- Let the bushel be divided into 10 pottles;
- Each pottle into 10 demi-pints;
- Each demi-pint into 10 metres, which will be of a cubic inch each.
- Let 10 bushels be a quarter, and
- 10 quarters a last, or double ton.
The measures for use being four-sided, and the sides and bottoms rectangular, the bushel will be a foot cube.
- The pottle 5 inches square and four inches deep;
- The demi-pint 2 inches square, and 2½ inches deep;
- The metre, an inch cube.
WEIGHTS.
Let the weight of a cubic inch of rain water, or the thousandth part of a cubic foot, be called an ounce; and let the ounce be divided into 10 double scruples:
- The double scruple into 10 carats;
- The carat into 10 minims or demi-grains;
- The minim into 10 mites. Let 10 ounces make a pound;
- 10 pounds a stone;
- 16 stones a kental;
- 10 kentals a hogshead.
COINS.
Let the money unit, or dollar, contain eleventh-twelfths of an ounce of pure silver. This will be 376 troy grains, (or more exactly, 375.959343 troy grains,) which will be about a third of a grain, (or more exactly, .349343 of a grain,) more than the present unit. This, with the twelfth of alloy already established, will make the dollar or unit, of the weight of an ounce, or of a cubic inch of rain water, exactly. The series of mills, cents, dimes, dollars, and eagles, to remain as already established [(8.)]
The second rod, or the second pendulum, expressed in the measures of other countries, will give the proportion between their measures and those of the United States.
Measures, weights and coins, thus referred to standards unchangeable in their nature, (as is the length of a rod vibrating seconds, and the weight of a definite mass of rain water,) will themselves be unchangeable. These standards, too, are such as to be accessible to all persons, in all times and places. The measures and weights derived from them fall in so nearly with some of those now in use, as to facilitate their introduction; and being arranged in decimal ratio, they are within the calculation of every one who possesses the first elements of arithmetic, and of easy comparison, both for foreigners and citizens, with the measures, weights, and coins of other countries.