XLIV PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
Henry VII (1490)^ and Elizabeth (1588).^ These are both brass end 
measures, the former being an octagonal rod about half an inch in 
diameter, very coarsely made, and as rudely divided into inches on 
the right hand end and into sixteenths of a yard on the left hand 
end; the latter a square rod with sides about half an inch wide, 
also divided into sixteenths of a yard and provided with a brass bed 
having end pieces between which the yard fits. One end of the bed 
is divided into inches and half inches. Francis Baily, who saw this 
Elizabethan standard in 1836, speaks of it as “ this curious instru¬ 
ment, of which it is impossible, at the present day, to speak too much 
in derision or contempt. A common kitchen poker, filed at the ends 
in the rudest manner by the most bungling workman, would make 
as good a standard. It has been broken asunder; and the two pieces 
have been dove-tailed together: but so badly that the joint is nearly 
as loose as that of a pair of tongs. The date of this fracture I could 
not ascertain, it having occurred beyond the memory or knowledge 
of any of the officers at the Exchequer. And yet, till within the 
last 10 years, to the disgrace of this country, copies of this measure 
have been circulated all over Europe and America, with a parch¬ 
ment document accompanying them (charged with a stamp that 
costs £3. 10s. exclusive of official fees) certifying that they are true 
copies of the English standard’’^ 
In the year 1742 certain members of the Royal Society of Lon¬ 
don, and of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, proposed that, 
in order to facilitate a comparison of the scientific operations car¬ 
ried on in the two countries, accurate standards of the measures 
and weights of both should be prepared and preserved in the ar¬ 
chives of each of these societies. This proposition having been 
approved, Mr. George Graham at the instance of the Royal Society 
had two substantial brass rods made, upon which he laid off, with 
the greatest care, the length of three English feet from the stan¬ 
dard yard kept at the Tower of London. These two rods, together 
with a set of troy weights, were then sent over to the Paris Acad¬ 
emy, which body, in like manner, had the measure of a French half 
toise set off upon the rods, and keeping one, as previously agreed, 
returned the other, together with a standard weight of two marcs, 
to the Royal Society. In 1835, Baily declared this copy of the half 
143 , p. 34, and 44, pp. 51-2. (See Bibliography on page Ixxix.) 
243, p. 25. - 3 34^ p 146. 
