TWO:Only the raucous cry of a seagull cut into that chill silence!
TWO:A pendulum vibrating in uniform time regardless of distance, but always as its length, if arranged to perform one vibration in a given time, gave a constant measure of length. Thus lineal measure comes from time; cubic or solid measures from lineal measure, and standards of weight from the same source; because when a certain quantity of a substance of any kind could be determined by lineal measurement, and this quantity was weighed, a standard of weight would be reached, provided there was some substance sufficiently uniform, to which reference could be made in different countries. Such a substance is sea or pure water; weighed in vacuo, or with the air at an assumed density, water gives a result constant enough for a standard of [147] weight.
