TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 147 



In addition to the persons employed in the mills and factories^ there are about 

 20,000 people engaged in hand-loom weaving, &c., and in the auxiliary branches 

 of the linen trade in Dundee, and perhaps 10,000 in the other districts, making the 

 total number of persons engaged in the linen manufacture of Scotland considerably 

 to exceed 100,000. The capital invested in the mills and factories, and in the bleach- 

 works, calenders, and other auxiliary branches of the linen manufacture of Dundee 

 and district around, buildings, and machinery, is about £6,000,000, and in the other 

 parts of Scotland £1,000,000 ; together, £7,000,000. The average value of the 

 stock in trade in the bauds of importers, manufacturers, and exporters is estimated 

 at £5,000,000. The total capital required to carry on the linen manufactiu'e of Scot- 

 land is therefore £12,000,000. The linens made comprise many fabrics, from the 

 finest shirtiugs, sheetings, and damask, through all qualities of dowlas, osnabm'gs, 

 spriggs, padding,- ducks, sailcloth, hessians, sacking, bags, bagging, cai'peting, iloor- 

 cloth, &e., to tlie coarsest mending and nail bagging. The mills and factories, 

 especially those erected in Dundee within the past few j-ears, are palatial structures, 

 unsurpassed in extent or solidity by any which have j'etbeen constructed elsewhere, 

 and the machinery is as perfect as human ingenuity and money can make it. The 

 various floors are lofty and thoroughly ventilated, and every modern appliance is 

 taken advantage of to render the works salubrious and healthy, and to lessen the 

 labour and increase the comfort of those employed. A visit to one of these works 

 wiU gTatify and instruct all who take an interest iu the mechanical industries of 

 the country, or in the'sanatorial improvements which are made for ameliorating the 

 condition and preserving the health of foctory operatives, and the proprietors will 

 cordially welcome such visitors. 



On the Measure and Value of Oafs. By A. Stephen "Wilsok, 



Seasons why the Office of Warden of the Standards should include Standard 

 Weujhts and Measures of the Metric Si/stem in addition to those of the 

 Imperial Weights and Measures. By James Yates, F.E.S. 

 The office of Warden of the Standards was created by an Act of Pai'liament passed 

 in August 1860, called the " Standards of Weights, Measm'es, and Coinage Act." 

 Its provisions were in accordance with the previous recommendations of the Com- 

 mission for the Restoration of the Standards (1841), of the Astronomer Royal (1859), 

 and of the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1862). Its main pm-port 

 was, that a distinct department of Weights and Measm-es should be established in 

 connexion with the Board of Trade, and that it shoidd be imder the control of a 

 warden, or chief officer, whose business shoidd be to compare standards brought for 

 verification, to watch the legislation and practice in our own country, and the 

 course followed in other countries, to provide the standards and other apparatus 

 required for scientific pm'poses, and, when necessarj', to memorialize the Treasury 

 on the steps which ought to be taken. — First Heport of Warden of the Standards, 1807, 

 p. 15. But, although at the time when this Act was passed the measures and 

 weights of the Metric System were legaUzed, no provision was made for its use. 

 Hereupon the author of this paper observes : — 



"The gradual extension of the use of the Metric System in this country, leading 

 on to its general adoption, as anticipated by the Committee of the House of Com- 

 mons, shows the necessity of making the same provision for it as for the Imperial 

 Weights and Measiu-es. Metric weights and measures are now made in consider- 

 able quantities by English manufacturers, especially in London, Birmingham, and 

 Sheffield. Many of these articles are exported to countries in which the Metric 

 System has been long and exclusively established. With increasing facilities for 

 the manufacture of them, it may be expected that they will form an important 

 branch of our foreign trade. London tradesmen are greatly disappointed to find 

 that the IMetric Weights and Measures Act does not protect them iu using Metric 

 weights and measures. The manufacturers of such weights and measures apply in 

 vain at the proper offices to have them tested. There is consequently great uncer- 

 tainty and liability to fraud in their use, even although "the length of a metre 

 and its subdivisions should be marked upon the same bar T\ath the standard yard." 



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