148 REPORT — 1856. 



IV. New Measures of Weight proposed. 



10 tenth parts 1 imperial ounce, 



10 ounces 1 imperial pound. 



100 pounds 1 hundred weight. 



1000 pounds 1 thousand weight. 



2000 pounds 1 imperial ton. 



For Retail Dealbiys exclusively. 



2^ tenths 1 quarter "1 



5 tenths 1 half J- of an imperial ounce. 



7\ tenths 3 quarters J 



The standard one-pound weight to be exactly one-sixtieth part of the weight of the 

 new cubic foot for distilled water as ascertained by brass weights, at the temperature 

 and state of air before mentioned. By this arrangement 100 lbs. of the new will be 

 equal to about 108 lbs. of the present avoirdupois weight. 



All goods now sold by avoirdupois weight to be priced in fiittne by the imperial 

 pound, and its decimal multiples the 10 lbs., the 100 lbs., and the 1000 lbs., to the 

 exclusion of stones, quarters, hundred weights and tons of our present avoirdupois 

 weight. For retail purposes the new ounce and its tenth parts to be used. 



For Coins, Bullion, 8fC., and for Apothecaries' Weight. 



10 hundredth parts of a grain 1 tenth part. 



10 tenth parts 1 grain. 



1000 grains 1 imperial inch. 



The grail), being subdivided into tenths and hundredths for very delicate purposes, 

 and its decimal multiples the 10 grains, the 100 grains, and the 1000 grains or 

 imperial ounce, will be used exclusively for weighing and pricing all valuable articles 

 to which troy weight is now applied, to the entire exclusion also of pearl weight, 

 diamond weight, and all the carat weights. 



For apothecaries" weight, to which troy weight is also applied in preparing medical 

 prescriptions, and which requires the use of the grain as well as of the ounce, the 

 difference between the present and the proposed new grain and imperial ounce are 

 not worth noticing. 



Barrels and casks of various denominations, as well as sieves, baskets, sacks, boxes, 

 and other packages, now designating special quantities or weights of beer, wine, fruit, 

 coi'u, and other goods, together with the various customary loads, lasts and weys, all 

 differing from each other, not to be used as measures or weights without specifying 

 the contents or the amounts of each in cubic feet or pounds weight, as may be. 



Measures of Temperature and Air. 



For determining the new standard measures of length and of weight proposed, 62°"6 

 of Fahrenheit's thermometer, or its equivalent 17° of Celsius's, were recommended, 

 with the barometer standing at 29*4 inches of the new measure. The author suggests, 

 that the last mentioned thermometer, which is established in France, and which has 

 its zero at the freezing-point, the only invariable point of temperature in nature, shall 

 be adopted in preference to Fahrenheit's*. 



If the foregoing suggestions, or any system on the same principle, for simplifying 

 our national measures and weights, should be adopted, the fine idea, generally supposed 

 to have been intended in Magna Charta, and most clearly and unequivocally expressed, 

 in one of our ancient laws of a subsequent date, but which has never yet been realized 

 in this country, will be literally accomplished, namely, that there shall be only one 



MEASURE AND ONE WEIGHT THROUGHOUT ALL THE LANOf. 



* He is also of opinion, that it would be desirable to ascertain the length of the seconds' 

 pendulum by experiments in air, on the first floor of the new Houses of Parliament, in refer- 

 ence to the mean level of the tides in the Thames, without attempting to reduce it to the level 

 of the sea in a vacuum, by theoretical corrections, of which subsequent experience has rendered 

 the accuracy doubtful. The new experiments now suggested might be carried on in September, 

 during the recess of Parliament, when the above-mentioned temperature might easily be 

 obtained, and the state of air corrected, by ascending or descending from the given spot to a 

 different level. 



t See the tenth chapter of an Act of the 27th of Edward 111., Statute 2nd, entitled Qrdi- 

 nacio Stapulanim, in the Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. p. 337. 



