofitive length, if that /fhould ba 

 thought preferable, under any given circumftances ; by which means all the difficulties ariflng 

 in determining the actual centre of motion and of ofcillation, which have hitherto fo much 

 cmbarralTed thefe experiments, would be gotten over. 



§. 2. I made feveral computations of the probable accuracy that might' be expe<3:ed from 

 fuch an experiment, and was fatisfied with their refult. But not feeing clearly how fuch a 



^ Ptilof. Tranf. 1798. 



. Vot. Ill, — June 1799. O pendulum 



