Old Standards

Abstract

BY a curious accident it has just been discovered that the standard yard and certain other measures and weights which were supposed to have been lost when the Houses of Parliament were destroyed by fire in 1834 are still in existence. The following account of the matter is condensed from a statement in the Times. A reference to the contemporary records shows that after the fire the standard bars of 1758 and 1760 were both found among the ruins, “but they were too much injured to indicate the measure of a yard which had been marked upon them.” The principal injury to both of the standards was the loss of the left-hand gold stud, but whether this was caused by the action of the flames or otherwise is not known. When the Palace of Westminster was rebuilt the two bars were deposited in the Journal Office, and from that time, until the other day, they seem to have been wholly lost sight of. About a fortnight ago it happened to be stated in the lobby that one of the duties of the Speaker was to inspect once in every twenty years the standards immured in the sill of the Lower Waiting Hall. Inquiries at the Standards Department of the Board of Trade elicited the fact that, so far from any statutory requirement being imposed upon the Speaker in the direction indicated, Section 35 of the Weights and Measures Act, 1878, which provides for the care and restoration of the Parliamentary copies of the Imperial standards, specially exempts the walled-up copy from periodical inspection and comparison. It was found, however, that in 1871 Speaker Denison took cognizance of the standards; and this fact was brought to the Speaker's notice. While inquiries were being made as to Speaker Denison's inspection, an official in the Journal Office mentioned that when the contents of that office were recently being transferred to the new wing he had observed among the lumber some old weights and measures. These proved to be the missing standards. On Tuesday last they were examined by Mr. Chaney, the Superintendent of Weights and Measures; and on Wednesday the Speaker was to visit the Journal Office for the purpose of inspecting them.