Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/508

Rh The equivalents of the Russian weights and measures, in terms also of the imperial and metric weights and measures, were recalculated in 1897. The following are the leading equivalents: 4.Local Control.—The necessary local inspection and verification of weights and measures in use for trade (as distinct from the verbal and written use of weights and measures) is in the United Kingdom undertaken by inspectors of weights and measures, who are appointed by the local authorities, as the county and borough councils. An inspector is required to hold a certificate of qualification, and for his guidance general regulations are made by his local authority as to modes of testing weights, measures and weighing instruments. In Europe the local inspection is generally carried out through the State, and a uniform system of local verification is thereby maintained.

6. Foreign Weights and Measures.—Throughout the British Empire the imperial system of weights and measures is legal. In Russia, as in the United Kingdom and the United States, the national weights and measures are followed (§ 3 above), although the use of metric weights and measures is permissive.

In India the native weights, &c., ancient and arbitrary, are still followed. In 1889 the British yard was adopted for the whole of India (Measures of Length Act) at a normal temperature of 85° F. as standardized to the imperial yard at 62° F. The metric system was also introduced, mainly for railway purposes, in 1870 and 1871 (Indian Acts). Certified measures of the yard, foot and inch are kept by the Commissioners of Police at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.^ In standardizing a weight for use in India, correction has to be made for the weight of air displaced by the material standard, and for such purpose the normal temperature of 85°, atmospheric pressure 29·8 inches, latitude 22° 35′ 6·5′ (Calcutta), g = 0·9982515 are taken. The “tola” (180 grains) is properly the Government unit of weight for currency; and 80 tolas make the “Government seer.”

7. Customary Weights and Measures.—In some districts of the United Kingdom, as well as in provincial districts of other countries, old local and customary denominations of weights and measures are still found to be in use, although their use may have been prohibited by law. So powerful is custom with the people.

8. Legislation.—In everyday transactions with reference to weights and measures, the British legislature also exercises

control in industrial pursuits. For instance, in weighing live cattle, owners of markets are now required to provide adequate accommodation. Useful statutes have also been passed to protect the working class, as in checking the weighing instruments used in mines in Great Britain, over which instruments wages are paid, and in the inspection of similar instruments used in factories and workshops. The Merchandise Marks Act 1887 makes it an offence also to apply in trade a false description, as to the number, quantity, measure, gauge or weight of goods sold; and this Act appears to reach offences that the Weights and Measures Acts may perhaps not reach.

9. Pharmaceutical Weights and Measures.—By the Medical Act of 1858, and the Act of 1862, the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the United Kingdom are authorized to issue a " Pharmacopoeia " with reference to the weights and measures used in the preparation and dispensing of drugs, &c. The British Pharmacopoeia issued by the Council in 1S98 makes no alteration in the imperial weights and measures required to be used by the Pharmacopoeia of 1864. For all pharmaceutical purposes, however, the use of the metric system alone is employed in all paragraphs relating to analysis, whether gravimetric or volumetric. For measures of capacity the Pharmacopoeia continues to use imperial measuring vessels graduated at the legal temperature of 62° F. The official names of the metric capacity units are defined at 4° C, as generally on the Continent. The new Pharmacopoeia also follows foreign practice, and employs metric measures of capacity and volumetric vessels graduated at 15·5 C, or 60° F. Specific gravity bottles are also adjusted at 60° F., the figures indicating specific gravities being quotients obtained by dividing in each instance the weight of the solid or liquid by the weight of an equal bulk of water, both taken at 60° F.

10. Gauges.—“Gauges,” as understood at one time, included only those used in the measurement of barrels, casks, &c., and hence the term “gauger.” For engineering and manufacturing purposes the more important linear gauge; are, however, now used, adjusted to some fundamental unit of measure as the inch; although in certain trades, as for wires and flat metals, gauges continue to be used of arbitrary scales and of merely numerical sizes, having no reference to a legal unit of measure; and such are rarely accurate. A standard gauge, however, exists (Order in Council, August 1883), based on the inch, but having numbered sizes from 7/0 (0·5 inch) to No. 50 (0·001 inch) to meet the convenience of certain trades.

11. Screws. — The screw is an important productive measuring instrument, whether used as a micrometer-screw of less than an inch in length, or as a master-screw of 20 feet in length. The probable errors and eccentricities of small micrometer-screws have been carefully investigated to ±0·00001 inch; but the accuracy of leading screws used in workshops has not been sufficiently verified. For some engineering purposes it would appear to be desirable to produce master-screws to an accuracy of of an inch to the foot of screw, so as to serve indirectly for the verification of “guiding screws” for general use in workshops. Attempts in this direction were originally made by Whitworth, Clement, Donkin, Rogers, Bond and others, but we still need a higher accuracy in screw-threads.

12. Educational. — Ordinary arithmetic books often contain references to local and customary weights and measures and to obsolete terms of no practical use to children. It appears to be desirable, as the Committee of Council on Education have done, to recognize only the legal systems of weights and measures—the imperial and metric. The Education Code of Regulations for 1900 prescribes that the tables of weights and measures to be learned include those only which are in ordinary use, viz. in all classes or forms above the third the tables of In Code standards above the fifth, in addition to the foregoing, the tables of Instruction in the principles of the metric system, and in the advantages to be gained from uniformity in the method of forming multiples and sub-multiples of the unit, are, under this Code, to be   