Report on V/eights and Measures. 431 



drant of the meridian, corresponds with 39-3708 inches of the 

 said distance. 



Your Committee recommend, that superficial measures remain 

 as they are now defined by law, namely, that the perch, pole or 

 rod, be a square of 16y feet, that the acre consists of 160 such 

 perches, and so of the rest. 



They further recommend, that the standard brass weight of 

 two pounds, also in the possession of the House of Commons, and 

 made in 1758, be considered as authentic; that one half thereof 

 as gravitating in air at the mean height of the barometer and 

 with the thermometer at 62°, be henceforth the legal Troy Pound 

 of the British Empire, containing 5760 grains; and that 7000 

 grains troy be declared to constitute a pound avoirdupois. 



And it appears that a cubic inch of distilled water weighs in a 

 vacuum, opposed to brass weights in a vacuum also, at the tem- 

 perature of 62 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, 25272 such 

 grains ; and consequently a cubic foot of distilled water, under 

 similar circumstances, will weigh 62-386 pounds Avoirdupois. 



In proceeding to measures of capacity, which, for convenience, 

 your Committee have postponed to those of weight, they find 

 themselves embarrassed, as the Commissioners have been, not 

 only by various measures designated by the same name, but by 

 a discrepance in the multiples and sub-multiples of the same 

 measure. They are on the whole, however, induced to believe, 

 that the gallon of England was originally identical for all uses ; 

 and that the variations have arisen in some cases from accident, 

 and in others from fraud. 



The definition of a Winchester bushel, in the Act of King 

 William, for laying a duty on malt, seems to have been made for 

 the purpose of facilitating the construction of cylindrical measures 

 by a near coincidence, without minute fractions. From this de- 

 finition, the dry gallon would consist of 268-835 cubic inches. 



The Gallon measure in the Exchequer contains 270*4 cubic 

 inches ; and derived from the pint, quart, &c. the gallon will 

 stand as follows : 



From the bushel 266' 1 cubic inch. 



From the definition by King William 268-8 



From the galion measure . . . . 27o-4 



From the pint 276-.') 



From the quart .. .. .. 279-3 



By an Act of Parliament made for revenue") 282« 

 purposes, the beer gallon . . • • J 



By an Act 42 Geo. III. the Winchester \ ^i^} 

 gallon is estimated at .. •• J * 



Tlie Wine Gallon is supposed to have continued gradually 



shrinking 



