MEASURE. 
tson of the ale gallon of 282 cubical inches, and to aholifh 
the ufe of all the others. They alfo recommended that 
the troy pound (hould be the only ftandard of weight. 
This Report was agreed to by the houfe; but it was not 
till 1765 that two bills were brought in by lord Carysfort, 
who was chairman of the committee of 1758, for the pur- 
pol'e of carrying into eft'eCt the refolutions of that com¬ 
mittee. Thefe bills were feve rally read a fir ft and fecond 
time, and -committed ; and the bills, as amended by the 
-committee, were ordered to be printed on the 8th day of 
May. Parliament was however prorogued in that year 
on the 25th day of May ; and thefe bills, which (as far as 
can be collected from the Journals) were approved of by 
the houfe, were thus unfortunately loft. 
Since that period, little has been done to accomplifh 
this important objeci. A committee was indeed appointed 
in the year 1790; but they do not appear to have made 
any progrefs, as your committee have been unable to find 
any minutes of their proceedings. Two a£ts were palled 
in the years 1795 and 1797, the 35 Geo. III. c. 102. and 
37 Geo. III. c. 143. which empower juffices of the peace 
to fearch for and deftroy falfe weights, and to punilh the 
perfons in whofe pofl'effion they are found ; but no men¬ 
tion is made in thefe afts of deficient tncajurcs. 
The committee then proceeded to ltnte what appeared 
to them to be the principal caufes which have prevented 
the eftablifhment of uniform weights and meafures ; and 
to (late the reafons which have induced them to differ 
from the committee of 1758 in fome of their refolutions. 
It appears, that the great caufes of the inaccuracies which 
have prevailed, are the want of a fixed ftandard-in nature 
with which the ftandards of meafure might at all times be 
eafily compared, the want of a fimple mode of connecting 
the meafures of length with thofe of capacity and weight, 
and alfo the want of proper tables of equalization, by means 
of which the old meafures might have readily been con¬ 
verted into the new ftandards. Some rude attempts (cent 
to have been made to eftablifti a mode of connecting the 
meafures of capacity with weight. In an aft of the 51ft 
of Henry III. entitled, AJJiJ'a Panis et Cervtfue, it is de¬ 
clared, “ that an Englifh penny called the (terling, round 
without clipping, (hould weigh 32 grains of wheat, well 
dried, and gathered out of the middle of the ear; and 20 
pence to make an ounce, 12 ounces a pound, 8 pounds a 
gallon of wine, and 8 gallons of wine a bufhel of London.” 
Nothing however can be more uncertain and inaccurate 
than this method of determining the fir.e of a gallon-mea- 
fure by the weight of a certain number of grains of wheat, 
which mult vary according to the feafon and the nature of 
the foil and climate where they are produced. 
In order to obtain fome information as to what were the 
belt means of comparing the ftandards of length with fome 
invariable natural ftandard, the Committee proceeded to 
examine Dr. W. Hyde Wollafton, fecretary to the Royal 
Society, and profeffor Playfair of Edinburgh. From the 
evidence of thefe gentlemen, it appears that the length of 
a pendulum making a certain number of vibrations in a 
given portion of time, will always be the fame in the fame 
latitude ; and that the ftandard Englifh yard has been ac¬ 
curately compared w ith the length of the pendulum which 
vibrates fixty times in a minute in the latitude of London. 
The length of this pendulum is 39-1 3047 inches, of which 
the yard contains 36. The French government, in 1795, 
adopted as the ftandard of their meafures, a portion of an 
arc of the meridian, which was accurately meafured. The 
ftandard metre, which is the 10,000,000th part of the qua¬ 
drant of the- meridian, and is engraved on the platina Icale 
preferved in. the National Inftitute, has been compared 
with the Englifli ftandard yard, by profeffor Pictet of Ge¬ 
neva, and was found to exceed it, at the temperature of 
32 0 , by 3*3702 inches ; and at the temperature of 35 0 , by 
3*3828 inches. The ftandard yard may therefore be at 
any time afcertained, by a comparifon either with an arc 
of the meridian, or the length of the pendulum 3 both of 
which may be confidered as invariable. 
595 
The ftandard of linear meafure being thus eftabliftied 
and afcertained, the meafures of capacity are eafily de¬ 
duced from it, by determining the number of cubical 
incites which they (hould contain. The ftandard of weight 
muft be derived from the meafures of capacity, by afcer- 
taining the weight ot a given bulk of fome fubltance of 
which the fpecific gravity is invariable. Fortunately that 
(ubftance winch is molt generally diffufed over the world, 
anfvvers this condition. The lpecific gravity of pure wa¬ 
ter has been found to be invariable at the fame tempera¬ 
ture; and by a very remarkable coincidence, a cubic foot 
of pure water (or 1728 cubical inches), at the temperature 
of 56^° by Fahrenheit’s thermometer, has been afcertained 
to weigh exactly 1000 ounces avoirdupois, and therefore 
the weight of 27*648 inches is equal to one pound avoir¬ 
dupois. 
This circumftance forms the groundwork of all the fuc- 
ceeding obfervations of the committee. 
Although in theory the ftandard of weight is derived 
from the meafures ot capacity, yet in practice it will be 
found more convenient to reverfe this order. The weight 
ot water contained by any vefl'el affords the belt mealure 
ot its capacity, and is more eafily afcertained than the 
number of cubical inches by gauging. The committee 
therefore recommended that the meafures of capacity 
fliould be afcertained by the weight of pure or diftilled 
water contained by them, rather than by the number of 
cubical inches, as recommended in the 4th refolution of 
the committee of 1758. The committee were alfo of opi¬ 
nion, that the (tandard-gallon, from which all the other 
meafures of capacity fliould be derived, fliould be made of 
fuch a fize as to contain Inch a weight of pure water, of 
the temperature of s6,|°, as fliould be expreli'ed in a whole 
number of pounds avoirdupois, and fuch alfo as would 
admit of the quart and pint containing integer numbers of 
ounces, without any fractional parts. If the gallon is 
made to contain 10-pounds of water, the quart will contain 
40 ounces, and the pint 20. This gallon will contain 
276 48 cubical inches, being nearly 3 per cent, larger than 
the gallon or 8th part of the Winchefter-bufliel as fixed 
by the ail of the 13th and 14th of William and Mary, c. 5. 
which contains 268*803 cubical inches; and the buflicl 
will contain 2211*84 cubical inches, in ft cad of 2150*42. 
It this gallon is adopted, the buftiei will contain 8olbs. 
of water, or 2211*84 cubical inches; the quart 69*12 cu¬ 
bical inches, or 40 ounces of water ; the pint 34*56 cubical 
inches, or 20 ounces of water ; the half pint will contain 
17*28 cubical inches (which is exaCtiy-j-J-g-th part of a cu¬ 
bical foot), or 10 ounces of water. Any lmaller meafures 
might with great propriety be deferibed, according to the 
number of ounces of water they contained. 
The committee were of opinion, that the fimple con-' 
neCtion which would in this manner he eftablifhed be¬ 
tween the ftandard of weight and meafures of capacity, 
would greatly tend to preferve the uniformity of thole 
meafures which are found to be molt liable to error. They 
were, belides, induced to feleCt this fize of meafure as a 
ftandard, both becaufe it very nearly coincides with one 
of the ftandard corn-mealures preferved in the Exchequer, 
namely, the ltandard-pint marked 1602, which contains 
34*8 cubical inches; and alfo becaufe it pofleffes the ad¬ 
vantage of bearing very fimple relations to the gallon? 
meafures which are employed in meafuring ale and wine. 
The calculations, therefor?, which would be neceffary for 
alcertaiiwng the correfponding duties, which muft be 
charged upon excifeable liquors, would be eafily made. 
The committee next proceeded to ftate their opinion 
with regard to the ftandard of weight. Although the troy 
pound is the only weight eltablilhed by law, yet the avoir¬ 
dupois pound is lo much more generally known and ufed, 
that the committee recomipend it in preference to tire 
troy pound, but with two exceptions: As the gold- 
finiths regulate their traffic by the troy weight, and confi- 
dering the connection of this branch of trade with the 
ftandard 0f the coin, it appears advifable that gold and 
filver* 
