Page:The National geographic magazine, volume 1.djvu/113

 the public service that required such a measure of precision, it was in the natural order of events that the Superintendent of the Survey should also be charged with the maintenance of standards of Weight and Capacity. The duplication of standards for the use of the people was begun under Mr. Hassler, so long ago that the system has really grown with the population. Wise legislation has fostered the sentiment of uniformity until we are indeed blessed, that wherever we may be in all our broad domain, a pound is a pound, a yard is a yard, and a bushel is a bushel. Manufacturers receive their standards from the Bureau, and in special cases have their products tested and certified. And individuals engaged upon work of great refinement, seek the stamp of the Bureau, also, upon the measures on which they must rely. But so careful is the Bureau to preserve the integrity of its certificate, that the stamp is refused except on weights or measures of approved metal and workmanship. Business men realize in every day life the benefits that have been derived from the simple legislation that inaugurated a supervision over the weights and measures of the country early in her history, though they may have no conception of the endless annoyances they would have been subjected to had the preservation and duplication of standards not been provided for.

The limited time assigned to me will not permit a detailed statement of the researches made by the Bureau in all the different branches of science related to the practical conduct of the work, much less a reference, even, to the many improvements instituted in the practice of surveying. As in the case of the observatories called upon to replace their defective instruments with those more refined, to enable them to furnish star places of sufficient precision to meet the improved method of determining latitude, so has the demand ever been upon the experts employed upon the work in all its branches. The Triangulation, Topography, Hydrography, Astronomy and Magnetics have all passed through several stages of development and improvement in methods and instruments, to meet the requirements put forth by those charged with the conduct of the work, that the full measure of harmony desired should be secured and that they might supply the demands made upon them for information. Imperfect results indicate defects to be remedied, and it is to the credit of those who performed the labor, that they overcame one difficulty after another as they were developed, until now the methods and