by manufacturers, the determination of physical conslanis

and the testing of materials. The work of the Kcw Observatory, at the Old Deer Park, Richmond, has also been placed under the direction of the N.P .L. (see III. Commercial). The C.I. P .M. at Paris, the first metro logical institution, also undertakes verifications for purely scientific purposes. A descriptive hst of the verifying instruments of the Standards Department, London, has been published.^ In the measurement of woollen and other textile fabrics, as to quality, strength, number of threads, &c., there exists at Bradford a voluntary standardizing institution known as the Conditioning House (Bradford Corporation Act 1SS7), the work of which has been extended to a chemical analysis of fabrics. 8. Ancient Standards of England and Scotland. — A "troy

pound " and a new standard yard, as well as secondary standards, were constructed by direction of parliament in 17 58-1 760, and were deposited with the Clerk of the House of Commons. When the Houses of Parliament were burned down in 1834, the pound was lost and the yard was injured. It may here be mentioned that the expression " imperial " first occurs in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824. 'The injured standard was then lost sight of, but it was in 1891 brought to light by the Clerk of the Journals, and has now been placed in the lobby of the residence of the Clerk of the House, together with a standard " stone "

of 14 ib.

In the measurement of liquids the old "wine gallon" (231 cub. in.) was in use in England until 1824, when the present imperial gallon (fig. 5) was legalized; and the wine gallon of 1707 is still referred to as a standard in the United Slates. Together with the more ancient standard of Henry VTI. and of Queen Elizabeth, this standard is deposited in the Jewel Tower at Westminster. They are probably of the Norman period, and were kept in the Pyx Chapel at Westminster, now in the custody of the Commissioners of Works. A sketch of these measures is given in fig. 6.

^

Besides these ancient standards of England (1495, 1588, 1601) there are at the council chambers of Edinburgh and chant's pound of 7200 grains, from France and Germany, also superseded. ( Avoirdcpois " occurs in 1 336, and has been thence continued: the Elizabethan standard was probably 7002 grains.) Ale gallon of 1601 =282 cub. in., and wine gallon of 1707=231 cub. in.,

both abolished in 1824. Winchester corn bushel of 8X268.8 cub. in. and gallon of 274 J are the oldest examples known (Henry -^

FiC. 7 . — The Scots Choppin

or Half-Pint, 1555.

sfei^iiiihi

-

Fig. 8 . — Lanark Stone

Troy Weight, 1618.

VII.), gradually modified until fixed in 1826 at 277.274, or 10 pounds of water.

French Weights and Measures Abolished. — O f ten needed in reading older works.

Iisne,

j2 = pouce,

•08SS3 in.

1 0658

grain,

72=gros,

-8197 fit.

59021

12= pied,

6 = toiie,

12-7892

„7673S

8=once,

c=mirc,

J72 17

3777-33

2000=Iicue dc poste.

2 42219 miles.

2 = i>oids dc marc.

1 0792 Ih,

Fio. 6 . — A, Winchester Bushel of Henry VI I.; Standard

weight (112 ib) of Elizabeth;

Gallon.

C, Ale Gallon of Henry VII.; D. the Linlithgow some of the interesting standards of Scotland, as the Stirling jug or Scots pint, 161S; the choppin or half-pint, J 555 (fig- 7); the Lanark troy and tron weights of the same periods (fig. 8).^

English Weights and Ifcasiires Abolished. — The yard and handful, or 40 in. ell, abolished in 1439. The yard and inch, or 37 in. ell (cloth measure), abolished after 1553; known later as the Scotch cll = 37-06 . Cloth ell of 45 in, used till 1600. The yard of Henry VII, = 35'9('3 in.

Saxon moncycrs pound, or Tower pound, 5400 grains, abolished in 1527. Mark, 3 pound =3600 grains. Troy pound in

use in 141 5. established as monetary pound 1527. Troy weight was abolished, from the 1st of January 1 879. by the Weights and Measures Act 1878. with the exception only of the Troy ounce, its decimal parts and multiples, legalized in 1853, 16 Vict. c. 29, to be used for the sale of gold and silver articles, platinum and precious stones. Merchant's pound, in 1270 established for all except gold, silver and medicines = 6750 grains, generally superseded by avoirdupois in 1303. Mer• •

Treasury Committee on National Physical Laborator>', Parliamentary Paper, 1898.

Descriptive List of Standards and Instruments, Parliamentary Paper, 1892.

^ Report on Standards deposited in House of Commons, 1st November 1891.

• S. Fisher. The Art Journnt, August 1900.

Buchanan, Ancient Scotch Standards. Rhine-land foot, much used in Germany, = 12-357 in. = the foot of the Scotch or English cloth ell of 3706 in., or 3X12-353. (H. J . C .) II. AiVCiENT Historical

Though no line can be drawn between ancient and modern metro logy, yet, owing to neglect, and partly to the scarcity of materials, there is a gap of more than a thousand years over which the connexion of units ^ of measure is mostly guess-work. Hence, except in a few cases, we shall not here consider any units of the middle ages. A constant difficulty in studying works on metro logy is the need of distinguishing the absolute facts of the case from the web of theory into which each writer has woven them— often the names used, and sometimes the very existence of the units in question, being entirely an assumption oi the writer.

Again, each writer has his own leaning: A. Bbckh, to the study of water-volumes and weights, even deriving linear measures therefrom; V. Queipo, Hundred-

^'^ ^'^^

connexion with Arabic and Spanish measures; old Wine J. Brandis, to the basis of Assyrian standards; Mommsen, to coin weights; and P. Bortolotti to Egyptian units; but F. Hultsch is more general, and appears to give a more equal representation of all sides than do other authors. In this article the tendency will be to trust far more to actual measures and weights than to the statements of ancient writers; and this position seems to be justified by the great increase in materials, and their more accurate means of study. The usual arrangement by countries has been mainly abandoned in favour of following out each unit as a whole, without recurring to it separately for every locality. The materials for study are of three kinds. (1) Literary, both in direct statements in works on measures (e.g . Eliasof Nisibis), medicine (Galen) and cosmetics (Cleopatra), in ready-reckoner's (Didymus), clerk's (katlb's) guides, and like handbooks, and in indirect explanations of the equivalents of measures mentioned by authors (e.gV Josephus). But all such sources are liable to the most confounding errors, and some passages relied on have in any case to submit to conjectural emendation. These authors are of great value for connecting the monumental information, In the absence of the actual standards of ancient times the units of measure and of weight have to be inferred from the other remains; hence unit in this division is used for any more or less eloscly defined amount of length or weight in terms of which matter was measured.