British weights and measures are regulated by the provisions contained in several Weights and Measures Acts, whereby the official standards, called Imperial standards, have been fixed, and all local or customary measures previously used in different parts of the kingdom were abolished.
Owing to the inveteracy of ancient customs and the difficulty of enforcing new regulations, these statutes have always had a very limited, influence,, and the greatest diversity has continued to prevail.
Many of such local customary weights and measures are, therefore, still used on a large scale for commercial transactions all over the realm, and so multifarious are the systems used, varying almost from one county to another, that their classification and illustration would be a fit subject for a much, larger work than this.
The two latter, as easily detected by their names, are intended for limited purposes, and therefore seldom if ever used by merchants at large, while the Avoir-dupois weight and the Troy weight are daily used in commercial transactions.
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The former is employed for coarse commodities and general trade use, the latter for precious metals and for scientific purposes.
Both systems have the pound as their unit; the Avoirdupois pound being, however, heavier than the Troy, so that 144 Avoirdupois pounds are equivalent to 175 Troy pounds.
The following are the aliquot parts of the pound in the two systems:
As it is shown by the above table, the lowest aliquot part, both of the Avoirdupois and Troy pound is the grain, which being exactly equal in the two systems, may be fairly considered as a common basis, the starting-point of the two weights, whose difference consists in the diversity of multiples adopted. In the Avoirdupois system- the difference between the units of the two systems being, therefore, equal to 1,240 grains.
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The weight of large packages or parcels of goods is calculated in trade by the following multiples of the Avoirdupois system, viz.:
Among the unauthorized weights still used among British merchants the following deserve mentioning:
Measures.-
Measures are distinguished into measures of lengthy square measures, and measures of capacity ; the latter dividing into liquid measures, dry measures, and cubic measures.
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Lineal Measures.-
The standard measure of length, also called long or lineal measure, is the yard, which divides into the following aliquot parts, viz. and hence the following multiples are formed, viz.:
For maritime purposes, that is, for the measurement cables, cordage, ship’s draught, sea soundings, etc., the standard commonly used is the-
Square Measures
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The ground, or any other surface, is calculated by square measures, which correspond in due proportion to lineal measures, viz.:
Liquid Measures,-
The standard of English measures for liquids, thus called liquid measures, is the gallon, which divides as follows:
Large quantities of wine, liquors, beer, ale, &c., are usually bought and sold by barrels (Bl.), hogsheads (,hhd.), and pipes or butts ; a hogshead being always calculated as half the measure of a pipe or butt.
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The capacity of such vessels is not officially stated; it varies, therefore, according to the custom of the place or the sort of liquid the vessel is used for.
Thus according to beer measure-
1 barrel = 36 gallons.
1 hogshead = 54 gallons.
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1 butt = 108 gallons.
Dry Measures.-
Wheat, corn, rice, barley, oats, and other loose grain commodities are generally sold by weight, and also by large measures of capacity, whose Unit, however, is the gallon. Such measures are:
A bushel of wheat is calculated in trade as weighing on an average, 60 lbs. ; a bushel of barley, 47 lbs.; a. bushel of oats, 38 to 40 lbs.
Cubic Measures.-
There are cubic measures used to ascertain the volume of solid bodies as well as the capacity of a room or vessel, the standard of which is the cubic yard, proportionally divided into 27 cubic feet, and a foot into 1,728 cubic inches, as proportionally corresponding to the same standards in the lineal measure.
The carrying capacity of a ship, called ship’s burthen or ship’s tonnage, is usually estimated by cubic tons a ton being equal to about 40 cubic feet. The register tonnage is measured, however, by tons of 100 cubic feet.