UNITS. XXXV 



of Congress reported in favor of Jefferson's plan, but no legislation followed. 

 In the mean time the executive branch of the Government found it necessary to 

 procure standards for use in the collection of revenue and other operations in 

 which weights and measures were required, and the Troughton 82-inch brass 

 scale was obtained for the Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1814, a platinum kilo- 

 gramme and metre, by Gallatin, in 182 1, and a Troy pound from London in 1827, 

 also by Gallatin. In 1828 the latter was, by act of Congress, made the standard 

 of mass for the Mint of the United States, and although totally unfit for such pur- 

 pose it has since remained the standard for coinage purposes. 



"In 1830 the Secretary of the Treasury was directed to cause a comparison to 

 be made of the standards of weight and measure used at the principal custom- 

 houses, as a result of which large discrepancies were disclosed in the weights and 

 measures in use. The Treasury Department, being obliged to execute the consti- 

 tutional provision that all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout 

 the United States, adopted the Troughton scale as the standard of length ; the 

 avoirdupois pound to be derived from the Troy pound of the Mint as the unit of 

 mass. At the same time the Department adopted the wine gallon of 231 cubic 

 inches for liquid measure and the Winchester bushel of 2 150-42 cubic inches for 

 dry measure. In 1836 the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to cause a 

 complete set of all weights and measures, adopted as standards by the Depart- 

 ment for the use of custom-houses 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 throughout the 

 Union. At this time several States had adopted standards differing from those 

 used in the Treasury Department, but after 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 purposes as already described. 



" The next and in many respects the most important legislation upon the subject 

 was the Act of July 28, 1866, making the use of the metric system lawful through- 

 out the United States, and defining the weights and measures in common use in 

 terms of the units of this system. This was the first general legislation upon the 

 subject, and the metric system was thus the first, and thus far the only system 

 made generally legal throughout the country. 



" In 1875 an International Metric Convention was agreed upon by seventeen 

 governments, including the United States, at which it was undertaken to establish 

 and maintain at common expense a permanent International Bureau of Weights 

 and Measures, the first object of which should be the preparation of a new inter- 

 national standard metre and a new international standard kilogramme, copies 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 support, and in 1889 the copies of the new international prototypes were 

 ready for distribution. This was effected by lot, and the United States received 

 metres Nos. 21 and 27, and kilogrammes Nos. 4 and 20. The metres and kilo- 

 grammes are made from the same material, which is an alloy of platinum with ten 

 per cent of iridium. 



