Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/481

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. and the mile = 79,200 inches, subdivided into 10 furlongs (100 chains) or 1000 fathoms. This fathom is half the Belgian pertica or perch, equals two yards or six feet. Unfortunately, this system was legally suppressed and gradually driven out in favor of the foot of 12 inches, which had been legally enforced as early as the tenth century. The league is a Gallic unit, and lasted in Wales ( = 1.56 miles) till the seventeenth century.

Prior to 950 the Saxon standards were kept at Winchester, where copies were compared and stamped. “The measure at Winchester shall be the standard,” was the decree of King Edgar. Under the Normans the standards were transferred to Westminster and placed in the care of the chamberlains of the exchequer, but their dimensions were not changed. These came later to be known as ‘The Standards of the Exchequer.’ In 1224 the rule is laid down that: 3 barleycorns = 1 inch; 12 inches = 1 foot; 3 feet = 1 ell (ulna); 5½ ulne = 1 perch; 40 perches long and 4 in breadth = 1 acre. The barleycorns are to be dry, laid end to end, and taken from the middle of the ear. Under Henry VI., Richard II., and Anne an extra inch or ‘thumb's breadth’ was added to the yard for stretching, of cloth. Richard II. decreed uniformity for the kingdom “except in Lancaster, which always had larger measures.”

A yard of Henry VII., dated 1490, and one of Elizabeth, 1588, are undoubtedly the oldest British standards of length, and they differ only about one hundredth of an inch from the present Imperial British yard. Still extant are also the Guildhall yard of 1660, ‘Rowley's Tower standard’ of 1720, etc. In 1742 the Royal Society had an accurate yard made, called ‘Graham's yard.’ A committee of Parliament in 1758 had two very accurate yards made by John Bird, who made another in 1760. These were 39.73 inches long and near each end was inserted a gold plug upon which the mark was made; they were of brass rods a trifle over an inch square in cross section.

In 1797 Sir George Shuckburgh Evelyn first used a comparator by Troughton for the accurate comparison of standards. The results obtained by him are as follows:

The Clerk of the House of Commons took charge of the Bird standards until they were finally adopted by Parliament under George IV. on June 17, 1824, after another exhaustive investigation by Capt. Henry Kater. The legalization went into effect January 1, 1826. The act made elaborate provision for the restoration of this standard yard from its relation to the seconds pendulum, but when the Houses of Parliament burned down in 1834, destroying these standards, a royal commission decided against the recovery of the standard from the pendulum, and proceeded to derive a new standard from the extant standards. This new standard was adopted June 30, 1855. In 1870 it was recommended that mural fixed standards be established in populous towns for easy public comparison. Bronze blocks were inserted in the granite on the north side of Trafalgar Square, London, every ten feet to one hundred, and for the chain of 66 feet, and these standards were legalized in June, 1876, by act of the Council. Frequent committees have recommended to Parliament the adoption of the metric system, but with no success as yet. England and America will adopt the metric system at nearly the same time; neither alone can get along without it.

Early in the thirteenth century it was enacted under Henry III. that there should be uniformity in the weights and measures throughout the realm, and a little later it was determined that measures of capacity should be based upon weights. Soon afterwards weights were established upon the weight of grains of wheat, as follows: 32 wheat grains = 1 penny (pennyweight); 20 pence = 1 ounce; 12 ounces = 1 pound; 8 pounds = 1 gallon; 8 gallons = 1 London bushel; 8 bushels = 1 quarter. This was known as the ‘Tower pound’ and was in use until the middle of the fifteenth century.

As early as the thirteenth century, the gallon appears as eight pounds of wine, and the bushel as eight gallons; also in 1452 the gallon was defined as eight troy pounds of wheat, which in Elizabeth's time had become eight pounds avoirdupois. A statute of 1689 defines the wine gallon as 231 cubic inches, a unit still legal in the United States. The Imperial gallon of Great Britain contains 277.274 cubic inches and is used for the measurement of all liquid and dry substances. The Imperial British bushel contains 2218.192 cubic inches, and the Winchester bushel, the legal standard of the United States, contains 2150.42 cubic inches.

In England as well as elsewhere in Europe two pound-units have prevailed from mediæval times, a light pound for weighing articles of high value and a heavy pound for weighing articles of low value. Many of the lighter pounds used in the Latin States are variations of the old Roman standards, others are of Saxon origin, and still others of more recent date. The Italian pounds have varied from 300 to 350 grams, the average being about the weight of the old Roman pound of 325.8 grams. The Spanish, Portuguese, and Prussian light pounds have varied from 459 to 470 grams. The English light pound is the troy pound of 12 ounces, named from the city of Troyes, and declared a legal standard by Great Britain (1497) for weighing gold, silver, silk, and other valuable commodities. The troy pound of Elizabeth (1588) served as a standard for such articles until 1824 (still legal in the United States), and the Imperial standard troy pound (1758) was the only legal standard in Great Britain until 1856. The present standard troy pound is defined as 5760 grains, the troy pound used in the United States.

Of the heavy or so-called commercial pounds there have likewise been a great number. Their range is practically from 15 to 24 ounces, but heavy pounds of 28 and 36 ounces are said to have been used in Milan and Valencia. The standards of France, Germany, Denmark, and