Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/160

148 course of time, as the Primitives increased in number. The Birmingham circuit contains about 800 members, with over 2,000 Sunday School scholars, and 250 teachers.—See "Places of Worship."

Metric System.—This, the simplest decimal system of computation yet legalised is in use in France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain, and other parts of Europe, as well as in Chili, Peru, Mexico, &c., and by 27 and 28 Vic. cap. 117, its use has been rendered legal in this country. As our local trade with the above and other countries is increasing (unfortunately in some respects), rules for working out the metric measures into English and vice versa may be useful. The unit of length is the metre (equal to 39.37 inches); it is divided into tenths (decimetres), hundredths (centimetres), and thousandths (millimetres), and it is multiplied by decimals in like way into hectometres, kilometres, and myriometresmyriametres [sic]. The unit of weight is the gramme, divided as the metre into decigrammes, centigrammes, and milligrammes; multiplied into decagrammes, hectogrammes, and kilogrammes. The unit of capacity is the litre, divided and multiplied like the others.

1 inch equals 2½ centimetres. 1 foot equals 3 decimetres. 1 mile equals 1⅔ kilometres. 1 cwt. equals 50.8 kilogrammes. 1 ounce (troy) equals 31 grammes. 1 pound (troy) equals 372 decagrammes. 1 gallon equals 4½ litres. 1 quart equals 1$1/16$ litres. 1 metre equals 39.37 inches. 1 hectometre equals 109⅓ yards. 1 cubic metre equals 61,027 cubic inches. 1 kilometre equals 1,093 yards. 1 decigramme equals 1½ grains. 1 gramme equals 15 grains. 1 kilogramme equals 2$1/5$ pounds (avoirdupois). 1 litre equals 1¾ pints.

To turn inches into millimetres add the figures 00 to the number of inches, divide by 4, and add the result two- fifths of the original number of inches.

To turn millimetres to inches add the figure and divide by 254.

To make cubic inches into cubic centimetres multiply by 721 and divide by 44; cubic centimetres into cubic inches multiply by 44 and divide by 721.

To turn grains into grammes, multiply the number by 648 and divide the product by 10,000.

To turn grammes into grains, multiply by 10,000, dividing the result by 648.

The metric system is especially useful in our local jewellery and other trades, but it is very slowly making its way against the old English foot and yard, even such a learned man as Professor Rankine poking fun at the foreign measures in a comic song of which two verses run:—

"Some talk of millimetres, and some of kilogrammes, And some of decilitres to measure beer and drams: But I'm an English workman, too old to go to school, So by pounds I'll eat, by quarts I'll drink, and work by my two-foot rule.

A party of astronomers went measuring of the earth, And forty million metres they took to be its girth; Five hundred million inches now go through from pole to pole. So we'll stick to inches, feet, and yards, and our own old two-foot rule."

Mid-England.—Meriden, near Coventry, is believed to be about the centre spot of England.

Midland Institute.—Suggestions of some such an institution, to take the place of the defunct Mechanics', had several time appeared in print, but nothing definite was done in the matter until the subject was discussed (June 4, 1852) over the dinner table of Mr. Arthur Ryland. Practical shape being given to the ideas then advanced, a town's meeting on Dec. 3, 1853, sanctioned the grant by the Council of the land necessary for the erection of a