Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-06-16
Misfllameons.
From the Manu- sacturer and Builder.
EengIIsh Standards of = easU re

EengIIsh Standards of easUre,
A standard yardstick, which was kept
at the exchequer in London, and had
been obtained in 1120 from the length OF
, King Henry's arm, by his express order
was examined in 1743 by commissioner
who wrote. "a kitchen poker, filled at
both ends, would make as good stand
ard 1t has been broken, and then re-
paired so clumsily that the joint is near
lyas loose as pair of tongs." In 1760,
Mr.. Bird prepared an accurate copy OF
this, for the use of the government, and
this copy of an arbitrary and clumsy,
broken standard, was legally adopted in
1872, when it was ordered that if des-
troyed, it should be restored by a COM
parison with the length of the pendu-
lum vibrating seconds at the latitude of
London.
Ten years later, it was destroyed by
the great fire at the Parliament House,
QS24,). Repeated attempts were then
made to find the length again by means
OF the pendulum, as previously arrang-
ed, but it was found utterly impractical
BILE, so that the British government was
compelled to make use of such copies of
this burned yardstick as it supposed
reliable. And we Americans were un-
clumsy y,inconvenient,. and inconsistent
English measures; but even to order
from London instrumept-maker a
copy of this yardstick for the use of our
Coast Survey.
Yet our yard standard is one thous-
andth ofan inch longer than the British
standard yardstick. 1t is seen that this
standard of length is entirely arbitrary;
hut its worst feature is the unequal
division and multiplication, which do
not correspond with the system follow
ed in arithmetic all over the world
namely, the decimal one. The yard is
divided into feet every foot II inches,
and the inch into halves, quarters,
eights, etc., or into II lines; the yard is
also divided mot 432 lines, 51S4 seconds,
or g., sos thirds. For the multiplies of
the yard on p-board, yards are
called fathom, and 100 fathoms cable
length; while on shore IL fathoms are
a chain. 81 yards a perch or pole, 4
poles chain, 10 chains a furlongs fur
longs a mile, from which it follows that
one mile is q cable lengths, or $3.50 feet.
AS eighty chains make mile and
the chain is divided into 100 links, the
mile is equal to 5000 links. 1t is seen
that in the furlong and link there is
eOile aIteIHpb al utClildl ulNiSIOu
In regard to superficial area, things
are no better; one square yard is equal
to 9 square feet, 1896 square inches.
while 1910 square yards, or 43, $50 square
feet, make an acre, which can not be
made square in round number of feet,
out is equal to 4 square rods or 10 square
perches. In the measur of capacity the
imperial gallon must contain by parlia-
mentary enactment exactly 277, ,247
cubic inches of water, while the Ameri-
can standard gallon is found by ascer-
tanning the volume of 5S,372 grains of
water of SO degrees. This gallon is
divided into quarts or 8 pints, while
its multiples are2 gallons equal to
peck, pecks l bushel, and SO bushel
chaldron.
In weight, we have the same COM
plications; they are two kinds of pounds
to commence with, avoirdupois and
troy, the first divied into 16 and the
second into IL ounces, while these ounces
themselves differ, the ounce troy being
equal to 4S0 grams, while the ounce
avoirdupois is equal to only 473 grains,
because it has been arbitrarily adopted
that the avoirdupois pound should be
equal to exactly 5000 grains. The troy
pound is equal to 12 ounces, the ounce
to drachms, the drachm to scruples,
the scruple to 20 grams.
We might fill several pages with the
details of this arbitrary, clumsy and
absurd system which cause so much
loss of time to our yonth in studying.
The United States could not do better