.

In England, in early days, it was defined as a measure of length
consisting of 12 inches, or 36 barleycorns laid end to end. But
barleycorns differ in length as well as the human foot, so the standard
adopted is without any real foundation or reason.

WEIGHT.--To determine weight, however, a scientific standard was
adopted. A gallon contains 8.33 pounds avoirdupois weight of distilled
water. This gallon is divided up in two ways; one by weight, and the
other by measurement.

Each gallon contains 231 cubic inches of distilled water. As it has four
quarts, each quart has 57-3/4 cubic inches, and as each quart is
comprised of two pints, each pint has nearly 29 cubic inches.

THE GALLON.--The legal gallon in the United States is equal to a
cylindrical measure 7 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep.

Notwithstanding the weights and dimensions of solids and liquids are
thus fixed by following a scientific standard, the divisions into
scruples, grains, pennyweights and tons, as well as cutting them up into
pints, quarts and other units, is done without any system, and for this
reason the need of a uniform method has been long considered by every
country.

THE METRIC SYSTEM.--As early as 1528, Fernal, a French physician,
suggested the metric system. Our own government recognized the value of
this plan when it established the system of coinage.

The principle lies in fixing a unit, such as a dollar, or a pound, or a
foot, and then making all divisions, or addition, in multiples of ten.
Thus, we have one mill; ten mills to make a dime; ten dimes to make a
dollar, and so on.

BASIS OF MEASUREMENT.--The question arose, what to use as the basis of
measurement, and it was proposed to use the earth itself, as the
measure. For this purpose the meridian line running around the earth at
the latitude of Paris was selected.

One-quarter of this measurement around the globe was found to be
393,707,900 inches, and this was divided into 10,000,000 parts. Each
part, therefore, was a little over 39.37 inches in length, and this was
called a meter, which means _measure_.

A decimeter is one-tenth of that, namely, 3.937 inches; and a decameter
39.37, or ten times the meter, and so on.

For convenience the metrical table is given, showing lengths in feet and
inches, in which only three decimal points are used.

Metrical Table, showing measurements in feet and inches:

METRICAL TABLE, SHOWING MEASUREMENTS IN FEET
AND INCHES

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