8 REPORT — 1842. 



On the Report of the Commissio?iers for tlie restoration of lost standards of 

 Weights and Measures, and upon their proposal for the introduction oj a 

 Decimal System. By the Dean of Ely. 



After stating that the impei - ial standards of weights and measures (the yard, the pound, 

 the gallon, and several of their multiples) had been lost in the fire which destroyed 

 the two Houses of Parliament, the author said that a commission (of which he was a 

 member) had been appointed to report on the best means of restoring these standards. 

 The commission recommended to the government that the standards of length and 

 weight should be independent of each other, which was not the case before. The 

 standard pound weight was Troy weight (5780 grains), though the pound avoirdupois 

 (7000 grains) was used throughout the country, in the proportion, perhaps, of 10,000 to 

 one of Troy. The commission recommended that, hereafter, the use of the Trey 

 pound should be abolished, except for a very limited number of transactions, and that 

 the avoirdupois pound should be considered as the standard pound of Great Britain. 

 They recommended that measures of capacity should be determined by measures of 

 weight — by far the most convenient method, inasmuch as weighing was a much more 

 accurate operation than, for instance, the formation of a perfect cube. The commis- 

 sion also ventured to recommend strongly some alterations in the coinage, and the 

 systems of weights and measures, arising out of a more extensive introduction of the 

 decimal scale. The nearly unanimous determination of the commission was, that any 

 attempt to interfere materially with the primary units of the coinage, weights and 

 measures in ordinary use, would produce much confusion and bad consequences in 

 the ordinary transactions of life. They would therefore adhere strictly to ajl those 

 primary units, viz. the pound sterling, the yard (and also the foot, for there were two 

 primary units in this measure), the acre, the gallon, and the imperial pound. The 

 coinage must necessarily be the basis of any changes leading to the more extended 

 adoption of a decimal scale. Taking the pound sterling as the primary unit, they 

 propose to introduce a coin of the value of 2*. (one-tenth of the pound) ; another, 

 either silver or copper, of one-tenth of 2s. (or 2d. and a fraction), which might be 

 called a cent (the hundredth of a pound) and the thousandth part of the pound ster- 

 ling, or nearly the value of our farthing (of which there are 960 in the pound), which 

 new coin it was proposed to call a millet (or thousandth). The difference in the value 

 of the copper coinage was less important, as it was merely a representative coinage, 

 and had not an approximate intrinsic value like the gold and silver coinage. For the 

 proposed coin of 2s. various names had been suggested, as Fictorine, rupee, or florin ; 

 it being not much different from the value of some of the rupees of the East Indies, or 

 the florin of the continent. Under this new decimal scale the shilling would be re- 

 tained, and also the sixpence (but the latter under another name, more representative 

 of its value). For the half-crown would be substituted the 2s., or Fictorine. The 

 very rev. gentleman dwelt at some length on the advantages of this change "in the ex- 

 tensive money transactions and accounts of bankers and merchants; in the Bank of 

 England, for instance, where a thousand clerks were employed, it would greatly facili- 

 tate the operations of calculations and book-keeping. Thus, discarding millets (for 

 bankers now excluded the subdivisions of a penny in their accounts), the sum of 17/. 

 3 Victorines, 7 cents, would be represented at once by 17'37 ; only two places of de- 

 cimals, instead of as now in pounds, shillings, and pence. He showed how the prin- 

 ciple was applicable, with still greater advantage, in cases of weights and measures 

 (where the scale was now most anomalous and absurd). Suppose the rental or value of 

 JJO'Gl acres of land to be required, and that the land cost 69/. 3 Fictorines, 4 cents an 

 acre. The reduction in common arithmetic was one of very considerable labour, 

 difficulty, and time. But by this plan the result might be obtained in five lines of 

 decimals, containing only twenty-one figures. As to weights, the most extensive 

 change recommended by the committee would be to introduce the uniform weight of 

 lOlbs. to the stone, instead of the varietiesof 81bs. in some, and 14lbs. or 16lbs. in other 

 parts of the kingdom ; the hundred weight to be called centner (a German term). 

 These were all the changes proposed in weights ; the commission not wishing to in- 

 terfere with the subdivision of the pound, which admitted of four subdivisions into 

 8 oz., 4 oz., 2 oz., and 1 oz. The pound and ounce would remain, therefore, exactly the 

 same as at present. As to the measure of length, the commission thought it too vio- 

 lent a change to alter all the milestones ; but there would be no difficulty (with re- 



