Adam Savage Meets an Official Standard Yard!

hey everybody Adam Savage from tested here at the Royal Society in London alongside Rupert Baker how are you sir very well thanks um a few months ago I did a video about my burgeoning understanding of gauge blocks and comparative measurement and holy cow here at the Royal Society they have effectively the gauge block Mother Ship tell me what this is It's the standard yard this this is a this is a reference right this is a key reference yes it's from 1853 what can you tell me about this before we open well I know there was a previous one and they're all Society had long been involved in weights and measures measures committed Etc and there was a previous one that was stored at the houses of Parliament which burned down in 1843. oh okay we had a copy which I think we lent to them so they could do a new one and then 10 years later we got this um we got this one back I think it's from George Airy George Airy yeah it was one of our fellows and he was the astronomer Royal possibly not at that period but I did enjoy a stronger Royal did it take them 10 years to make this one or did they just it took a while to get around to it maybe it took a little while to get around to it yeah all right um can we open it up we can just undo these little screws we really didn't open this off camera also this is clearly how I want to box all my stuff from now on you will see a video in which I take a chisel and do this kind of lettering all right oh wow it's more elaborate than I thought it was it might have most screws looks like we may have to unscrew these little holes it's on a scissor that oh wait wait sorry there's a little little wooden thing there and a this is genuinely my first time can you oh it is so let's try and lift and I think it may a little thing's gonna come out doesn't it yeah I don't know whether it's good practice to just slide standard yards out or whether you do actually have to undo those screws there okay do you know what it's made out of um it looks to be brass yes it's oh here we go copper 16 ounce tin two and a half zinc one is that bronze is that the formula uh and it says this Mr Bailey's metal number three oh it's rolling so yeah it's a little roller isn't it oh my gosh standard yard oh that's I don't need to unscrew those that's a relief it's heavy as well get out and this it's all about is it is this the length or is this the length that's the other question I'm wondering about I know it was assumed it was end to end I would assume the same thing but I'm curious about are there any markings on it other than there's no I think it's I think it's the whole thing cast in 1845 and then it also says standard yard at 62 point one degrees Fahrenheit fah that would be fair enough yes that's what about 16 Celsius in degrees Yeah 68 is 20. yeah so they hadn't yet codified the 20 degrees C standard for measurement which is what it is now yeah I think we pretty much always use Fahrenheit in those days um I want to turn I want to look at the underside no nothing there what a fascinating subject no it's just a oh also right because these all self-center and self-balance it means it's supported across eight points right in the Box the whole time so it's suspended so it can't ever settle and bend I guess this is really nice and these aren't the only standards on the table right as well as yards we have pounds we have pounds uh this is from the same date 1853 yes yes it is yeah talking about yourselves this may take a while it's a very long squeeze right there we go wow there's a glass cover oh wow and there it is one pound so that is one pound and it says number two PC 1844 it says once there at the bottom and yeah yeah I'm not sure what I mean by once and do you I don't know how this would have been useful to someone in the day like I know that it exists yeah but what would they have done with it would someone come and check it out you know I'm curious about that yeah what other academies or other organizations have come and weighed their pounds against our pound I love the elaborateness of this container with the glass enclosure for it that's amazing and then this is one more even that's a platinum pound yes it is oh it's a a troy pound a troy pound yeah this was I think given to us by a Danish scientist called um Schumacher or German scientists who worked for the Danish Observatory the Schumacher and I have taken this one out before and I know this screw thread takes a while it could take about half an hour and it comes with its own Fork it comes with a fork a platinum tripod lifting Fork now fascinatingly this one looks like it's taken a fall at some point in its life it's got a little bit of a um it's a little bit dented isn't it or actually it seems like there's a mark at the same spot on all four sides yeah that makes me thinking that's part of its containerization so does it still weigh a pound it might not yeah I uh I that's Platinum yeah it's a lot Platinum what's the going rate for platinum these days I don't know I it's absolutely gorgeous Platinum doesn't tarnish is that right I think so yeah yeah that thing will be making an ideal choice for such a thing yeah this is thrilling gauge blocks blew my mind when I learned about the elements of precision that you only compare instead of measure and that it begins here uh in the 19th century uh or that begins here but like here's an example from way earlier than I thought uh it's really thrilling yeah I wonder if it goes back earlier to the Royal Mint and Newton's time at the minute because he's standardizing the coinage so did they standardize the weights and measures as well I would that's something I want to look into now that's yours that's your next video Rupert thank you so much for showing me these things it's amazing that you you have these here it's my pleasure foreign [Music]

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 619,836

Keywords: tested, tested adam savage, science books, the royal society, sir isaac newton, principia mathematica, principia, the origin of the species, brady haran, numberphile, objectivity, charles darwin, science, calculus, yard, standard yard

Id: vKbD0V8NvNU

Length: 7min 37sec (457 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 16 2023