Standard weights and Measures. Old English weights. Troy weight. Avoirdupois n eight. ascertained with perfect accuracy. And, secondly, to compare the weights and measures used by different nations together, and determine how much they differ from each other. With respect to the first of these particulars, the French, when they established their revolutionary weights and measures, had recourse to the ten millionth part of the distance between the north pole and the equator as their standard fundamental measure, to which they gave the name of metre, and from which all their other measures and weights are deduced. Now the length of a metre has been ascertained to be equal to 39 37 100 English inches. The method adopted by Sir George Shuckburgh Evelyn is easier, and seems susceptible of much greater accuracy. It has this great advantage, that it furnishes a method of recovering the English weights and measures with perfect accuracy if they should hereafter be lost. He determined that the difference between two pendulums vibrating 42 and 84 times in a minute of mean time in the latitude of London, at 113 feet above the level of the sea, in the temperature of 60°, and when the barometer is at 30 inches, is 59-89358 inches of parliamentary standard. A cubic inch of distilled water, when the barometer is at 29.5 inches, and the thermometer at 60°, weighs according to a mean of Sir George Shuckburgh's experiments 252.506 grains troy; and in vacuo 252-806 grains.* We shall now state the points respecting the weights and measures of different nations which are to be found in the Philosophical Transactions. Before the conquest the standard English weight was the sterling penny, which was declared equal to 32 grains of dry wheat. Twenty of these pennies were equal to an ounce, 12 ounces to a pound, 8 pounds were a gallon of wine, and 8 of these gallons made a London bushel, which is the 8th part of a quarter. These weights and measures were confirmed by William the Conqueror, and by succeeding kings, and they continued till the reign of Henry VII. From the experiments of Mr. Norris, it appears that 32 grains of dry wheat of ordinary size weigh very nearly 22 troy grains. Hence it follows that the Saxon pound of 240 penny weights continued down to the time of Henry VII. weighed 5400 of our present troy grains. From this it is easy to deduce the weight of the gallon, bushel, and quarter. Henry VII, for what reason does not appear, altered the old pound, and substituted in place of it the present troy pound, and the old pound was finally abolished by Henry VIII. who states, in the act of parliament by which he establishes the troy pound, that it is ounce heavier than the old pound. The present troy pound consists of 5760 grains, and is divided in the same way as. the old pound.+ When the avoirdupois weight, at present in use for almost all articles in this * Phil. Trans. 1798. Vol. LXXXVIII. 133. p. Phil. Trans. 1775.. Vol. LXV. 48. p. country, was introduced, does not appear. Nor is it easy to conceive how the term avoirdupois (literally, to have weight) was introduced. It is first employed in some acts of parliament, in the time of Edward III., relative to weights and measures. Neither is it known when the present difference between the wine and ale gallon originated; but they were recognised by act of parliament soon after the establishment of the excise on ale and beer. By the report of the Committee of the House of Commons, in 1759, it appears that the avoirdupois pound weighs 7002 troy grains. It would appear, though there are different opinions on the subject, that avoirdupois weight was first made legal by Henry VIII. Every body knows that the avoirdupois pound is divided into 16 ounces; and the ounce into 16 drachms. Mr. Barlow has endeavoured to show that a cubic foot of water is the foundation of the English weights. It weighs 62 lbs, and constitutes the bushel. Eight bushels make a quarter, and four quarters make a ton. So that a ton is 62 × 32 = 2000lbs; and the word quarter was used to denote the fourth part of a ton.* Mr. Reynardson, in a long and learned paper published in the Philosophical Transactions, in the year 1749, endeavours to prove that the avoirdupois was the ancient English standard. But he does not appear to have established that the weights used before the time of Henry VIII. were the avoirdupois; but only that the word avoirdupois occurs in our laws, relating to weights and measures, as early as the reign of Edward III. And the subsequent observations of Mr. Norris seem to have established the difference of the Saxon, or original British pound, both from the troy and the avoirdupois. Standard weights and measures are kept at the Exchequer, at the Tower, and at the Mint. A set was made for the House of Commons, and another for the Royal Society. These have been very carefully and accurately compared with each other, first by Mr. Graham, and afterwards by Sir George Shuckburgh Evelyn,§ and the results recorded: but it does not seem necessary to specify them here; it will be sufficient to refer the reader to the papers themselves, for minute information upon this curious subject. + The yard, which is the English standard measure, is said to have been taken from the arm of Henry I. It is divided into three feet, and every foot into twelve inches. The French weights before the revolution, or rather the Paris weights, which French were always used by philosophers, were the following: weights. *Phil. Trans. 1740. Vol. XLI. p. 457. ‡ Phil. Trans. 1743. Vol. XLII. p. 541. + Phil. Trans. 1749. Vol. XLVI. p. 54. Roman mea sures. Greek and Roman money. Their measures of length were lines, inches, feet, toises. We have two papers in the Philosophical Transactions comparing the French with the English weights and measures. It appears from a very exact measurement, made by Dr. Maskelyne, that at the temperature of 61°, the Paris toise is equal to 76-7344 English inches.* From the experiments of the Royal Society, it appears that the Paris pound, of two marcs, or sixteen ounces, weighs 7560 grains troy. From these data it is easy to determine the proportion between all the other French weights and measures. From a paper, by Mr. Martin Folkes, it appears that the ancient Roman foot, as determined by measures still remaining in the city of Rome, was equal to 0.967 of the English foot; while the Grecian foot was equal to 1.006 of the English foot. These measures were afterwards determined with greater precision by Sir George Shuckburgh Evelyn. He found the ancient Roman foot =116063 English inches; the Grecian foot = 12.09 English inches.§ + In the year 1771, Mr. Raper published, in the Philosophical Transactions, a very curious dissertation on the ancient Greek and Roman money, which comes to be mentioned here, because these coins were used as weights as well as coins; and from them, therefore, we derive the only means which we possess of determining the weights of these ancient nations. The Attic coins were all silver during the existence of the republic. They coined copper, indeed, during the Pelopennesian war, but it was soon cried down again. The first, or standard coin, was the drachm. The mina contained 100 drachms; the talent 60 minas: and these were not only coins but weights. The drachm was divided into six oboles. The drachm was equal to half a Persian daric. The philippic, a gold coin of Philip, of Macedon, is conceived to have been equal to the daric in weight. Mr. Raper, from a number of philippics which he weighed, shows that the weight of one was at least 133 grains troy; and hence concludes that the Attic drachm weighed 664 grains. Silver was first coined at Rome, in the 485th year of the city, five years before the first Punic war; and the denarius was made to pass for ten pounds *Phil. Trans. 1768. Vol. LVIII. p. 274. 5 † Phil. Trans. 1742. Vol. XLII. p. 185. Phil. Trans. 1798. Vol. LXXXVIII. p. 133. of copper, the quinarius for five, and the sesterce for two and a half; but the weight of the as was reduced in the first Punic war, when the republic, being unable to defray its expences, resolved to coin six asses out of the pound; by which they gained five parts, and paid their debts. The stamp of the as was a double-faced Janus on one side, and the prow of a ship on the other: on the triens and quadrans, a boat. After this, when they were pressed by Hannibal, the as was reduced to one ounce; and the silver denarius made to pass for sixteen asses; the quinarius for eight; and the sesterce for four and the republic gained one half. But, in the pay of the army, the soldier received a silver denarius for ten asses: The stamp of the silver money was a chariot and a pair, or a chariot and four horses: whence they were called bigati and quadrigati. The as was soon after reduced to half an ounce, by the Papirian law. What is now called the victoriat was coined under the Clodian law; before which it was imported from Illyricum, as merchandize. Its stamp is a Victory, whence it takes its name. The gold money was coined sixty years after the silver, and the scruple passed for 20 sesterces; which, as the sesterce was reckoned at that time (2 asses), made the pound of gold worth 900 silver denarii (of 16 asses each). It was afterwards thought proper to coin 40 pieces out of the pound of gold; and the weight was by degrees diminished to 45 in the pound. Such is the account given by Pliny of the Roman coinage. It was afterwards entirely altered by Constantine. The Roman coins were not, like the Greek, used as weights on the contrary, they depended upon the Roman weights. From a number of gold coins, weighed by Mr. Raper, and from many corroborating circumstances, he concludes that the Roman pound was equal to 5040 troy grains.* If this be the true weight of the Roman pound, it follows, that the ancient Saxon pound, which weighed 5400 troy grains, was not the Roman pound as has been conjectured; but considerably heavier. and measares, The last paper in the Transactions, on the subject of weights and measures, Jewish weights is an account of an essay by Dr. Cumberland, upon the Jewish weights and measures. He endeavours to prove, and his proofs seem conclusive, that the ancient Egyptian cubit is the same as the modern. There is every reason to believe that the Jews borrowed their weights and measures from the Egyptians. Now the present Egyptian cubit is 219 English inches. Hence it is easy to deduce all the other Jewish measures, whose relation to the cubit is known. He endeavours to prove that the epha was equal to 4th of the ardub, or cube of the Egyptian cubit; so that it held 74 gallons and half a pint, or was nearly equal to the English cubic foot, which (of water) weighs nearly 1000 avoirdupois ounces. Hence it is easy to deduce the measures of capacity, whose rela * Phil. Trans. 1771. Vol. LXI. p. 462. tion to the epha is known. The shekel, he determines as equal to half an ounce avoirdupois. The value of the coin called the shekel was, he says, two shillings and four pence halfpenny. Hence we may deduce all the weights and coins.* Healthiness of Loudon. CHAP. II. OF POLITICAL ARITHMETIC. THIS subject might, without impropriety, have been discussed under the head of Mathematics; but we left it out, partly because mathematics was too much crowded with important articles, and partly because several of the most curious papers in the Philosophical Transactions do not take a mathematical view of the subject. We mean to restrict the term Political Arithmetic here within much narrower limits than it usually bears. The papers in the Philosophical Transactions relate simply to the population of different places; and some of them touch upon the causes of the population. As to the doctrine of annuities, founded on the probability of human life, that is a doctrine purely mathematical, depending upon the theory of compound interest, and cannot with propriety be touched upon here. One of the very first things that strike one is the surprizing difference in the healthiness of London at present, notwithstanding its great increase of population, and what it was during the 17th century. At present the number of inhabitants in London, and the contiguous villages, which in fact make a part of it, is 1,090,000. We do not know exactly what it was in the 17th century; but, as it has been increasing ever since, and, as in the year 1753, the number of inhabitants did non exceed 750,000,† we shall not probably err very much if we reckon the inhabitants of London at the revolution, in 1688, about half a million. Yet, in the years 1685, 1686, and 1687, the births and deaths were to each other as follows: So that at this period the deaths exceeded the births by no less a quantity * Phil. Trans. 1686. Vol. XVI. p. 33. + Phil. Trans. 1754. Vol. XLVIII. p. 788. ‡ Phil. Trans. 1685. Vol. XV. p. 1245; and Vol. XVII. p. 445. |