Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/101

Rh to weigh, at a medium of the trials, 54 ounces, 8 drops, 20 grains, or 26,180 grains, English troy.

His next object was to determine accurately, how many of these grains were contained in a cubic inch of water. With this view, a cylindrical brass vessel was made with great accuracy, by a scale of Bird, the celebrated mathematical instrument-maker of London, to contain 100 cubic inches. This vessel was filled several times with the same water as in the trials with the jug, and its content was found to weigh 25,318 grains, English troy. This number, divided by 100, gives 253 $18/100$ grains, as the weight of a cubic inch of water: therefore, $261801/2531/undefined$ = 103 $404/1000$, the exact number of cubic inches, and parts of a cubic inch, in the standard Scotch pint: 51 $1/undefined$ cubic inches in the chopin: 25 $851/1000$ cubic inches in the mutchkin; and so on, proportionately, in the smaller Scotch measures.

Mr Bryce next applied the Standard jug to fix the legal size of the different measures for grain; which he compared with some of the English dry measures. By act of parliament, 19 February, 1618, formerly mentioned, it is ordained, that the wheat and pease firlot shall contain 21 $1/4$ pints; and the bear and oat firlot 31 pints of the just Stirling jug. Therefore, since there are 103 $404/1000$ cubic inches in the standard Scotch pint, there will be 2197 $335/1000$ cubic inches in the wheat and pease firlot; 549 $3337/10000$ in the peck; and 137 $3334/10000$ in the lippiein the bean and oat firlot, 3205 $524/1000$ cubic inches; 801 $381/1000$ in the peck; and 200 $345/1000$ in the lippie. The excess of a boll of bear above a boll of wheat was found to be precisely 5 pecks bear measure, and 1 mutchkin, without the difference of a single gill: or, a boll of bear is more than a boll of wheat, by 7 pecks 1 $1/2$ lippie, wheat measure, wanting 1 gill.

The English corn bushel contains 2178 cubic inches, which is less than the Scotch wheat firlot, by 19.335 inches, or three gills; so that 7 firlots of wheat will make 7 English bushels and 1 lippie. The English corn bushel is less than the barley firlot, by 1 peck, 3 $1/2$ lippies nearly.

The legal English bushel, by which gaugers are ordered to make their returns of malt, contains 2150.42 cubic inches, which is less than the wheat firlot, 46.915 cubic inches, or 1 chopin, wanting $1/2$ gill; and less than the bear firlot by 1055.104 cubic inches, or 2 bear pecks, wanting 7 gills.

A Scotch barley boll contains 5 bushels, 3 pecks, 2 lippies, and a little more, according to the Winchester gallon.

A Scotch barley boll, according to the legal measure, contains 6 bushels, wanting a little more than $1/2$ lippie.

A Scotch chalder, (16 bolls of barley,) is equal to 11 quarters, 6 bushels, and 3 lippies, Winchester measure.

A Scotch chalder of wheat is equal to 8 quarters, 2 pecks, and 1 lippie, Winchester measure.

A wheat firlot made according to the dimensions mentioned in the Scotch act of parliament, 1618, viz., 19 $1/5$ inches diameter, at top and bottom, and 7 $1/3$ inches in height, Scotch measure, would be less than the true wheat firlot, (or 21 $1/4$ pints of the Standard jug) by a Scotch chopin: a chalder of wheat measured with this firlot would fall short of the true quantity, 1 firlot, 2 pecks, or nearly 2 $1/4$ per cent.

A barley firlot made according to the dimensions in the said act, viz., having the same diameter at top and bottom as the wheat firlot, and 10 $1/2$ inches in height, Scotch measure, would be less than the true firlot, (or 31 pints of the Standard jug) by 5 mutchkins: and a chalder of bear, measured with such a