WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



BY JACOB B. BROWN.* 



The question of weights and measures is more closely 

 allied to the study of astronomy than is generally supposed, 

 and the object of what is to follow is to set forth the connec- 

 tion between the two. 



Without going into the long and most interesting history 

 of the matter in other parts of the world it will suffice to say 

 that the systems of measure best known are the French and 

 the English — ^the metre and the yard. 



The French reduced their confused and varying system to 

 order by getting the length of the earth's quadrant — the 

 quadrant of the meridian of Paris — and taking the ten mil- 

 lioneth part of the same as the metre. The metre is divided 

 and multiplied decimally ; and from it all measures, linear, 

 superficial and cubic, are derived. So likewise weights : — 

 by weighing under certain carefully recorded conditions and 

 circumstances the distilled water contained in a cubic centi- 

 metre, calling that weight a gramme, and making it the unit. 



But the quadrant could not have been measured without a 

 knowledge of astronomy, while the details of the operation 

 fall under the head of measurements. 



The original earliest English standards of length were the 

 barley corn, or grain of dried barley, three of which laid 

 lengthwise were an inch ; and the cubit or elbow, that is, the 

 distance from the elbow to the shoulder. This varied in dif- 

 ferent places and at dififerent times, the average being about 

 eighteen inches. The " King's foot," Henry I, his foot, if 

 Blackstone sa}^ truly, was called twelve inches, and his arm 

 from breast bone to tip of middle finger was called thirty-six 

 inches or one yard. 



We must suppose that in course of time a standard yard 



* Paper read before the Pli^'sical Section of the Institute by our 

 deceased member, Jacob B. Brown. 



