By Avoirdupois Weight are weighed such commodities as are coarse and drossy, or subject to waste, as groceries of all kinds, bread, butter, cheese, and most other common necessaries of life; pitch, tar, resin, wax, tallow, flax, &c. as are likewise all metals, silver and gold excepted. 4 quarters, or 112 pounds 1 hundred weight, cwt. 20 hundred weight 1 ton. There are several sorts of silk weighed by the great pound of 24 ounces, others by the common pound of 16 ounces. Hence, to reduce great pounds to common, multiply by 3, and divide by 2; and to bring common pounds into great, multiply by 2, and divide by 3. Note. 175 ounces troy are equal to 192 ounces avoirdupois, exactly; and 175lbs. troy are equal to 144lbs. avoirdupois. Hence. TABLE V. CLOTH MEASURE. Cloth measure is used by linen and woollen drapers. Hollands are measured by the English ell, and tapestry by the Flemish ell; woollens, linens, wrought silks, tape, &c. by the yard. This measure is used to measure distances, lengths, breadths, heights, depths, &c. of places or things. Square measure is used to measure all kinds of superfices; such as land, paying, flooring, plaistering, roofing, slating, tiling, and every thing that has length and breadth. Square. Note. See Duodecimals, at the end of Part I. TABLE VIII. CUBIC, OR SOLID, MEASURE Is used, in mensuration, to measure all kinds of solids or such figures as consist of three dimensions, viz. length, breadth, and depth, or thickness. 27 Feet 1663 Yards 64000 Poles 512 Furlongs 1 Yard. 1 Pole. 1 Furlong. 40 feet of rough timber, or 50 feet of hewn timber, 1 ton, or load. TABLE IX. WINE MEASURE. By this measure all wines, brandies, rum, spirits, distilled liquors, cyder, perry, mead, vinegar, honey, oil, &c. are measured, bought, and sold. 2 Hogsheads, or 126 gallons, 1 pipe, or butt. 2 Butts, or 4 hogsheads, or 252 gallons, 1 ton. Note. In the north of England, a gill is half a pint; also the measure of a gill in London is there called a jack. TABLE X. ALE AND BEER MEASURE in London. By this measure all malt liquors are gauged, bought, and sold. 2 Pints make 1 Quart. 1 Gallon. 1 Butt of beer. N.B. The above measure is used only in London for gauging and selling in all other places in England, the following Table is the standard of ale and beer measure, according to a statute of excise made in the year 1689. TABLE XI. ALE AND BEER MEASURE in the Country. Note. Notwithstanding the above statute, common brewers, in some parts of the country, allow 36 gallons to the publicans for a barrel of ale or beer. TABLE XII. DRY MEASURE. Dry measure is used in measuring all dry commodities, as wheat, barley, beans, and other grain; fruit, roots, sand, salt, coals, oysters, &c. 2 Pints 2 Quarts 2 Pottles, or 8 pints 2 Gallons " make 1 Quart. 1 Pottle. 1 Gallon. 1 Peck. Note. 32 bushels make a chaldron in the country: 5 pecks make a bushel water-measure: 5 bushels make a sack of flour. The standard Winchester bushel is a cylinder of 18 inches diameter, and 8 inches in depth, and contains 21503 cubic inches.-7680 wheat, or barleycorns, are supposed to fill a pint measure. 13 months 1 day, or 52 weeks 1 day, or 365 days, a year, for three years together: but every fourth year contains 366 days, and is called leap-year, except those centuries which cannot be exactly divided by four. This is called the Gregorian year, being instituted by pope Gregory in 1582, and was brought into use in England in 1752. Hence, if we consider the year to consist of 365 days 6 hours, at a medium, one day ought to be struck off the account in 130 years, the solar year being only 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes. The common year is also divided into 12 calendar months. Memorandum,-30 days has September, April, June, and November, And all the rest have 31. In a leap-year, which happens every fourth, (except in the odd centuries, as 17, 18, 19, &c.) February has 29 days. |