622 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



Then the eight and four Ounces Troy of the Exchequer were com- 

 l>ared with the following Weights: 



First, With the Pound Troy used at the Mint in weighing of Gold, 

 which was heavier than that at the Exchequer one Grain. 



Secondly, With the eight and four Ounces at the Mint of the 6th of 

 Queen Anne, 1707, which was heavier than that at the Exchequer 

 half a Grain. 



The eight and four Ounces of Queen Elizabeth 1588 at the Mint, was 

 heavier than that at the Exchequer three Quarters of a Grain ; 

 another of the same Year of Queen EUzaheth at the Mint, stanipt 

 with a Tower, a Thistle and Grown, and EL and Crown, was heavier 

 than that at the Exchequer one Grain. 



Mr. Freeman produced a four and eight Ounce of the 6th of Queen 

 Anne 1707, by which he makes Weights for Sale, which was heavier 

 than the same Weights at the Exchequer one Grain and three Quarters: 

 Therefore, upon an Average of all these Weights, the Pound Troy 

 should be one Grain heavier than the Weights at the Exchequer, and 

 that added to the Grain and a half, which, upon the former Experi- 

 ments, the Weights at the Exchequer are too light a Medium taken 

 from thence, makes the projier Increase of the Exchequer Pound Troy 

 to be one Grain and one Quarter. 



And it is to be observed, that the Pound Troy Weight at the Mint, 

 which is now used for Gold, and the eight and four Ounces at the Mint, 

 marked with a Tower, and in the Time ot Queen Elizabeth, are both 

 one Grain heavier than the eight and four Ounces of the Exchequer. 



And considering that the Exchequer Weights have been used ever 

 since the 30th of Queen Elizabeth, 1588, one hundred and seventy Years, 

 to size other Weights by, it is highly probable, that the Difference may 

 have been occasioned by the frequent Use of the Standard. 



Your Committee endeavored to compare the Troy Weights with the 

 original Standard at Gol(hmith''s Hall, from whence it is said, in the 

 aforesaid Verdict of the 29th and 30th of Elizabeth, that the Weights 

 now at the Exchequer were made, and for that Purpose sent to Gold- 

 smith''s Hall for the said Weights; but were informed that no such 

 were to be found there, the Goldsmiths having no Weights older than 

 those at the Exchequer. 



The committee's statement respecting the way in which the correc- 

 tion of 1^ grains was deduced from the weighings of the Exchequer 

 weights is very obscure, and the result is not justified by generally ac- 

 cepted principles. If we put x for the sum of all the weights smaller 

 than 4 ounces, then the results of the weighings made by the committee 

 may be written in the form : 



4 ounce divided = 1 x 



4 ounce weight = 1 ac — } grain. 



8 ouuce weight = 2 x + J- grain. 



16 ounce weight =: 4 x -f i grain. ( ^-^^^ 



32 ounce weight = 8 a; -}- 2^ graius. ( 



64 ounce weight -^ W x -\- 5^ grains. 



128 ouuce weight = 32 x -\- 22 grains. 



256 ouuce weight ^^ 64 x -j- 9 grains. J 



Before proceeding further we must decide in what sense these weights 

 are to be regarded as standards, and perhaps the most natural course 



