WEIGHTS A general account of English weights has been given in our article ARITHMETIC, Vol. II. p. 345, and of French ones, in the article FRANCE.
Although the weights and measures of Scotland were assimilated to those of England by the Act of Union, yet so imperfectly was this assimilation effected, that before the passing of the last bill, there were about thirty different systems of weights and measures in Scotland.
The English Troy weight and Apothecaries' weight were used in Scotland in the same manner nearly as in England, with this exception only, that the Scotch jewellers divided the Troy oz. into 16 drops, each drop being 30 Troy grains.
In Scotland the English avoirdupois weight was used for leather, soap, sugar, tea, candles, flour and groceries, and also for resin, wax, pitch, wrought metals, some Baltic goods, and all goods imported from England.
Another kind of Troy weight was used in Scot land, called Dutch weight, and sometimes .Ilenster them, and French weight, for weighing iron, hemp, flax, Baltic and Dutch goods, meal, butcher's meat, unwrought pewter and lead, One stone or 16 lbs. of this weight as used in Glasgow, is = 17.442482 imperial avoirdupois lbs. = 279.0797 ditto oz. = 4463.27 ditto drams = 122097.978 ditto grains. Hence eleren pounds Dutch weight
are very nearly equal to twelve pounds imperial avoirdupois, or the Dutch exceeds the imperial avoirdupois weight by a little more than 9 per cent.
The Tron weight formerly used in Glasgow for fish, cheese, and butter, is equal to 22 oz. 7 dr. old avordupois, or to 22.4439 imperial avoirdupois. The Tron pound is = 1.40274 imperial avoirdu pois lbs.
The English weight consists of Troy and .avoir dupois weight, both of which were derived from a certain number of grains of wheat. The grains must be gathered from the middle of the ear, and 32 of these grains form one dwt. Troy.
The unit of weight is the brass weight of 1 lb. Troy in the custody of the clerk of the House of Commons. It was made in 1758, and contains 5760 grains; and it has been proved that 1 cubic inch of distilled water, weighed in air by brass weights at the temperature of 62° Fahrenheit, and when the barometer stands at 30 inches, is exactly 252.488 of these grains. Hence 5760 of these grains are adopted for the imperial standard Troy lb. and 7000 for the lb. avoidupois.
The following table by Mr. Cleland, shows the relation of these two varieties of weights.