THE NATIONAL STANDARDS OF MEASUREMENT^ 



By Lyman J. Bkiggs 

 National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. O. 



A brief historical background may prove helpful in presenting the 

 present status of our national standards of measurement, particularly 

 those concerned with our customary system of weights and measures. 

 The difficulties under which commerce had been carried out among 

 the Thirteen Colonies, owing to the lack of uniform standards, were 

 probably responsible in part for the provision of the Constitution 

 which delegates to Congress the power "to fix the standard of weights 

 and measures." In the early days of the new Republic, Washington 

 in his presidential message to Congress repeatedly urged the im- 

 portance of carrying out this constitutional provision; but for 80 

 years no formal action was taken by Congress to "fix" the standards, 

 save for the adoption in 1828 of a standard Troy pound for coinage 

 purposes. 



Not that the subject was ignored. Repeatedly the matter came up 

 for discussion, without definite action. A standard of length which 

 could if necessary be independently reproduced from physical obser- 

 vations repeatedly intrigued the interest of Congress. Jefferson, as 

 Secretary of State, submitted a proposal for a standard of length based 

 upon the length of a uniform cylindrical pendulum beating seconds at 

 sea level at 45° N. latitude. In 1795 President Washington presented 

 to Congress a communication from the Minister of the French Repub- 

 lic suggesting the adoption by the United States of the metric system 

 of weights and measures. This proposal, however, met with little 

 favor. A standard based on the length of one ten-millionth of the 

 earth's quadrant apparently had less appeal from the standpoint of 

 reproducibility than one based on the length of a pendulum beating 

 seconds. 



Meanwhile, various State legislatures were imploring Congress to 

 take some action to bring about uniformity; and in 1821, John Quincy 

 Adams, as Secretary of State, urged Congress "to fix the standard 



1 Retiring address of the president of the American Physical Society, presented at the 

 Washington meeting, December 28, 3 9SS. Reprinted by permission from Review of Modern 

 Physics, vol. 11, April 1939. 



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