XLVI PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
ures, and the other was a line measure which the committee recom¬ 
mended should be made the legal standard of England, and which 
has since been known as Bird’s standard of 1758. Respecting the 
statement that after lying together all night the rods were all found 
to agree as near as it was possible, Baily says: “ This is somewhat 
remarkable, and requires further explanation, which unfortunately 
cannot now be accurately obtained. For it is notorious that the meas¬ 
ure of the yard of the Royal Society’s scale differs very considerably 
from the standard yard at the Exchequer; ^ ^ ^ Owing to 
this singular confusion of the lengths of the measures, which does 
not appear to have been unraveled by any subsequent Committee, 
it has happened that the Imperial standard yard * * * jj^s 
been assumed nearly 1 -i- 140 of an inch longer than the ancient 
measure of the kingdom.”^ There is little difficulty in surmising 
what Bird did. The Exchequer standard consisted of a rod and its 
matrix. The Royal Society’s committee assumed the rod to be the 
true standard of 36 inches, and upon that assumption Graham’s 
measurements gave for the length of the matrix 36*0102 inches, and 
for the length of the Royal Society’s yard 36*0075 inches. The 
Parliamentary committee of 1758 probably assumed the standard 
to consist of the rod and matrix together, which seems the better 
view; and by laying the rod in its matrix and measuring to the 
joint between them. Bird would have got a length of about 36*0051 
inches. The mean between that and 36*0075 would be 36*0063, 
which differs very little from the length of Bird’s standard result¬ 
ing from Sir George Shuckburgh’s measurements. Thus the com¬ 
mittee’s statement is justified, and there has been no falsification of 
the ancient standards. 
On DecernDer 1,1758, Parliament created another committee on 
weights and measures which in April, 1759, repeated the recommen¬ 
dation that Bird’s standard of 1758 should be legalized, and further 
recommended that a copy of it should be made and deposited in 
some public office, to be used only on special occasions.^ The copy 
was made by Bird in 1760, but owing to circumstances entirely un¬ 
connected with the subject, no legislation followed for sixty-four 
years. 
The Royal Commission appointed during the reign of George III, 
to consider the subject of weights and measures, made its first report 
134 , p. 43. 
2 12, p. 463. 
