These committees, assisted by able mathematicians and
artists, examined and compared with each other the several standard
measures and weights, and made reports on them in the years 1758 and
1759. The circumstances under which these reports were made entitle
them to be considered, as far as they go, as the best written
testimony existing of the standard measures and weights of England;
and as such, they will be relied on in the progress of this report.
MEASURES OF LENGTH.
The measures of length in use among us are:
The league of 3 miles, The fathom of 2 yards,
The mile of 8 furlongs, The ell of a yard and
The furlong of 40 poles or quarter,
perches, The yard of 3 feet,
The pole or perch of 5 1/2 The foot of 12 inches, and
yards, The inch of 10 lines.
On this branch of their subject, the committee of 1757 - 1758,
says that the standard measures of length at the receipt of the
exchequer, are a yard, supposed to be of the time of Henry VII., and
a yard and ell supposed to have been made about the year 1601; that
they are brass rods, very coarsely made, their divisions not exact,
and the rods bent; and that in the year 1742, some members of the
Royal Society had been at great pains in taking an exact measure of
these standards, by very curious instruments, prepared by the
ingenious Mr.
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