1887.] ^y«^ [Taylor. 



one another, or to the other objects by which they are to be estimated^ 

 ■will not be the same as standards of weight and standards of value. Gold, 

 silver, copper and iron when balanced each by the other in weight will 

 present masses very different from each other in value. They give rise to 

 another complication, and another diversity of weights and measures. The 

 balance, or scales, in a rude form, are known to have been in use from 

 very early times. The Greeks, as appears from the Parian chronicle, be- 

 lieved weights, measures, and the stamping of gold and silver coins to 

 have been alike the invention of Pliidon, ruler of Argos, about the mid- 

 dle of the eighth century B. C. 



The weights or counterpoises used in weighing were probably obtained 

 by taking equal bulks, roughly determined, of some material of compara- 

 tively uniform density, such as brass or iron ; but to render them more 

 accurate and definite it became necessary to call in the aid of more accu- 

 rate measures of capacity ; and the weight of a known volume of pure 

 water, at a known density, is now the criterion universally resorted to for 

 determining the standard of weight. This supposes that the volume or 

 cubic contents are correctly known ; and since contents or capacity can be 

 practically expressed onlj^ in terms of the cube of a length, and area in terms 

 of the square of a length, it follows that to obtain exact units of measure of 

 all kinds, it is necessary first to fix, and then to be able to reproduce with 

 the greatest possible exactness, the unit of length. Absolutely invariable 

 standards of weight and measure have not been, and in the nature of the 

 materials to be dealt with, cannot beattained ; while to secure and reproduce 

 measures of given sorts, the results of which shall be correct and uniform to 

 within the least practicable degree of variability, is a problem upon which 

 a vast amount of scientific research, ingenuity and labor has been ex- 

 pended. 



When the legislator has the subject of weights and measures presented 

 to his contemplation, and the interposition of law is called for, the first 

 and most prominent idea which occurs to hira is that of uniformity ; his 

 first object is to embody them into a system, and his first wish to reduce 

 them to one universal common standard. 



In England, from the earliest records of parliamentary history, the 

 statute books are filled with ineffectual attempts of the legislature to es- 

 tablish uniformity. 



Of the origin of their weights and measures, the historical traces are 

 faint and indistinct ; but they have had from time immemorial, the pound, 

 ounce, foot, inch and mile, derived from the Romans, and through them 

 from the Greeks, and the yarcl, or (jirth, a measure of Saxon origin, but as 

 a natural standard diflereut from theirs, being taken not from the length 

 of members, but from the circumference of the bod}"-, and hence a source 

 of diversity. The yard, however, very soon after the Roman conquest, is 

 said to have lost its original character of girth ; to have been adjusted aa 

 a standard by the arm of King Henry the First ; and to have been found 



