Chapter LXXXVIII: Part 2 (49)

The table in the Third Schedule to this Act shall be deemed to set forth the equivalents of imperial weights and measures and of the weights and measures therein expressed in terms of the metric system, and such table may be lawfully used for computing and expressing, in weights and measures, weights and measures of the metric system.

_Use of Imperial Weights and Measures._

Every contract, bargain, sale, or dealing, made or had in the United Kingdom for any work, goods, wares, or merchandise, or other thing which has been or is to be done, sold, delivered, carried, or agreed for by weight or measure, shall be deemed to be made and had according to one of the imperial weights or measures ascertained by this Act, or to some multiple or part thereof, and if not so made or had shall be void; and all tolls and duties charged or collected according to weight or measure shall be charged and collected according to one of the imperial weights or measures ascertained by this Act, or to some multiple or part thereof.

Such contract, bargain, sale, dealing, and collection of tolls and duties as is in this section mentioned is in this Act referred to under the term ‘trade.’

No local or customary measures, nor the use of the heaped measure, shall be lawful.

Any person who sells by any denomination of weight or measure other than one of the imperial weights or measures, or some multiple or part thereof, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding forty shillings for every such sale.

All articles sold by weight shall be sold by avoirdupois weight; except that——

(1) Gold and silver, and articles made thereof, including gold and
silver thread, lace, or fringe, also platinum, diamonds, and
other precious metals or stones, may be sold by the ounce troy or
by any decimal parts of such ounce; and all contracts, bargains,
sales, and dealings in relation thereto shall be deemed to be
made and had by such weight, and when so made or had shall be
valid; and

(2) Drugs, when sold by retail, may be sold by apothecaries’ weight.

Every person who acts in contravention of this section shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds.

A contract or dealing shall not be invalid or open to objection on the ground that the weights or measures expressed or referred to therein are weights or measures of the metric system, or on the ground that decimal sub-divisions of imperial weights and measures, whether metric or otherwise, are used in such contract or dealing.

Nothing in this act shall prevent the sale, or subject a person to a fine under this Act for the sale, of an article in any vessel, where such vessel is not represented as containing any amount of imperial measure, nor subject a person to a fine under this Act for the possession of a vessel where it is shown that such vessel is not used nor intended for use as a measure.

Any person who prints, and any clerk of a market or other person who makes, any return, price list, price current, or any journal or other paper containing price list or price current, in which the denomination of weights and measures quoted or referred to denotes or implies a greater or less weight or measure than is denoted or implied by the same denomination of the imperial weights and measures under this Act, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ten shillings for every copy of every such return, price list, price current, journal, or other paper which he publishes.

Every person who uses or has in his possession for use for trade a weight or measure which is not of the denomination of some Board of Trade standard, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds, or in the case of a second offence ten pounds, and the weight or measure shall be liable to be forfeited.

_Unjust Weights and Measures._

Every person who uses or has in his possession for use for trade any weight, measure, scale, balance, steelyard, or weighing machine which is false or unjust, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds, or in the case of a second offence ten pounds, and any contract, bargain, sale, or dealing made by the same shall be void, and the weight, measure, scale, balance, or steelyard shall be liable to be forfeited.

Where any fraud is wilfully committed in the using of any weight, measure, scale, balance, steelyard, or weighing machine, the person committing such fraud, and every person party to the fraud, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds, or in the case of a second offence ten pounds, and the weight, measure, scale, balance, or steelyard shall be liable to be forfeited.

A person shall not wilfully or knowingly make or sell, or cause to be made or sold, any false or unjust weight, measure, scale, balance, or weighing machine.

Every person who acts in contravention of this section shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, or in the case of a second offence fifty pounds.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Every inquisition which, in pursuance of any Act hereby repealed, has been taken for ascertaining the amount of contracts to be performed or rents to be paid in grain or malt, or in any other commodity or thing, or with reference to the measure or weight of any grain, malt, or other commodity or thing, and the amount of any toll rate or duty payable according to any weight or measure in use before the passing of the said Act, and has been enrolled of record in Her Majesty’s Court of Exchequer, shall continue in force, and may be given in evidence in any legal proceeding, and the amount ascertained by such inquisition shall, when converted into imperial weights and measures, continue to be the rule of payment in regard to all such contracts, rents, tolls, rates, or duties.

_Standards and Definitions._

Nothing in this Act shall affect the validity of the models of gas holders verified and deposited in the Standards Department of the Board of Trade, in pursuance of the Act of the session of the twenty-second and twenty-third years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter sixty-six, entituled “An Act for regulating measures used in sales of gas,” and of the Acts amending the same, and the provisions of this Act with respect to Board of Trade standards shall apply to such models; and the provisions of this Act with respect to defining the amount of error to be tolerated in local standards when verified or reverified, shall apply to defining the amount of error to be tolerated in such copies of the said models of gas holders as are provided by any justices, council commissioners, or other local authority in pursuance of the said Acts.

Nothing in this Act shall extend to prohibit, defeat, injure, or lessen the rights granted by charter to the master, wardens, and commonalty of the mystery of the Founders of the City of London.

Nothing in this Act shall prohibit, defeat, injure, or lessen the rights of the mayor and commonalty and citizens of the City of London, or of the Lord Mayor of the City of London for the time being, with respect to the stamping or sealing of weights and measures, or with respect to the gauging of wine or oil, or other gaugeable liquors.

APPLICATION OF ACT TO SCOTLAND.

This Act shall apply to Scotland with the following modifications:

In the application of this Act to Scotland the expression ‘rents and tolls’ includes all stipends, feu duties, customs, casualties, and other demands whatsoever, payable in grain, malt, or meal, or any other commodity or thing.

The fair’s prices of all grain in every county shall be struck by the imperial quarter, and all other returns of the prices of grain shall be set forth by the same, without reference to any other measure whatsoever.

APPLICATION OF ACT TO IRELAND.

This Act shall apply to Ireland with the following modifications:

In Ireland every contract, bargain, sale, or dealing——

For any quantity of corn, grain, pulses, potatoes, hay, straw, flax, roots, carcasses of beef or mutton, butter, wool, or dead pigs, sold, delivered, or agreed for:

Or for any quantity of any other commodity sold, delivered, or agreed for by weight (not being a commodity which may by law be sold by the troy ounce or by apothecaries’ weight), shall be made or had by one of the following denominations of imperial weight; namely, the ounce avoirdupois; the imperial pound of sixteen ounces; the stone of fourteen pounds; the quarter hundred of twenty-eight pounds; the half hundred of fifty-six pounds; the hundredweight of one hundred and twelve pounds; or the ton of twenty hundredweight; and not by any local or customary denomination of weight whatsoever, otherwise such contract, bargain, sale, or dealing shall be void:

Provided always, that nothing in the present section shall be deemed to prevent the use in any contract, bargain, sale, or dealing of the denomination of the quarter, half, or other aliquot part of the ounce, pound, or other denomination aforesaid, or shall be deemed to extend to any contract, bargain, sale, or dealing relating to standing or growing crops.

In Ireland every article sold by weight shall, if weighed, be weighed in full net standing beam; and for the purposes of every contract, bargain, sale, or dealing the weight be ascertained shall be deemed the true weight of the article, and no deduction or allowance for tret or beamage, or on any other account, or under any other name whatsoever, the weight of any sack, vessel, or other covering in which such article may be contained alone excepted, shall be claimed or made by any purchaser on any pretext whatever under a penalty not exceeding five pounds.

SCHEDULES.

FIRST SCHEDULE.