SURE.
The standard of weights was originally taken from grains or corns of wheat, whence our lowest denomination of weights is still called a grain ; thirty-two of which are directed, by the statute call ed " compositio mensurarum," to com pose a penny-weight, twenty of which make an ounce, and twelve ounces a pound, &c. Under king Richard the First it was ordained, that there should be only one weight and one measure through out the nation ; and that the custody of the assize, or standard of weights and measures, should be committed to cer tain persons in every city and borough from whence the ancient office of the king's_ ulnager seems to have been de rived. These original standards were called pondus regis, and mensura domini regis, and are directed by a variety of subsequent statutes, to be kept in the ex, eliequer chamber, by an officer called the u•rk of the market, except the wine gal lon, which is committed to the city of Londo., and kept in Guildhall. The Scot tish are distributed among the oldest boroaglis. The elward is kept at Edinburgh, ire pint at Stirling, the pound at Lanark, and the firlot at Lin lithgow.
The two principal weights established in Great Britain, are troy weight and avoirdupois weight, as before mentioned'. , Under the head of the former it may fur ther be added, that a carat is a weight of four grains ; but when the term is applied to gold, it denotes the degree of fineness. Any quantity of gold is supposed divided into twenty-four parts. If the whole mass is pure gold, it is said to be twenty four carats fine ; if there are twenty three parts of pure gold, and one part of alloy or base metal, it is said to be twen ty-three carats fine, and so on. Pure gold is too soft to be used for coin. The standard coin of this kingdom is 22 carats fine. A pound of standard gold is coined into 444 guineas, and therefore every guinea should weigh 5 dwts. an grains. A pound of silver for coin contains 11 oz. 2 dwts. pure silver, and 18 dwts. alloy ; and standard silver plate 11 ounces pure silver, with one ounce alloy. A pound of standard silver is coined into 62 shillings, and therefore the weight of a shilling should be 3 dwts. 2 grains.
Under the words avoirdupois and troy will be found an account of those weights; here we may add a small table from Mr. Ferguson, which gives a more enlarged comparison between these two weights. • 175 Troy pounds are equal to 144 avoir dupois pounds.
175 Troy ounces are equal to 192 avoir dupois ounces.
1 Troy pound contains 5760 grains.
1 Avoirdupois pound contains 7000 grains.
1 Avoirdupois ounce contains 4371 grains.
1 Avoirdupois dram contains 27.34375 grains.
1 Troy pound contains 13 oz. 2.651 428576 drams avoirdupois.
1 Avoirdupois lb. contains 1 lb. 2 or. 11 theta. 16 gra. troy.
Therefore the avoirdupois lb. is to the lb. troy as 175 to 144, and the avoirdupois oz. is to the troy oz. as 437i is to 480.
The moneyers, jewellers, &c. have a particular class of weights for gold and precious stones, viz. carat and grain ; and for silver, the penny-weight and grain. The moneyers have also a peculiar subdi vision of the troy grain : thus, dividing The grain into 20 mites, The mite into 24 droits, The droit into 20 periot ,s The periot into 24 blanks.
The dealers in wool have likewise a particular set of weights : viz. the sack, weigh, tod, stone, and clove ; the propoi lions of which are as below ; The sack containing . . 2 weighs, The weigh 6i tods, The tod 2 stones, The stone 2 cloves, The clove 7 pounds.
But these weights differ in almost every country where dealings in wool are car ried on largely.
Also 12 sacks make a last, or 4368 pounds.
Further, 56 lb. of old hay, or 60 lb. new hay, make a truss. See Truss.
In order to show the proportion of the several weights used throughout Europe, we shall add a reduction of them to one standard, viz. the London and Amster dam pound.
1. Proportion of the weights of the principal places of Europe.
The 100 lb. of England, Scotland, and Ireland, are equal to lb. oz.
91 8 of Amsterdam, Paris, &c.
96 . 8 of Antwerp or Brabant.
88 0 of Rouen, the viscounty weight.
106 0 of Lyons, the city weight.
90 9 of Rochelle.
107 11 of Toulouse and Upper Langue doc.
113 0 of Marseilles or Provence.
81 7 of Geneva.
93 5 of Hamburg!).
89 7 of Francfort, &c.
96 1 of Leipsick, &c. 137 4 of Genoa.
132 11 of Leghorn.
153 11 of Milan. 152 0 of Venice.
154 10 of Naples.
97 0 of Seville, Cadiz, &c.
104 13 of Portugal. 96 5 of Liege.
112 2 Of Russia.
107 of Sweden.
89 A of Denmark.
We shall now show the correspond ence between English weighti,cd some modern weights France other countries, which will be very usefill in reading works on statistics and chemistry, as well modern as those that have been long published, and become standard books.