A rerclopois weight.—The pound is 16 ounces, and the ounce 16 drams : the modem pound is 7 000 grains (the same as the troy grains); whence the dram is 27 grains and 1I-32nds of a grain. The hundred weight is 112 pounds, and the ton 20 hundredweight. The cubic foot of water is pounds averdupois. The stone • is the 8th part of the hundredweight, or 14 pounds. The ton of shipping is not a weight, but a measure, 42 cubic feet, holding 24 hundredweight of sea water. In tlfo oldest mentions which are nutdo of haberdupois or a rer (impels, the word is not applied to weight, but to goods weighed. A charter of Edward 1. speaks, "de averia ponderis, et de aliim rebus subtilibus ;" and no mention is made of averdupois weight before the time of Henry VIII. Wingate (quoting Gerard Malynes, whose' Lex Mercatoria' was published in 1636) says that it serves to weigh "all kind of grocery ware, as also butter, cheese, flesh, tallow, wax, and every other thing which beareth the name of [Ark!, and whereof issueth a refuse or waste." To which the almanac of 1673, already quoted, adds, "and therefore 112 lbs. averd. is called a hundred weight." The old merchants' pound, which was 15 ounces [Taos], may have been the origin of the modem averdupois pound. Fleta says every thing was weighed by it except gold, silver, and drugs ; but it is to be remembered that this does not mean that gold and silver were weighed by troy weight; for it is well known that, until a change was made by Henry VIII. in 1527, gold and silver were weighed by the Tower pound of 11 ounces. The modern averdupoia pound is 14 ounces, 12 pennyweights, all but 8 grains troy. The standards of Elizabeth agree tolerably well with this ; but it is to be noticed that, unless we suppose two averdupois pounds, one ancient and one modem, there is much reason to doubt whether the averdupois pound was uniform. Dr. Kelly says, " The old commercial weight of England, which is atilt retained in Scotland, is about one-twelfth heavier than averdupois, the pound being 7600 grains troy .... this has been long the weight in England by which the assize t of bread is fixed." Our suspicion is this, that the old commercial pound, probably differing in different places, though supposed to be uniform, gradually gained the name of averdupois ; and that the standards deposited in the Exchequer in the time of Elizabeth, which certainly do not agree with the arithmetical writers of the same date, were probably derived either from this old merchants' pound of 15 ounces troy, or from a selection out of the varying specimens of a pound derived from it. In the `Pathway' the " pound luthenhipoia is parted auto 16 ounces, every ounce 8 &nines, every dragme 3 scruples, every scruple 20 grains ; " giving 7680 grains to the pound. This is the probable origin of the old pound which Dr. Kelly mentions, and it happens to contain precisely the same number of grains as the old statute: pound before 32 grains took the place of 24 in the pennyweight.. And this shows the origin of apothe caries' weight: medicines were dispensed by this old subdivision of the .und, and continued to be so after the pound of Elizabeth's standard supplanted the old one. It was then natural that this ounce, drachm, and scruple, which were no aliquot parts of the new averdupois pound, but which were aliquot parts of the pound troy, should be referred by arithmeticians to the latter.§ Sir Jonas Moore, who had been surveyor-general of the Ordnance, and could hardly have failed to be correctl7 informed, gives the same pound and subdivisions. Moore's was first published in 1650. Jeake, as latesus 1674, gives the same division and the same pound of 7680 grains ; and Hams, as lath as 1716, does the same in the third edition of the 'Lexicon Techni cum.' Jeake gives several citations tending to show that there was no universal agreement about the pound averdupois. Dalton (the lawyer) and Malynes, he says, agree in making 58 lbs. averd. equal to 674 lbs. troy (or 69421 grains to the pound averd.), but both afterwards put 68 for 671 (which gives 09941 grains). Others, ho continues, affirm the pound averdupois to be 14 ounces 12 pennyweights troy (giving 7008 grains). The older writers hardly mention averdupois weight : Itecorde not at all ; Mellis slightly, not subdividing the ounce. Hart well, an editor of Records (1648), mentions this pound of 16 ounces and 7680 grains, divided as above, and says it is used by apothecaries. Oughtred, mentioning Ohetaldi'a pound of 6912 grains, compares it. only with the English troy pound, without mention of any other. All this shows that, at the beginning of the 17th century, there was a complete want of agreement as to what constituted averdupois weight, which continued in some degree till the end. Nevertheless in the middle of the century, Wyberd, who measured for himself, and his friend Reynolds (before mentioned), assert that the averdupois pound is to the troy as 17 to 14 (which gives 69941 grains, agreeing with Dalton and Malynes), though they say that the then common notion was that the ratio was 73 to 60 (which gives 7008 grains). Meson (1679) gives as much as 76S0 grains. Ward says that, by a very nice experiment, he found 69991 grains. Arbuthnot, apparently moaning to cite Greaves, but we cannot find the place, gives the ratio 175 to 144, or 68901 grains. Down to the statute of Geo. IV., the averdupois pound varied a little, according to the notion of the writer : Dilworth makes it 69991 grains ; Dr. Robert Smith, 7000 grains ; Bonnycastle, 69997.1 grains. And even since that act came into operation, which declares " that seven thousand such grains shall be, and they are hereby declared to be, a pound avoirdupois," an editor of the last-named 1 writer will not obey the statute, but adds the 123rd part of a grain. Long measure.—Three barleycorns make an inch, 12 inches a foot, 3 feet a yard, 51 yards a pole, perch,* or gad, 40 poles a furlong, 8 furlongs (1760 yards) a mile. Also 21 inches are a nail, 3 quarters of
a yard a Flemish ell, 5 quarters an English ell, 6 quarters a French ell. A pace is 2 steps, or 5 feet ; a fathom is 6 feet. The CHAIN is 22 yards, or 100 links : 10 chains make a furlong, and SO chains a mile. The barleycorn is now disused, and the inch is sometimes divided into 12 lines (as in France), but oftener into tenths or eighths. On our older itinerary measures, see LEA011E and MILE. The yard is fre quently called an ell in old books ; commonly, Records says. Mollie says that both the yard and the ell were divided each into 16 nails. A goad is an old name for a yard and a half The hand (anciently handful), used in measuring the height of horses, is fixed at 4 inches by 27 Henry VIII., cap. 6. The furlong is probably a corruption of forty long, from its forty poles : the old derivation, furrowlong, as long as a furrow, seems to us to carry absurdity on the face of it. The etymo logists of measures are not always fortunate; Vcrstegan derives Troy weight from Troynovant,t the mythological name for London ; and Jeake will have averdupois to be overdupois, because the pound is greater than in troy weight ; while Meson says the word means " !lave your weight." Square Measure.—A square perch is 304 square yards; 40 square perches are a rood (formerly also farthendele), 4 roodsare an acre. The acre is also ten square chains, or 4340 square yards. Four square perches Were anciently called a day's work. The rood: is tho same word as rod : Mellis says four rods make an acre. The old terms which have come down from 'Domesday Book' at latest, the hide, plow land, carucate, and oxgang, are wholly unsettled as to what magnitudes they meant.
The cubic measures, or measures of capacity, do not immediately depend upon the cubic foot, except in the case of timber. Forty cubic feet of rough timber, or fifty feet of hewn timber, make a load.
The preceding measures have been untouched by the act which introduced the imperial measures. The old measures of capacity, the wino measure, ale and beer measure, and the dry measure, are now replaced by the imperial measure.
Old Dry or Corn Measure.—Tho gallon is 263'6 cubic inches. Two pints make a quart, 2 quarts a pottle, 2 potties a gallou, 2 gallons a peck, 4 pecks a bushel, 2 bushels a strike, 2 strikes a comb or coomb, 2 coombs a quarter (eight bushels), 5 quarters a wey or load, and 2 weys a last. In measuring grain, the bushel is struck, that is, the part which more than fills the measure is scraped off. Most other goods were sold by heaped measure, or as much as could be laid on the top of the measure was added. This heaped measure (which was supposed to give about a third more than the other) was at first allowed in the imperial system, but has since been abolished. Coals, which must now be sold by weight, were sold by the chaldron. Three bushels make a sack, three sacks a vat, and four vats a chaldron.
There was anciently a dell, or hall-bushel (also called a fora), which makes the binary character of this measure almost complete. In the ` Pathway ' we do not find the load or vvey,11 and the coomb is also called a cornook (by Jonas Moore, eanock), and the quarter also a seam.* The 'Pathway,' Mellis, and Moore, &c., mention the seater measure of five pecks to a bushel (11 Henry VII., cap. 4.), aud always in conjunction with dry measure : it means a dry measure in use at the waterside, and lime, sea-coal, and salt were measured by it. The common dry bushel was called the Winchester bushel ; this name is a remnant of the laws of King Edgar, who ordained that specimens kept at Winchester should be legal standards.
Old Wine t Measure.—The gallon contains 231 cubic inches. Four gills make a pint, 2 pints a quart, 4 quarts a gallon, 18 gallons a rundlet, 31i gallons a barrel, 42 gallons a tierce, 63 gallons a hogs head, 2 tierces a puncheon, 2 hogsheads a pipe or butt,::: 2 pipes a tun. But the pipes of foreign wine depend more on the measures of their different countries than on the above. The rundlet and barrel are generally omitted, but they are both found in writers of the 16th century. Meths gives 18i gallons, and the Pathway' 18 gallons, to the rundlet. Tierce merely means the third part of a pipe, and the puncheon was anciently called the tercian (of a tun). The pottle (of two quarts) formerly existed. The anker of brandy, a foreign measure of comparatively recent introduction into England, is ten gallons.
Old Ale and Beer Measure.—One gallon contains 282 cubic inches. Two pints make a quart, 4 quarts a gallon, 9 gallons a firkin, 2 firkins a kilderkin, 2 kilderkins a barrel, II barrel a hogshead, 2 hogsheads a butt, 2 butts a tun. Up to the year 1803, when the two measures were assimilated § by statute, this was the beer measure, and the ale measure only differed from it in that E gallons made a firkin. Nothing above a barrel is mentioned in the oldest tables, and the pottle (two quarts) is introduced. Two tuns were sometimes called a last.
Imperial Measure.—This measure supersedes the old corn, wine, and beer measures. The gallon contains cubic inches, and is 10 pounds averdnpois of water. Four gills are a pint, 2 pints a quart, 4 quarts a gallon, 2 gallons a peck, 4 pecks a bushel, 8 bushels a quarter, 5 quarters a load. Of these the gill and load are not named in the statute, but are derived from common usage. When heaped measure was allowed, 3 bushels made a sack, and 12 sacks a chaldron. This heaped measure was abolished II by 4 & 5 Will. IV., c. 49, and the abolition was re-enacted by 5 & 6 Will IV., c. 63, which repealed the former. These acts leave the higher measures of wine, ke., to custom, considering them apparently as merely names of casks, which in fact they are, and leaving them to be ganged in gallons. It must be remembered that in former times any usual vessel which was generally made of one size came in time to the dignity of a place among the national measures.