The Standards Act of 1855 declared that the researches of scientific men had thrown doubts on the accuracy of such methods of reference to constants in nature. The actual loss of the means for restoring the Imperial Standards appears, in fact, the most unlikely of all possible contingencies. In like manner the theoretical metre or unit of metric measure is no longer recognised as the one ten-millionth part of the elliptic quadrant of the meridian passing through Paris, but simply as the length marked on a metal bar which is deposited with the International Committee of Weights and Measures at Paris-the "MetreInternational." So also the theoretical kilogram or unit of metric weight is no longer derived from the weight of distilled water contained in a cubic decimetre, but is the mass represented by a weight made of iridio-platinum metal, and which is also deposited at Paris—“ Kilogramme-International." Besides the pendulum, some have proposed as natural constants of measure, the space through which a body falling freely from quiescence" will descend in a given time at a given place; or the length given by an open pipe or tube when yielding a determinate musical sound, as in China, where the measure known as the Ch'ih appears to have been originally obtained from the keynote of the ancient musical scale. Professor De Morgan was of opinion that to assure to posterity for, say, 500 years hence, the knowledge as to what our yard measure really was, the standard of it must be something which could not be altered by man either from design or accident ("Elements of Arithmetic," 1840). Sir John Herschel" The Yard, the Pendulum, and the Metre," 1863) has proposed that the earth's polar axis should be referred to; a proposal, perhaps, that has not received so much public consideration as it might have done. The earth's diameter also has been proposed as a standard of measure. The most important inquiry, however, of late years with reference to a physical constant standard measure appears to be that made by Professor A. A. Michelson (Valeur du mètre en longueurs d'ondes lumineuses. Paris, 1894). Professor Michelson has found that the metre (39.37 inches) contains 1,553,1635 wave lengths of the red ray of the spectrum of cadmium, measured in air at 15° centigrade and under an atmospheric pressure of 760 millimetres, and that the actual length of the metre bar at Paris can be determined by this method to within a micron. Although, however, in many countries attempts have been made to base standards of measure on some physical constant, or standard, yet hitherto no such attempts have received legal recognition. The proportions of the human body have, in former ages, been largely referred to, e.g., the foot measure; the digit, or finger's breadth; an inch, or thumb breadth; the nail, or from the tip to the middle joint of the longest finger; the palm, as measured across the middle joints of the four fingers; the hand, clasped with the thumb uppermost; the span, thumb and little finger extended to the utmost; the cubit, a length from the elbow to the extended finger; the step; the pace, or two steps. Some have derived the yard from a Saxon word signifying the girth of the king's body; and the ell from ulna, as used in Magna Charta, "Composito ulnarum et perticarum." The foot and nail are still legal measures; and the "hand used in measuring horses was originally declared, by a Statute of 27 Henry 8, c. 6., to be equal to 4 inches. now from By law, units of weight and measure have been based Standards on certain substances, such as seeds, &c. One of our Grains of Wheat, &c. earliest statutes (51 Henry 3, 1266, "Assiza Panis et 66 Cervisia") provided that the English penny, called the sterling," should weigh" thirty-two grains of wheat, well dried, and gathered out of the middle of the ear;" "that twenty pence do make an ounce, and twelve ounces a pound." The expression "sterling," as followed in the above Act of 1266, has been considered by some to have been a possible origin of the word sterling, as applied to money at the present time; but according to Jeake (“Arithmetick,” 1701, page 76) English money is often called sterling money because there was anciently stamped upon it a little bird, called a starling; although other writers think the coin was minted at a place called Esterling. Snelling (Gold Coins, 1763, p. 1), quoting from Maitland's History of London, 1739, also states that in 1257 the King caused to be coined in London a penny of fine gold, "weighing two sterlings," which is supposed to be the first gold coin in England. The Statute of 17 Edward II. (1324) had also provided that "three barley corns, round and dry, made an inch;" and the earlier Statute 33 Edward I. (1305) had provided that an inch contained "three barley corns laid end to end." It would appear that even now the wild hillsmen of Annam weigh their gold dust by grains of maize and rice. Dr. Edward Bernard (" De Mensuris et Ponderibus," Oxford, 1685), states that many of the ancients served themselves with ordinary grains of corn for the measures, both of length and capacity. We have, too, a legal weight of a stone (14 lbs.) and formerly we had in Scotland the Lanark stone; and in Ireland the Belfast stone, for flax, of 161⁄2 lbs. ; all probably derived from some mass of stone kept under local governing authorities of a remote period. The cow, or ox, has been used by primitive people in measuring value, and Professor Ridgeway ("Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards," Cambridge, 1892) has pointed out that, by taking as our primitive unit the cow Homeric Ox Unit = 130 to 135 grains of gold. Sicilian Ox Unit = 135 grains of gold. Ancient German Ox Unit = 120 grains of gold. In Ireland, for instance, in the reign of Richard II., there appears to have been but little money, and the Irish then "merchandised chiefly with cattle" (Ruding). 6. STANDARDS OF SCOTLAND, IRELAND, CHANNEL ISLANDS, AND ISLE OF MAN. land. The same Imperial standards of weights and measures Standards are adopted throughout Scotland as are adopted in of ScotEngland. The Act of Union passed in 1706 provided that the English standards only should be used, yet it was not until the year 1835 that the use of the old Scotch standards (as well as of all local and customary weights and measures) was made an offence punishable by fine. Some of the old Scotch measures, as the "Scotch acre (1.26118 Imperial acre) as well as the "boll" (containing 8857.289 cubic inches for wheat, and 12,921.222 cubic inches for barley, Edinburgh measure), the "forpit," or fourth part of a peck are, indeed, still in use in the measurement of grain and meal. Before the legal introduction of the Imperial system into Scotland (1824), the standards then in use not only differed among themselves, Ancient but rarely represented what were then the legal standards of the country. The old Scotch standard included the Scottish Troyes pound, being one-sixteenth part of the Lanark stone, or 7,609 Imperial grains, known generally, also, as Dutch weight; and also the Tron one pound weight, generally used for butter, cheese, meat, hay, and other commodities. The Tron pound varied considerably in weight, but in Edinburgh it contained 9622-67 Imperial avoirdupois grains (Buchanan's "Weights and Measures." Edinburgh, 1843, p. 21). In 1835 it was ordered that "Fiar Prices" (or Feus), in Scotland, by which the average price in each county of different kinds of grain was annually fixed for the purpose of determining rents and prices in sales, feus, or leases, should be converted into Imperial weights and measures. The Fiar prices of all grain in every county were to be struck by the Imperial Quarter (5 & 6 Will. 4, cap. 63, s. 16). Such Fiar prices are still annually or periodically struck in Scotland (see Paterson's "Historical Account of the Fiars"). Generally, the Scotch pint, or the stoup of Stirling, was taken as the liquid standard of measure. This measure was defined in the Scotch Act of 1618 as being "3 pounds "7 ounces of French Troyes weight of clear running water " of Leith." Looking at the present condition of the waters of Leith, it is difficult to believe that even a pint of clear water should ever have been found there. The standard of capacity for wheat appears to have been the Edinburgh firlot, containing 2214-32 Imperial cubic inches; whilst the Scotch standard for barley, oats, and malt, appears generally to have been the firlot kept at Linlithgow, equal to 3230-30 cubic inches. |