178 
MEASURES OF LENGTH AND WEIGHT. 
56 lb. being nearly 12 grains. In view of the magnitude of this error, and of the con¬ 
sequent error in the practice of the Standards Department of the Exchequer for many 
years, as regards the verification of local standards, it became necessary for the Commis¬ 
sion to decide on the course to be adopted in future. The Commission unanimously 
affirmed the following principle :— 
“ ‘That it is the business of a Standards Department to compare local standards with 
the imperial standards; the official standards being considered only as intermediaries, 
brought into use for the safety of the imperial standards and for general convenience.’ 
“As a temporary arrangement, small supplemental weights have been prepared under 
the immediate superintendence of the Warden of the Standards, by use of which, in 
conjunction with the defective official standards, the just weights are represented. But 
the Commission propose without delay to prepare new avoirdupois standards, correct 
in weight, and with improvements as to metal and as to form suggested by the latest 
experience. 
“4. Secondly, the Warden of the Standards has compared the official standards of 
troy weight and of bullion weight with the primary platinum troy pound from which, 
in fact, the imperial standard of the avoirdupois pound was derived. The differences 
discovered are so small as to require no mechanical correction, and the state of these 
official standards may be considered generally satisfactory. 
“ 5. Thirdly, arrangements are in progress for comparisons with their proper bases of 
the official standards of length, of capacity (for which the balance-beam originally 
constructed by Captain Kater for the same purpose will be used), and of gas 
measure. 
“ Of all the existing official standards a list will be given in an appendix to be here¬ 
after prepared. 
“ 6. In regard to additions that may be required to the existing official standards, we 
submit that the following are desirable:— 
“In weights of the smaller class :—Standards of decimal series of grain weights ; and 
standards of the weights of the half-sovereign, and of decimal series of the sovereign (gold 
coins), showing their full legal weight; together with single standards, showing the 
smallest weight sanctioned in legal tolerance. 
“ In measures of length :—Standards of the chain of 22 yards divided into links ; the 
measure of 100 feet, divided into feet; the measure of 10 feet with decimal and duode¬ 
nary subdivisions; the measures of one yard, of two feet, and of one foot, with binary 
and other subdivisions. 
“ In measures of capacity:—Standards of one-sixth gallon and one-twelfth gallon, as 
measures of the wine-bottle and half wine-bottle ; and standards of four, two, and one 
fluid avoirdupois ounces (of distilled water). 
“ A measure (with proper comparing apparatus) of one yard, hearing various subdivi¬ 
sions, has been provided; which, when verified as to its whole length and its divisions 
by the Warden of the Standards, might with propriety be used as an official standard, 
for accurate comparison of subdivided measures. 
“ 7. The Commission, observing the extraordinary attention now given to the metric 
system of weights and measures, and remarking that an ,A.ct was passed in 1864 to 
render permissive the use of the metric system, consider it highly desirable that complete 
representatives of that system should be lodged in the Standards Office. By the cour¬ 
tesy of the President and Council of the Royal Society, the Commission have been en¬ 
abled to use the best copies of the French standard metre existing in this country for 
laying down the exact measure of the metre. The Standards Office possesses a most 
accurate copy of the kilogramme, verified by Professor Miller, and transferred, with the 
sanction of the Lords Commissioners of your Majesty’s Treasury, from the Royal Obser¬ 
vatory of Greenwich to the Standards Department. And the Commission have taken 
steps for procuring complete series of the weights and capacity-measures of the metrical 
system. 
“ 8. The comparing apparatus of every kind for making the official and other 
standards available in the most accurate way for public purposes, and the mode of im¬ 
pressing the official certificate, are under revision. Lists of the balances and other com¬ 
paring apparatus will be given hereafter in an appendix. 
“ 9. The Commission are of opinion that standards of every weight and measure re¬ 
presented by the material standards now in the Standards Office ought still to be main- 
