Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/482

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. Holland range mostly from 488 to 500 grams. The avoirdupois pound was recognized as a standard in England during the reign of Edward III., and the Elizabethan standard (1588) of 7002 grains was derived from that of Edward. The Imperial pound avoirdupois of 7000 grains has been the English standard since 1856 and is generally copied by the United States. At the time it was legalized it was provided that in case the standards were destroyed they were to be recovered by the fact that 1 cubic inch of water at 62° F. and a barometric pressure of 30 inches of mercury, against brass weights in air, weighs 252.458 grains. When this standard perished in 1834 with the yard, it was not recovered by this method, but from other standards.

The development of the standards of France was essentially similar to that in other countries, except that the Revolution at the close of the eighteenth century precipitated the new conditions and resulted in the (q.v.).

In the early colonial days in America the standards of the colonists were naturally those of the mother country, and in most cases copies of the home standards were brought over and intrusted to the care of special officers of the Commonwealth. In the English colonies it was usually the yard of 1588 that was employed. At the time of the Revolution the new country naturally continued with its existing English standards, and although the Constitution empowered Congress to “fix the standard of weights and measures,” nothing was done for a very long time. Thomas Jefferson in 1790, at the suggestion of Washington, brought in to Congress a proposition for a decimal system based upon a natural standard. He was not satisfied with proposed standards and urged the establishment of the ‘Leslie pendulum,’ a straight bar vibrating mean seconds when suspended at one end = 38.72368 inches.

In 1813 the Coast Survey imported a Troughton scale of 82 inches similar to the one used by Shuckburgh, and Superintendent Hassler made a very complete investigation of this as well as all the other standards which he could get, and finally recommended that the distance from the twenty-seventh to the sixty-third mark on the Troughton scale be adopted as the yard, at 62° F. This was adopted by the Treasury Department. In 1817 Hassler compared this American yard with the meter and toise, with the following result: 1 meter = 39.38024749 inches and 1 toise = 76.74+ inches.

On March 3, 1817, the Senate called upon the Secretary of State for an elaborate report relative to weights and measures of this and other countries. John Quincy Adams presented a very complete and exhaustive report, but practically advised that nothing be done at that time. The appendices of this report are very rich in early legal enactments. The matter was taken up again by the Senate in 1830, and again Mr. Hassler undertook a complete investigation of the standards. The Troughton scale of 1813 was taken as the standard, with the following results:

Gallatin in 1821 brought over to this country a standard platinum meter and kilogram. In 1827 he brought a troy pound of brass which was made the standard of mass in 1828 and has been the Mint standard ever since. The Treasury Department in 1830 adopted 231 cubic inches as the gallon and 2150.42 cubic inches as the bushel.

In 1856 the English Government sent to the United States two certified copies of the standard of length, and these are now known as ‘bronze standard No. 11’ and ‘Low Moor iron standard No. 57.’ In the same year, in order to encourage uniformity among the States, the Treasury Department sent to the Governor of each State a set of weights and measures complete. On July 28, 1866, the metric system of weights and measures was legalized by act of Congress. In 1875 the United States joined with a number of others in the establishment of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures at Paris, and as a result thereof received in 1889 Standard International Meters No. 21 and No. 27 and International Standard Kilograms No. 4 and No. 20. These are made of an alloy of platinum with 10 per cent. of iridium. April 5, 1893, the Treasury Department adopted meter No. 27 and kilogram No. 20 as the standards of the country, and since that time all measures are standardized against these, following the law of 1866 which defined the ratio of the yard to the meter as 3600 to 3937, and the ratio of the pound to the kilogram as 1 to 2.2046. For the history and derivation of the meter and kilogram, see .

of the United States was established July 1, 1901, and was made a bureau of the Department of Commerce and Labor by the act establishing that department. The bureau is the repository of the national standards of the Government already described. Its functions include the production of copies, multiples, and subdivisions of the fundamental standards; the construction of the derived standards used in measuring volume, capacity, velocity, pressure, energy, electricity, high and low temperature, and illumination; the comparison of the standards and measuring instruments used in scientific work, manufacturing, and commerce with those of the Government; the determination of physical constants; the development of methods of measurement; scientific research connected with metrology; and the dissemination of knowledge concerning these subjects as applied in the arts, sciences, and industries. Provision was made for scientific work and testing of the highest order of accuracy. Congress has provided for the work of the bureau new laboratories, a corps of specialists in the various lines of scientific work involved, and a full equipment of measuring apparatus and other accessory instruments.

. The necessity for prescribing and establishing a uniform system of weights and measures was early recognized by the English law. Before the Conquest, there were Anglo-Saxon laws regulating the sizes