Carbutheks. — A System of Weights and Measures. 159 



The cubic ell and superficial ell would be the fundamental measures of 

 capacity and area. 



Measurement of time is only a form of circular measurement, and the 

 day should be divided, like the circle, into six watches of four hours each ; 

 tlie watch would be divided into sixteen parts, each exactly equal to a 

 quarter of an hour ; and the quarter-hour into sixteen minutes, instead of 

 fifteen as at present. 



I need not further recite the different measm'es to be used, as I affix a 

 table showing their value in ordinary English measures. 



Of course fifteen new figures would have to be designed to use with the 

 sixteen-fold system of counting, as the present figures would have to be 

 kept exclusively for the decimal system. In the tables I have used the 

 letters of the alphabet instead of the new figures. 



The system I have sketched out would have all the advantages of the 

 decimal system and none of its disadvantages. It would be coherent 

 throughout, and would greatly reduce the labour required in all arithmetical 

 processes arising in business and science. There would be a loss of money 

 in making the change, as a large amount of capital has been invested in 

 machinery which has been designed for sub-dividing the inch in England, 

 and the corresponding measure in other countries. As far as England, 

 Kussia, and America are concerned, this might be saved by a small sacrifice 

 of the completeness of the system. By taking the inch as the standard, 

 and multiplying by sixteen for the higher measures, wq should get a mile 

 which would be about 2 per cent, shorter than the sea-mile. 



