The British Imperial system of units was established on June 17, 1824, by the Weights and Measures Act. Strictly speaking, it is not correct to use the term British Imperial for units in use before that date, and they are better described as traditional British. The base unit of length or distance in the British Imperial system was the yard. The yard was defined as the distance between a pair of lines etched in gold plugs inserted in a bronze bar in the custody of the clerk of the House of Commons, which had been designated a standard yard in 1760, measured at 62 degrees Fahrenheit. The new yard was actually a standard that had been commissioned by the Royal Society in 1742, which in turn had been based on an earlier Elizabethan standard. In 1834, the burning of the Houses of Parliament de