May 14, 1896J 



NA TURE 



43 



directed to cause a complete set of all the weights and measures 

 adopted as standards, and now either made or in the progress 

 of manufacture for the use of the several custom houses, and 

 for other purposes, to be delivered to the Governor of each 

 State in the Union, or such persons as he may appoint, for the 

 use of the States, respectively, to the end that a uniform 

 standard of weights and measures may be established throughout 

 the Union." 



In accordance with this resolution, sets of the weights and 

 measures adopted for use in the custom houses were sent to the 

 several States, and only in this indirect and inferential way have 

 the customary weights and measures of the United States been 

 legally recognised. By the Act of March 3, 1881, similar sets 

 of standards were directed to be supplied to the various agri- 

 cultural colleges which had received lanil grants from the 

 I'ni'.ed States at a cost not exceeding 200 dols. for each set. 

 This law was complied with as best it could be under the limit- 

 ation of cost prescribed. 



Meantime the metric system had come into extensive use 

 among other nations, and into almost universal use in the realm 

 of exact science the world over. The Americans touched it at 

 every turn in their commercial relations and scientific investiga- 

 tions. Uniformity in weights and measures throughout the 

 world was urged not only by men of science, but by sagacious 

 business men, seeking to keep pace with the rapidly growing 

 tendencies to closer commercial and business relations among 

 the nations resulting from the improved facilities of communica- 

 tion and transportation which had largely removed the barriers 

 of space and distance. Hence in 1S66 Congress, with the 

 approval of the President, placed on the statute books the 

 following law ; 



" Ax .-VcT to authorise the use of the metric system of weights 

 and measures. 



'■ Be it eiiMted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

 the United States of America in Conip-ess assembled, That from 

 and after the passage of this Act it shall be law ful throughout the 

 United Stales of America to employ the weights and measures 

 of the metric system, and no contract or dealing, or pleading in 

 any court, shall be deemed invalid or liable to objection because 

 the weights or measures expressed or referred to therein are 

 weights or measures of the metric system. 



"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That the tables in the 

 .schedule hereto annexed shall be recognised in the construction 

 of contracts, and in all leading proceedings, .as establishing, in 

 terms of the weights and measures now in use in the United 

 States, the equivalents of the weights and measures expressed 

 therein in terms of the metric system ; and said tables may be 

 lawfully used for computing, determining and expressing, in 

 customary weights and measures, the weights and measures of 

 the metric system." 



To make this law of practical use the following joint resolution 

 was adopted : 



"Joint resolution to enable the Secretary of the Treasury 

 to furnish each State with one set of the standard weights and 

 measures of the metric system. 



' ■ />'(■ it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

 the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the 

 Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorised and 

 directed to furnish to each .Stale, to be delivered to the Governor 

 thereof, one set of standard weights and measures of the metric 

 system for the use of the State respectively." 



By inadvertence, and without important legal significance, the 

 resolutions providing for furnishing the standanis became a law 

 before the Act authorising the use of the system. In the same 

 year Congress put it in the power of the Post-Office Department 

 to make extensive use of metric weights in its operations. The 

 law of that year was re-stated and re-enacted in 1872, and now 

 stand.s in the Revised Statutes in the following terms : 



"The Postmaster-General shall furnish Ui the post-offices 

 exchanging mails with foreign countries, and to such other 

 offices as he may deem expedient, postal balances denominated 

 in grams of the metric system, fifteen grams ,■( which shall be 

 the equivalent for postal purposes, of one-half ounce avoirdupois, 

 and so on in progression." 



The International Postal Convention of two years later, and 

 which by sulisequent renewals is now in fMrce between the 

 United .States and fifty other nations, uses only metric weights 

 and terms, and to-day the mail matter tr.insported between 

 America and other nations, even between the United States and 

 England, is weighed and paid for entirely in terms of metric 

 weights. 



NO. T385, VOX.. 54I 



Mere legislation on the subject of weights and measures 

 rested till 1893. I" ''le meantime important action was taken 

 by the Executive Department of the Government. The progress 

 of science, carrying with it the capability of more accurate 

 observation and measurement, had disclosed the fact that the 

 metric standards in use in difierent countries differed among 

 themselves, and indicated that even the standards in the archives 

 of France could be constructed with greater precision and 

 accuracy, and preserved with greater safeguards against possible 

 variation from influence of the elements or other forces. Hence 

 France invited the other nations to join in an international Com- 

 mission for the purpose of constructing a new metre as an inter- 

 national standard of length. America accepted the invitation, 

 and was represented in the Commission, which met in 1870, and 

 continued its labours from time to time till they were finally 

 consummated in the conclusion of a metric convention signed on 

 May 20, 1S75, '^y 'he representatives of the following nations, 

 viz. the United States, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, 

 Brazil, Argentine Confederation, Denmark, Spain, France,. 

 Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, 

 Turkey, and Venezuela. 



The first name signed to this convention is that of E. B. 

 Washburn, the United States Minister and Representative. The 

 treaty provided for the establishment and maintenance, at the 

 common expense of the contracting nations, of " a scientific and 

 permanent international bureau of weights and measures, the 

 location of which shall be Paris," to be conducted by " a general 

 conference for weights and measures, to be composed of the 

 delegates of all the contracting governments." Beyond the con- 

 struction and custody of the international standards and the dis- 

 tribution to the several countries of copies thereof, it was 

 expressly provided as to this conference by the terms of the 

 treaty or convention that " it .shall be its duty to discuss and 

 initiate measures necessary for the dissemination and improve- 

 ment of the metrical system." This convention was duly 

 ratified by the Senate, and since that time the United States has 

 been regularly represented in the International Conference, and 

 has paid its proper proportion of the cost of maintaining the 

 International Bureau of Weights and Measures. By the terms 

 of the convention the privilege of acceding thereto and thus 

 becoming a party to it was reserved to any nations desiring to 

 avail themselves thereof, and accordingly the following nations 

 have since become parties to the convention, viz. Servia in 

 1879, Roumania in 1S82, Great Britain in 1884, Japan in 1885, 

 and Mexico in 1891. 



New standards were prepared with extreme care and accuracy, 

 and duplicate copies thereof distributed to the several nations. 

 Those for the United States were received with much ceremony 

 at the White House, January 2, 1890, by the President in the 

 presence of members of his Cabinet and other distinguished 

 gentlemen, and are now carefully guarded in a fire-proof room 

 set apart for the safe-keeping of the standards of weights and 

 measures in the Coast Survey building. 



By formal order of the Secretary of the Treasury of April 5, 

 1S93, 'he metre and kilogram thus received and kept were 

 recognised as "fundamental standards" from which the 

 customary units of the yard and pound should be thereafter 

 derived in accordance with the law of July 28, 1866. 



Meantime Congress by Act of March 3, 1893, established a 

 standard scale for measurement of sheet and plate iron and 

 steel, expressed in terms of both the customary and metric 

 measures. " An Act to define and establish the units of electrical 

 measure " was passed by the Fifty-third Congress and approved 

 July 12, 1894. It is based on the metrical system exclusively. 



From this r,>sum^ of United States legislation on the subject 

 of weights and measures it appears that a legal standard of 

 weight has been established for use in the mint, but that beyond 

 that the weights and measures in ordinary use rest on custom 

 only with indirect legislative recognition ; that the metric weights 

 and measures are made legal by direct legislative permission, 

 and that standards of both systems have been equally furnished 

 by the Government to the several States ; that the customary 

 system has been adopted by the Treasury Department for use in 

 the custom houses, but that the same Department by formal 

 order has adopted the metric standards as the " fundamental 

 standards " from which the measures of the customary system 

 shall be derived. This presents a condition of legal complication 

 and practical confusion that ought not to continue. The con- 

 stitutional power vested in Congress should be exercised. 



The Committee confessed that considerable temporary incon- 

 venience would probably accompany the change, but they 



