152 Scientific Intelligence. [Aug. 



Article VIII. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS 

 CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE. 



I. Third Report of the Commissioners appointed by His Majesty to 

 consider the Subject of Weights and Measures. 



May it please your Majesty, 



We, the commissioners appointed by your Majesty, for the purpose 

 of considering the subject of weights and measures, have now completed 

 the examination of the standards which we have thought it necessary 

 to compare. The measurements which we have lately performed 

 upon the apparatus employed by the late Sir George Shuckburgh 

 Evelyn, have enabled us to determine, with sufficient precision, the 

 weight of a given bulk of water, with a view to the fixing the magni- 

 tude of the standard of weight ; that of length being already deter- 

 mined by the experiments related in our former Reports : and we have 

 found by the computations, which will be detailed in the Appendix, 

 that the weight of a cubic inch of distilled water, at 62° of Fahrenheit, 

 is 252-72 grs. of the Parliamentary standard pound of 1758, supposing 

 it to be weighed in a vacuum. 



We beg leave, therefore, finally to recommend with all humility, to 

 your Majesty, the adoption of the regulations and modifications sug- 

 gested in our former Reports ; which are principally these : 



1. That the parliamentary standard yard, made by Bird in 1760, be 

 henceforwards considered as the authentic legal standard of the British 

 empire ; and that it be identified by declaring, that 39' 1393 inches cf 

 this standard, at the temperature of 62° of Fahrenheit, have been found 

 equal to the length of a pendulum supposed to vibrate seconds in Lon- 

 don, on the level of the sea, and in a vacuum. 



2. That the parliamentary standard troy pound, according to the 

 two pound weight made in 1758, remain unaltered; and that 7000 

 troy grs. be declared to constitute an avoirdupois pound ; the cubic 

 inch of distilled water being found to weigh at 62°, in a vacuum, 252-72 

 parliamentary grains. 



8. That the ale and corn gallon be restored to their original equa- 

 lity, by taking for the statutable common gallon of the British empire, 

 a mean value, such that a gallon of common water may weigh 10 

 pounds avoirdupois in ordinary circumstances, its content being nearly 

 277*3 cubic inches; and that correct standards of this imperial gallon, 

 and of the bushel, peck, quart, and pint, derived from it, and of their 

 parts, be procured without delay for the Exchequer, and for such other 

 offices in your Majesty's dominions, as may be judged most convenient 

 for the ready use of your Majesty's subjects. 



4. Whether any further legislative enactments are required, for en- 

 forcing a uniformity of practice throughout the British empire, we do 

 not feel ourselves competent to determine. But it appears to us, that 

 nothing would be more conducive to the attainment of this end than 

 to increase, as far as possible, the facility of a ready recurrence to the 



