A Treatise of Gauging Containing not Only What is Common on the Subject, but Likewise a Great Variety of New and Interesting Improvements with the Demonstrations
by Thomas Moss
| A Treatise of Gauging | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
||
| Author | Thomas Moss | |
| Edition | Precise edition unknown | |
| Desc. | 8vo | |
Thomas Moss was born in the town of Bromley within England’s Middlesex county. In addition to being a writing mathematician, he was a former Excise Officer.[1] He is known to have worked with the mathematician George Witchell on another publication called The Mathematical Magazine, and Philosophical Repository, released in 1761.[2] In Treatise of Gauging, Moss investigates and improves upon the mathematical process of gauging. The Treatise focuses on the accurate measurements of the quantities and volumes of casks. However, the relevance of Moss's work is not confined merely to an academic interest in mathematics. The practice of "gauging" had specific practical applications with massive implications for the British government and economy.
Gauging was used by the British government’s Board of Excise to measure, or gauge, the quality of certain domestically produced goods. The tests of gauging were subsequently used to determine what taxes manufacturers owed the British government. The Board produced both significant revenue and tactical information through gauging, especially regarding domestic industries.[3] The importance of gauging can be extrapolated beyond domestic taxation. It can be credited as a central force in the British economy’s development, particularly as the early stages of Capitalism began to emerge during the Eighteenth-Century.[4] In fact, barrel gauging in particular "develop[ed] alongside the state’s initial desires [...] to gain further control" over industry.[5] A process with such far-reaching economic implications would be of paramount importance for any reader hoping to well understand the functioning of the political system they live in.
Notably, A Treatise of Gauging possesses a dedication to "His Majesty’s Revenue of Excise," expressing the hope that the book will "contribute to the Service of the Revenue, and also be of real Advantage to the practical Gauger [...]."[6] Moss thus made the connection between his work and the Board of Excise explicit, further involving his book, and the practice of gauging, with the history of the Board of Excise and the British economy. A reader such as George Wythe might have been interested in this book in order to obtain purely mathematical knowledge, but a reader might also have chosen to read Moss’s book to better understand the taxation practices of the Board of Excise. This information had the power to unlock significant comprehension of the British economy, the changes it was undergoing, and the state of the British Empire at large.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Thomas Jefferson listed "Treatise on gauging. 8vo." in his inventory of Wythe's Library in the section of titles he kept for himself. Brown's Bibliography[7] includes the 1768 London edition based on the copy Jefferson sold to the Library of Congress as described in Millicent Sowerby's Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson.[8] Unfortunately, this volume does not survive to verify the edition or Wythe's prior ownership. George Wythe's Library[9] on LibraryThing notes Sowerby's entry but indicates "Precise edition unknown. Editions were published at London in 1765, 1766, 1768, and 1779." The Wolf Law Library has not yet found a copy of Moss's treatise.
See also
References
- ↑ Maseras quoted in White, F. Puryer and Lidstone, G.J. "A Letter of De Moivre and a Theorem of Halley," The Mathematical Gazette 15, no. 209 (1930): 214.
- ↑ Maseras quoted in White, F. Puryer and Lidstone, G.J. "A Letter of De Moivre and a Theorem of Halley," 213.
- ↑ William J. Ashworth, "Quality and the Roots of Manufacturing 'Expertise' in Eighteenth Century Britain," Osiris 25, no. 1 (2010): 232, 246.
- ↑ Ashworth, "Quality and the Roots of Manufacturing 'Expertise' in Eighteenth Century Britain," 252.
- ↑ Guy Sechrist, "Gauging a State: Excise Taxation, Practical Mathematics, and Cask Measuring in Seventeenth-Century England" (PhD diss., St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, 2021), 190.
- ↑ Thomas Moss, A Treatise of Gauging: Or, the Modern Practical Gauger, ( Z. Stuart and J. Johnson Booksellers, 1768
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, 2009, rev. 2023) Microsoft Word document (on file at the Wolf Law Library, William & Mary Law School).
- ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson,(Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 4:24, no.3712.
- ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on July 11, 2025, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe