produced by one mode of ventilation, and how it may be reduced by another; several ways by which friction is produced; the power of the furnace, and the quantity of air produced by an increased power; several modes by which coal is worked out in mines; why so many ways are adopted; and also of who are the best and most competent persons to manage the underground workings of mines; the mode of dialling, and also laying the workings on a plan. I must now, my son, draw to a close. I hope what I have said you will inwardly digest, so that my labour bestowed upon you may not be in vain. If I have been successful, I shall be well rewarded, my object being only to give you information. I would beg of you, if ever you have charge of the under-ground working of mines, to do that which is right, as far as is in your power, both to the employer and the employed. Give to every person his right and due. Do not give away your master's money unless you have labour equivalent for it, as his money is not yours. Neither give away the workmen's labour to the master, for by so doing you rob them of their rights and living. Do to each as you would wish each to do to you. Study to be upright in all your dealings with every person, remembering that life will only be of short duration, so that you may be found right for the life to come.

Son: It is your will, I know, father, for me to do what is right and just, and I hope it will always be my endeavour to do so; if not, I may expect to be beaten with many stripes.Father: If all people go astray, you are not justified in doing wrong. Never take advantage of a person because his profession of religion be not the same as yours; if he is sincere in his worship, look upon him as a friend and brother.

At this colliery the father of William Hopton, the author of this book, was lost.

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7

H

TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

THE origin of all Weights and Measures in England was derived from a grain of wheat; vide Statutes of 51 Henry III., 31 Edward I., and 12 Henry VII., which enacted that 32 of them, well dried and gathered from the middle of the ear, were to make 1 pennyweight; 20 dwts. 1 ounce; and 20 oz. 1 pound.

It was subsequently thought better to divide the pennyweight into 24 equal parts, called grains.

William the Conqueror introduced into England what was called TROY WEIGHT, from Troyes, a town in the province of Champagne, in France, now in the department of Aube, where a celebrated fair was held. The English were dissatisfied with this weight, because the pound did not weigh so much as the pound in use at that time in England. Hence arose the term, Avoir du poids, which was a medium between the French and the ancient English weights.

AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHT was first made legal in the reign of Henry VII., and its particular use was to weigh provisions and coarse heavy articles. Henry fixed the stone at 14 lbs., which has been confirmed by a recent Act of Parliament.

With respect to MEASURES OF LENGTH, it is recorded that the various denominations were constructed from a corn of barley, 3 of which, well dried, from the middle of the ear, made an inch. Other terms were taken from portions of the human body, such as the Digit (3 of an inch, or a finger's breadth), a Palm (3 inches), a Hand (4 inches), a Span (9 inches), a Foot (12 inches), and a Cubit (18 inches), being the length of the arm or bone from the elbow to the wrist. A Pace (5 feet), or 2 ordinary steps; a Fathom (6 feet), from the extremity of one hand to that of the other, the arms oppositely extended. It is stated that Henry I., in 1101, commanded that the ulna, or ancient ell, which answers to the modern yard, should be made the length of his arm; and that the other measures of length were hence derived, whether lineal, superficial, or solid.

All MEASURES OF CAPACITY were first taken from Troy Weight, and several laws were passed in the reign of Henry III., enacting that 8lbs. Troy of wheat, taken from the middle of the ear, and well dried, should make one gallon of Wine measure, and 8 such gallons make a bushel.

Weights and measures were invented 869 B.C.; fixed to a standard in England, A.D. 1257; regulated, 1492; equalized, 1826.

Agreeable to the Act of Uniformity, which took effect 1st Jan., 1826. The term Measure may be distinguished into seven kinds, viz.-Length, Surface, Volume, Specific Gravity, Capacity, Space, and Time and Motion.

The several Denominations of these Measures have reference to certain standards, which are entirely arbitrary, and consequently vary among different nations. In this kingdom, the Standard of

Length is a Yard.

Solidity is a Cubic Yard.

Surface is a Square Yard, the 1 48-40 of an Acre.

Capacity is a Gallon.

Weight is a Pound.

The standards of Angular Measure and of Time are the same in all European and most other countries.

The Imperial Standard Yard, and the Imperial Standard Pound Troy having been destroyed in the fire at the Houses of Parliament in 1834, Restored Standards of Weights and Measures have been legalized by 18 and 19 Vic., cap. 72.

E. Measures of Length.

The Restored Standard of Lineal Measure, whose length is called a yard, is a solid square Bar, Thirty-eight Inches long and One Inch Square, in Transverse Section, the Bar being of Bronze or Gun Metal, at the Temperature of 62° of Fahrenheit's Thermometer-marked Copper 16 oz., Tin 2 oz., Zinc 1 oz.—and near to each end a cylindrical hole is sunk, to the depth of half an inch; the distance between the centres of the two holes being 3 Feet or 36 Inches, or one Imperial Standard Yard. The standard square and cubic measures will therefore depend entirely upon it.

At present we have no means of ascertaining why this particular length was originally fixed upon; but as it is most essential that it should always remain the same, it will be found convenient to refer it to something else, which we have no reason to suppose ever undergoes any change.

Now the length of a Pendulum vibrating seconds, or performing 86,400 oscillations in the interval between the sun's leaving the meridian of a place and returning to it again, is always the same at a fixed place and under the samo circumstances; and if this length be divided into 391,392 equal parts, the yard. is defined to be equivalent to 360,000 of these parts: also, conversely, since a yard is equal to 36 inches, it follows that the length of the seconds' pendulum, ¦ expressed in inches, is 39.1392.

The Pendulum referred to in this country, is one vibrating seconds at Greenwich | or in London, at the level of the sea in a non-resisting medium; and if the standard yard be at any time lost or destroyed, it would be easy to have recourse; to experiment for its recovery.

The standard Yard, being the general Unit of lineal measure, it follows that all lengths less than a yard will be expressed by fractions; and it is on this account that a lineal inch, or ten thousand of the aforesaid portions of the pendulum, is