Channel
Islands.

In Ireland the practice as to the local inspection and appointment of officers is referred to at page 49 (Inspection of Weights, &c.).

The Reverend Isaac Warren states ("Table and Formula Book," Longmans, 1889,) that Irish Long Measure agrees with English, as follows:

Hence 11 Irish miles = 14 English miles, and 121 Irish acres 196 English acres.

In the Channel Islands there are in use three systems of weights and measures-the Imperial, Metric, and the old Norman systems. The weights and measures of the Channel Islands are regulated by the local Legislature, and are not specially referred to in the Imperial Weights and Measures Acts. Copies of the Imperial Standards were verified at the Exchequer at Westminster in 1844 for the use of the Island of Jersey, and were delivered into the custody of the Viscount of Jersey.

Weights.―Jersey pound avoirdupois of 16 ounces = 7,561 grains Imperial, the same weight as the "livre de la Vicomte de l'Eau," or the ancient Standard of Rouen (Marc de Rouen).

Jersey 52 lbs. avoirdupois, and
Standards from 52 lbs. to oz.

a nest of Jersey

Measures of capacity. The estendard du chasteau or cabot = 4 gallons, 1 quart, 3 gills, Imperial, or 10 Jersey pots, as stated in an Act of the Jersey Court on 19th January 1625.

The Jersey quart

=

20

2th estendard du chasteau.

There appear to be also in use Jersey measures of a pot, pint, half-pint, noggin, and half-noggin, as well as the

Measures of length.—10 ft. rod for inspection of roads.
The aune or ell of 4 feet.

The Jersey pound of 16 ounces, and the cabot, were legalised by Acts of the Royal Court of Jersey on 11th December, 1593, 7th March, 1617, and 19th January, 1625, which were confirmed by the Sovereign in Council in 1717.

A specimen of the Jersey pound avoirdupois or the ancient Marc de Rouen; together with the parts of the marc cup shape, and standard weights of the following denominations are deposited at the Standards Office :

Man.

Copies of the Imperial standards were originally Isle of verified at the Exchequer for the Isle of Man in 1840, and were delivered to the custody of the Clerk of the Rolls, but, under an Act of Tynwald, 1880, the standards adopted in the Isle of Man, and the modes of inspecting trade weights, are now made similar to those prescribed by the Imperial Weights and Measures Act, 1878. On the application of the Registrar of the Isle of Man the standards of the Isle are to be compared with those of the Board of Trade once in every 20 years, and they were last so compared in 1883.

In the sale of corn, &c. in the Isle, the following equivalents were followed :-a bushel of wheat or rye to consist of 64 lbs.; of barley 56 lbs.; of oats 42 lbs. ; of peas or beans 60 lbs.; of potatoes 56 lbs.; a boll of wheat or rye to consist of four bushels, or 256 lbs., and a bushel divided into four pecks or kischens.

The regulation of weights and measures in the Isle of Man is in the hands of an officer called a Regulator of Weights and Measures for the whole island, and four other inspecting officers, each of whom has sub-standards in use, verified by the Regulator of Weights and Measures under a local Act of Tynwald (or local Parliament of the Island).

United
States.

7. STANDARDS OF THE UNITED STATES.

The history of the standards of the United States has been so intimately connected with the history of the standards of Great Britain, that some particular reference to the United States may not be out of place here.

The standards of length in the United States are the yard and metre. It appears from a bulletin (No. 26, dated 5th April 1893), issued by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, with the approval of the Secretary of the United States Treasury, that in future the "International Prototype Metre and Kilogramme" (deposited at Paris), will be regarded in the United States as the fundamental standards of "Length and Mass," and that the yard and pound in America will be derived from these metric standards (Board of Trade Annual Report, 1894).

The yard originally was the length between the twentyseventh and sixty-third inches, marked on a Troughton 82 inch brass scale, deposited at Washington, and this was

supplemented by a copy (No. 11) of the new Imperial standard of 1855, which was presented to the United States Government by the British Government in that year.

The standard of weight is stated to be the brass troy pound copied from the Imperial troy pound by Captain Kater in 1827, for the United States Mint at Philadelphia, and preserved in that establishment. The commercial standard pound avoirdupois was derived from the troy pound, but in 1855 a copy (No. 5) of the present Imperial pound avoirdupois was also presented to the United States Government, and is deposited at Washington.

The unit of capacity for cereals in the United States is the old Winchester bushel of 2150-42 cubic inches; or 0·96944 Imperial bushel. The original standard gallon by which the United States measure appears to have been determined was the Queen Anne's standard wine gallon of 1707. It contained 231 cubic inches, and was stated to hold 8.3389 pounds avoirdupois of distilled water at the temperature of 39°.83 Fahrenheit. A weighing recently made of the actual contents of this gallon measure made its capacity equivalent to 8-3292 lb. avoirdupois of distilled water at the temperature of 62° Fahrenheit and under a pressure of 30 inches of the barometer. (See Fig. 7, p. 12.)

Copies of the above standards and of parts and multiples of those standards, arranged in a decimal and binary series, were deposited in the several States and at the Custom Houses. There appears to be no public general statute applying to the whole of the States, each State and territory making its own laws; and although each State has its own laws as to weights and measures, yet there would appear to be a general uniformity of practice throughout the States. For instance, as to the sale of corn, we gather from the report in 1891 of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Sale of Corn

(table prepared by the Clerk of the United States Treasury Department, corrected up to 1891, by Mr. W. Almon Wolff) that 31 out of the 34 States adopt a uniform weight of 60 lbs. to the bushel (Winchester) of wheat.

The American Metrological Society of New York, which was organised in 1873, has published much information with reference to the different weights, &c. in use throughout the States.

Besides the "Imperial" foot of 12 inches, there appears to be in occasional use in the United States an old Dutch foot, derived from the " Amsterdam foot" (11·147 English inches). There were in use in Holland, before the introduction of the metric system, two standards of the "foot ". the "Amsterdam" and the "Rhineland" foot (divided into 12 inches and equal to 12:356 English inches).

By an Act of Congress, approved in July 1866, the use of the weights and measures of the metric system is made permissible; and all contracts are declared not to be invalid because the weights and measures expressed or referred to therein are weights and measures of that system. Metric standards to be furnished to each State; by a Joint Congressional Resolution of the same date the Secretary of the Treasury was "authorised and directed to "furnish each State with one set of the standard weights "and measures of the metric system." Tables of equivalents are also recognised in the Act.

India.

8. STANDARDS OF INDIA, &c.

In India native weights and measures are mostly used in trade as hereafter shown; but the legal standards are based on those of the Imperial system.