1 70 JVrlght &c, on an Universal Measure ; 



he called a thousand, and ten of these thousands may be 

 called a tun, kc. 



" i\s for the measures of movey, 'tis requisite that they 

 sliould be deternuned bv the diiferent quantities of those 

 two nann'al metals which are the most usual materials of it, 

 viz. gold and silver, considered in their purity without any 

 allay. A cube of this standard of either of these metals 

 niav be called a thousand, or a talent, of each ; the tenth 

 part of this weight, a hundred ; the tenth of a hundred, a 

 pound; the tenlh of a pound, an angel ; the tenth of an 

 anc^d, a shillinc ; the tenth of a shilling, a penny ; the tenth 

 of a penny, a farthing. 



'■^ I mention these particulars, not out of any hope ot 

 expectation that the world will ever make use of them, but 

 only to show the possibility of reducing all n)casures to one 

 ileternnncd certainty." — Thus far bishop JV'dk'ms. 



The above extracts contain, as far as I know, the earliest 

 sketches of the ingenious methods therein proposed ; and 

 our neglect of such suggestions of our own countr)-men, has 

 been Vtrv properly rewarded by our obliging neighbours, 

 who, as in other instances, have done our nation the honour 

 to adopt and combine them, without distressing our modesty 

 bv an acknowledgment. I have no room or time, at prc- 

 iJeut, to expatiate on this becoming and charactnistic exer- 

 cise of jfoliteness. But I cannot dismiss the subject, with- 

 out adding; a few explanatoiy remarks, which historical 

 justice seems to require. 



I apprehend that few philosophers in this country, and 

 still fewer on the continent, know to whom they really are 

 indebted for the proposal of a subdivision of the meridian 

 as an universal standard, or the application of the seconds 

 pendulum to the same valuable purpose. To say nothing 

 here of the comparative merits of these meihods, or of the 

 combination of both, I believe the following passage from 

 the French Eva/clopedie, contains the generally received 

 opinions on this matter. " Mojilon, astrovnme de Lyon^ 

 Stc* That is, ^^ iMmiton, an astronomer of Lyons, pro- 

 posed as an universal measure, a geometrical foot, vii'gjila 

 pcometricci, of which a degree of the earth" (meridian) 

 '< contained 600,000; and to preserve the length of it to 

 perpetuity, he remarked that a pendulum of this length 

 made 3959-',- vibrations in half an hour : Observ. DiametrO' 

 rum, 1670, p. 433. Picard proposed a similar idea in 

 1671. JW» HuygenSy who, in 1636, had conceived the 



■■ :. v ■ ' 

 • Euryd'jprdie tuttbodi'iut^ Mu:b(ma/ique.', utt, Mintrr, p. ^2^. 



application 



