WEIGHT. 



Table IV. — Other Divifions of the Roman Pound (from Paufton) 



Libra, as, po«do 



Euglifh 



Graii-s. 



- 432 



- 864 



- 1296 



- 1728 



- 2160 



- 2592 



- 3^«+ 



- 345^ 



- 3888 



- 4320 



- 4752 



- 5184 



The weight of tlie Roman denarius, ounce, and pound, 

 13 otherwife Hated as follows : 



Engliftl 



Grains. 



62,4 



437.2 

 5246,4 



415.1 

 4981,2 



By Arbuthnot, the Denarius, (7th part of the! 

 Ounce) - - - - - 3 



the Ounce 

 the Pound 

 By Chriftiani, the Denarius, (8th part of the! 

 Ounce) - - - - - J 



the Ounce - 



the Pound - - - 



See Denarius. 



Modern Weights, or rather weights ufed in modern times, 

 are in general very remote in their origin. We fhall begin 

 with Britifh weights, and follow with thofe of France, 

 making accurate comparifons between both ; after which the 

 divifions of the weights of the principal trading places in 

 Europe, and other parts of the world, will be given ; with 

 tables of their relative proportions, extrafted, by permif- 

 fion, from the Univerfal Cambift. 



Engl'ipi Wights. — By the twenty-feventh chapter of 

 Magna Charta, the Weights are to be the fame all over 

 Enghi d ; but for different commodities there are two forts, 

 wz. troy weight, and avoirdupois weight. 



Th'.- origin from which they are both raifed is the grain 

 of wheat, gathered in the middle of the ear: 32 of thefe 

 ■well dried make one penny-weight, 20 penny-weights 

 I oz., and 120Z. I lb. troy. Stat. 51 Hen. III. 31 Edw. I. 

 12 Hen. VII. 



By the laws of affife, from the reign of William the Con- 

 queror to the reign of Henry VII., the legal pound weight 

 contained a pound of 12 ounces, raifed from 32 grains of 

 wheat ; and the legal gallon meafure invariably contained 8 

 of thofe pounds of wheat, 8 gallons made a bufhel, and 8 

 bufliels a quarter. 



Henry VII. altered the old Enghfii weight, and intro- 

 duced a pound, under the name of troy, which exceeded 

 I 



the old Saxon pound by 4 of an ounce : in proof of this it 

 is alleged, that Henry VIII. when he abolifhed the old 

 pound in the eighteenth of his reign, and eftablifhed the 

 troy, declares that the troy pound exceeded the old pound 

 by 4 of an ounce. 



This troy pound now in ufe, confiding of 12 ounces, 

 contains 5760 troy grains, and the ounce therefore con- 

 tains 480 grains ; confequently 360 grains, equal to -J- of 

 the ounce, dedufted from 5760, leave 5400 troy grains, 

 equal to the weight of the old Saxon pound which he 

 ahohfhed. It appears, therefore, that the old Saxon pound 

 was |J-J- of the prefent troy pound ; and as the avoirdupois 

 pound of 1 6 ounces contains 7000 troy grains, the old 

 Saxon pound was i-i of the prefent avoirdupois pound. 



Although formerly 32 grains made a penny-weight, it 

 has in later times been thought fufBcient to divide the 

 penny-weights into 24 equal parts called grains, being the 

 leaft weights now in common ufe. 



The firft ftatute that direfts the ufe of the avoirdupois 

 weight is that of 24 Henry VIII., which plainly imphes 

 that it was no legal weight till that ftatute gave it a legal 

 fanftion ; and the particular ufe to which the faid weight is 

 thus direfted, is fimply for weighing butcher's meat in the 

 market. How or when it came into private ufe is not clearly 

 known. Phil. Tranf. vol. Ixv. part i. art. 3. 



Table V.- 

 fmiths, &c. 



-Of Troy Weight, as ufed by the Gold- 



The grain troy is diviced into ac mites, the mite into 24 



doits. 



