Mr. S. ~L.ee on the Greenwich Observations for 1821. 367 



pounds, avoirdupoise-weight, ascertained as before-mentioned, 

 of distilled water weighed in air, at the temperature of 62° of 

 Fahrenheit's thermometer, the barometer being at 30 inches, 

 and such measure, when made, shall be the " Imperial Stand- 

 ard gallon," and shall be the unit and only standard mea- 

 sure of capacity, from which all other measures of capacity 

 shall be computed and ascertained, according to the propor- 

 tions for certain other measures of capacity specified in the act. 



Also, that the standard measure for goods, and things com- 

 monly sold by heaped measure, shall be the bushel, contain- 

 ing eighty pounds avoirdupoise of distilled water, the same 

 being made round, with a plain and even bottom, and being 

 19i inches from outside to outside, and the goods and things 

 shall be duly heaped up in the form of a cone, such cone to 

 be of the height of at least six inches, and the outside of the 

 bushel to be the extremity of the base of such cone. 



The act likewise directs how copies and models of the said 

 imperial standard weights and measures shall be distributed 

 and brought into general use, and how local disputes, respect- 

 ing the correctness of measures of capacity, shall be locally 

 adjusted; and it repeals all former statutes, except nine, on the 

 subject, specifically sixty-three in number!. 



LXV. On some Extraordinary Inconsistencies in the Green- 

 wich Observations for 1821. By S. Lee, Esq. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 



Gentlemen, 

 "DEING lately engaged in the investigation of a question which 

 -^ requires a inference to the most accurate astronomical ob- 

 servations that can be procured, I naturally turned to those of 

 the royal observatory at Greenwich; but the results which I 

 obtained from them, were by no means satisfactory to my 

 purpose. The first impression on my mind was, that I must 

 have fallen into some mistake in respect to the conclusions 

 which I had supposed could be drawn from them, and under 

 that impression I gave up the inquiry. A hint however, which 

 I shortly afterwards received from a friend, to whom I acci- 

 dentally mentioned the circumstance, led me to suspect that my 

 disappointment was occasioned, not by any false reasoning in 

 the investigation alluded to, but by errors in the observations; 

 and a careful, though not yet complete examination of those for 

 1821, have fully confirmed my suspicions. What the exact 

 nature and extent of these errors are, cannot be precisely 

 ascertained ; but that they must be errors, 'or palpable in- 

 consistencies, 



