144 FUNDAMENTAL UNITS OF MEASURE. 



of 2150-42 cubic inches for dry measure. In 1836, the Secretary of the 

 Treasury was authorized to cause a complete set of all wei^lits aud 

 measures, adoi)ted as standards by tlie Department for the use of cus- 

 tom-liouses and for other purposes, to be delivered to the governor of 

 each State in the Union for the use of the States, respectively, the 

 object being to encourage uniformity of weights and measures through- 

 out the Union. At this time several States had adopted standards 

 differing from those used in the Treasury Department, but alter a time 

 these were rejected, and, finally, nearly all the States formally adopted 

 by act of legislature the standards which had been put in their hands 

 by the National Government. Thus a good degree of uniformity was 

 secured, although Congress had not adopted a standard of mass or of 

 length other than for coinage pur})0ses as already described. 



"The uext, and in many respects the most important, legislation 

 upon the subject was the act of July 28, 18()G, making the use of the 

 metric system lawful thronghout the United States, and defining the 

 weights and measures in common use in terms of the units of this sys- 

 ten). This was the first general legislation upon the subject, and the 

 metric system Avas thus the first and, thus far, the only system made 

 generally legal throughout the country. 



"In 1875, an international metric convention was agreed ui)on by 

 seventeen go\ernments, including the United States, at which it was 

 undertaken to establish and maintain at connnon expense a perma- 

 nent international bureau of weights and measures, the first object 

 of which should be the preparation of a new international standard 

 meter and a new international standard kilogram, co}>ies of which 

 should be made for distribution among the contributing governments. 

 Since the organization of the bureau, the United States has regularly 

 contributed to its sujtport, and in 1881) the copies of the new interna- 

 tional prototypes were ready for distribution. This was etfected by 

 lot, and the United States received meters Nos. 2L and 27, and kilo- 

 grams Nos. 4 and 20. The meters and kilograms are made from the 

 same material, which is an alloy of platinum with 10 per cent of irid- 

 ium. 



" On January 2, 1800, the seals which had been placed on meter No. 

 27 and kilogram No. 20, at the International Bureau of Weights and 

 Measures, near Paris, were broken in the Cabinet room of the Execu- 

 tive Mansion by the President of the United States, in the presence of 

 the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury, together with 

 a number of invited guests. They were thus adopted as the national 

 prototype meter and kilogram. 



" The Trough ton scale, which in the early part of the century had 

 been tentatively ado])ted as a standard of length, has long been recog- 

 nized as quite unsuitable for siu'h use, owing to its faulty construction 

 and the inferiority of its graduation. For many years, in standardizing 

 length measures, recourse to copies of the imperial yard of Great Brit- 

 ain had been necessary, and to the copies of the meter of the archives 

 in the ofiice of weights and measures. The standard of mass orig- 

 inally selected was likewise unfit for use for similar reasons, and had 

 been practically ignored. 



"The recent receipt of the very accurate copies of the international 

 metric standards, which are constructed in accord Avith the most 

 advanced conception of modern metrology, enables comparisons to be 

 made directly with those standards, as the equations ol the national 

 prototy])es are accurately known. It has seemed, therefore, that greater 

 stability in weights and measures, as well as nuich higher accuracy in 



