8Z1 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



622 



to suggest something like the actual truth, should not have been able 

 to find out the mere existence of the largest or ale gallon, and it shows 

 the extreme confusion in which the subject was then enveloped. 



There has been in various quarters a disposition to suppose that the 

 varieties of gallons arose from the varieties of pounds, since the original 

 definition of the gallon depended upon the pound. This we think 

 exceedingly likely : we do not imagine that it was done of set pur- 

 pose, but only by confounding one species of pound with the other, in 

 the way of common mistake. There is among most antiquarians a 

 perverse unwillingness to admit human frailty among the explanations 

 of the phenomena of former times, which has caused many an hour to 

 be thrown away in trying to reconcile the Greek musical scales [TETRA- 

 CFIORD], and many more in finding out for the rude forefathers of all 

 kinds of nations an accurate and self-consistent system of weights and 

 measures. Though even in our day, a learned body,* legislating for 

 educated men, after declaring in one paragraph that none but troy 

 weight is to be used, has introduced averdupois weight in the very 

 next paragraph, we never permit ourselves to suppose that such a 

 thing could have taken place in the reign of Henry VIII. or Elizabeth. 

 Now it certainly does happen that there is a close relation not only 

 between the old gallons and the weights, but even between the different 

 versions of the old gallons and the weights. There was a gallon of 282 

 cubic inches, in the Exchequer as a standard ; there was one of 2724 

 inches, in common use ; there was one of 231 inches, in common use ; 

 and there was one of 224 inches, in the Guildhall. Now 282 and 232 

 are, as near as integers will show it, in the proportion of the pound 

 averdupois to the pound troy, and 272J and 224 are as nearly in the 

 same proportion. It is unlikely that this should have been accidental. 



Common usage, in the 16th century, made more distinctions of 

 measures than have lasted. The editor of the ' Pathway of Knowledge' 

 gives four sorts of pounds as in use : the Tower pound (already men- 

 tioned in TBOT), the troy and " haberdepoys," the subtill, and the 

 foyle. The word subtill was not the one mentioned in TARE, at least 

 one would suppose so ; let the reader try to understand it himself : 

 " The poundes subtill, so tearmed for that in in small quantitie it may 

 bee made ratable to represent anye other greater waight whatsoever, as 

 foure penny waight troy, or less to answere in due proportion unto the 

 whole pound Troye, with all his parts, every parte sensible and seve- 

 rally to be handled. This waight is private, to assaye Maisters and 

 such as can make triall of minerals, and not knowne to many other, 

 neither is there any use thereof, in ordinarie accompts." This seems 

 to mean that any small piece, such as an assayer would cut off for trial, 

 was made to represent a pound, and the fineness expressed in ounces 

 of that small pound would of course represent that of the actual pound. 

 The pound foyle was less than the pound troy by its fifth part, and was 

 used for gold foil and for wire, and for pearls. In the two former cases 

 it obviously means that the workman paid himself for labour and loss 

 by selling four-fifths of a pound of wire or foil at the price of a pound of 

 bullion. And many varieties of measure arise in this way, namely, 

 by varying, not the price of a Driven amount, but the amount of a given 

 name at a given price. A wholesale bookseller now says that he sells 

 25 at 24, meaning that he who buys two dozen shall have one more ; 

 but in the 16th century, had this usage existed, it would have been put 

 down that two dozen of books are twenty- five. 



It is needless to give an account of the old standards of weight 

 mentioned by the committee of 1758, as many of them are loot; a 

 much greater agreement was found to exist between those made at 

 various times than was observed in regard to the standards of capacity. 

 The origin and history of the different weights is alluded to in AVER- 

 DUPOIS and TROT ; of the standards of length in WEIGHTS AND 

 MEASURES, STANDARD, in which last article will be found an account 

 of the transition to the now established imperial measures. The day is 

 probably distant when the English public shall enjoy the advantages of 

 a uniform decimal system of weights and measures the only one which 

 is sure of stability. An opinion is gaining ground that the best method 

 of ultimately attaining this end is by beginning with the coinage, and 

 this was recommended by the commissioners who reported on the sub- 

 ject. [WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, STANDARD.] Nothing, as it fortu- 

 nately happens, can be easier than this change : the introduction of 

 coins of two shillings each, in place of the half-crown, might be followed 

 by that of coins of twopence-halfpenny each, without requiring any alter- 

 ation in the habits or calculations of any one. It is the advantage of this 

 proposition that the two new coins might be learnt as parts of the old 

 system, before the subsequent alteration of the copper ia made. As soon 

 as these coins are well established, an alteration of four per cent, in the 

 copper coinage, or the enactment that twelrepence-halfpenny shall pass 

 fur the silver shilling, is the whole step requisite to complete the process; 

 and the pound will then consist of ten two-shitting coins (under their pro- 

 per name), the two-shilling coin of ten twopence-halfpenny coms(also under 

 their proper name), and the twopence-halfpenny of ten farthings as at 

 present. As soon as this change is made, and the convenience of its 

 arithmetic found by experience, it will not be long before there is a 

 demand for the extension of the principle to weights and measures. 

 And it would be well if those who endeavour to bring about a reform 



* We allude to the College of Physicians, in the matter of the fluid apothe- 

 earirV measure, presently mentioned. The mistake was exceedingly natural, 

 almost inevitable, but it shows what extreme care is necessary. 



in this matter would remember that change of coinage is the only 

 change which a government can immediately command that for one 

 calculation which is made upon goods, hundreds are made upon money 

 and that, if the small alteration which is required to make the 

 coinage * purely decimal cannot be attained, there is little chance of 

 the more extensive changes which the weights and measures will 

 require. 



We now describe the English weights and measures as they stood on 

 the last day of the year 1825, immediately before the introduction by 

 law of the imperial measures, with some remarks on their states at 

 different times. As it is not to such an article as the present that the 

 young arithmetician will refer, it will not be necessary to give more 

 than a condensed set of tallies. For the modern continental measures 

 which follow, we have to acknowledge great assistance from Dr. Kelly's 

 ' Cambist,' the standard work on the subject. 



Troy Weight. This weight ia said to have always been the standard 

 weight of the country : on this assertion we have some doubts ; but 

 this is not the place to enter on them at length. The pound is 12 

 ounces; the ounce is 20 pennyweights; the pennyweight is 24 grains. 

 The pound is 5760 grains. There is but one grain in use, whether troy 

 or averdupois, and a cubic inch of pure water is 252'458 grains (baro- 

 meter 30 inches, thermometer 62 Fahr.). A cubic foot of water is 

 75'7374 pounds troy. Wheat and bread were once measured by this 

 weight, but latterly only gold and silver. It is usual to say that pre- 

 cious stones are also measured by troy weight; but, as may be 

 supposed, the measure of these is the grain. The diamond is measured 

 by carats of 151 4 to the ounce troy ; so that the carat is 3J grains, very 

 nearly. In pearls, the old foil measure already noticed still exists ; for 

 the pearl grain is one-fifth less than the troy grain. In the 17th 

 century the goldsmiths divided the ounce troy into 24 carats of four 

 grams each for gold and silver : so that the pound troy contained 1152 

 gold-carat grains. They also divided the ounce into 150 carats of four 

 grams each, for diamonds : so the pound troy contained 7200 diamond- 

 carat grains. But now the CARAT has only the sense noted under that 

 word, for gold and silver ; and is altered as above for diamonds. 



According to the old statutes, the pound troy is 7680 grains ; for 

 32 grams are to make a pennyweight, 20 pennyweights an ounce. 12 

 ounces a pound. It is not known when or why the pennyweight was 

 first t made 24 grams. In some old books a grain is 20 mites, a mite 

 24 droites, a droite 20 peroites, and a peroite 24 blanks. This division 

 of the grain into 230,400 parts must of course have been book-learning : 

 it is said to have been confined to the moneyers. 



In Swallow's Almanac for 1673, we find the troy weight given as for 

 " pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, bread, and all manner of corn and 

 grain ; and this weight the apothecaries ought to use." 



Apothecaries' Weight. In dispensing medicines, the pound troy (Does 

 that weight ever occur in prescriptions ?) is divided into 12 ounces, the 

 ounce into 8 drams, the dram into 3 scruples ; consequently each 

 scruple is 20 grains. But in buying and selling medicines wholesale, 

 averdupois weight is and always has been used. The ' Pathway,' so 

 often cited (1596), says, " all physicall drugges" were weighed by aver- 

 dupoia, and Jeake (1674) says that " many " (only many ) of the "physical 

 doses " are weighed by what we now call apothecaries' weight. The 

 fact seems to be that in the first instance the more precious drugs, as 

 musk, were weighed by troy weight, in the same manner as the more 

 precious metals ; and that the common medicines were dispensed by 

 fractions of what was then the common pound, as we shall see under 

 the next head. 



Apothecaries' fluid measure. In 1836, in the new edition of the 

 ' Pharmacopoeia,' the College of Physicians prescribed the use of the 

 following measure : 60 minims make a fluid dram ; 8 fluid drams a 

 fluid ounce ; 20 fluid ounces a pint. For water this is actual weight 

 as well as measure, since the imperial pint J is 20 ounces averdupois of 

 water : but for other liquids the fluid ounce must merely be con- 

 sidered as a name given to the 20th part of a pint. The minim of 

 water is as nearly as possible the natural drop ; but not of other sub- 

 stances, the drops of which vary with their several tenacities. 



According to Dr. Young (who has reduced them from Vega), the 

 apothecaries' grains used in different countries are as follows : 1000 

 English grains make 1125 Austrian, 956 Bernese, 981 French, 850 

 Genoese, 958 German, 978 Hanoverian, 989 Dutch, 860 Neapolitan, 



Wo leave these remarks as they stood in the ' Penny Cyclopffldia,' without 

 any allusion to recent discussions. 



f Cocker, Wingate, &c., say that a pennyweight is 82 real grains, and 3 

 artificial grains. 



J The old pint was more nearly a pound, and some of our readers will 

 remember the old saying, 



*' A pint's a pound 

 All the world round." 



The second line of this was certainly not true, and the first only approximately. 

 But under the imperial system the following, which is literally true, may lie 

 substituted, 



u A pint of pure water 

 Weighs a pound and a quarter." 



} It is not noted in the ' rharmacopooin ' that the fluid ounce, when it it an 

 ounce, is an ounce averdupois : a preceding sentence in that work implies that 

 medical men are never to uce anything but troy weight. 



