OcTOiiER 6, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



370 



deposited elsewhere. In this "way was created 

 the imperial yard which is at present the stand- 

 ard of length in Great Britain. 



Here, therefore, are two outstanding facts : 

 First, assuming for the moment that the 

 Troughton scale has some legal standing as a 

 standard yard of the United States, it is not a 

 copy of the standard yard of Great Britain and 

 it is well known that it is not in agreement 

 with that standard. Hence our inch can not 

 be the same as the English inch. 



Second, the Troughton scale has not and 

 never had legal standing as a standard of 

 length, authoritative over the whole country, 

 and furthermore, it may be well to repeat that 

 Congress has never passed an act to establish 

 a standard yard or a standard inch, except 

 indirectly, as will be explained later. 



Thus the claim made by Mr. Stutz and his 

 followers that the inch of the United States 

 is identical with that of Great Britain has no 

 foundation whatever in fact. 



The use of the metric system of weights and 

 measures throughout the "Siited States was 

 legalized by act of Congress -n 1866 and it is 

 an interesting fact that it is thus far the only 

 general sy^m of weights and measures that 

 has full legal (though not compulsory) stand- 

 ing throughout the whole country. 



The history of the so-called "Mendeuhall 

 Order" which seems to be so disturbing to the 

 peace of mind of Mr. Stutz and othei-s opposed 

 to metrological reform is briefly as follow-s: 

 a copy of what is known as itlie "Metre of the 

 Archives" and also a copy of the kilogramme, 

 both of platinum, came into the possession of 

 the Coast Survey in 1821, through the interest 

 of A11>ert Gallatin, and as years passed other 

 sitandard measures were added to the collec- 

 tion, including copies of the imperial yard. 

 The inferior character of the earlier standards 

 as compared with those of la:ter date led to the 

 practical abandonment of their use wherever 

 work of the highest degree of precision was 

 attempted. Every metrologist knows that a 

 material standard may have the backing of 

 legal authority and at the same time be so 

 crude and imperfect as to be useless for re- 

 fined work. 



Without going into the history of the In- 

 ternational Bureau of Weights and Measures 



and the production of beautiful copies of the 

 international standards, it is sufficient to say 

 that on the receipt of the two copies allotted 

 to (the United States it was resolved to form- 

 ally abandon the Troughton scale as a stand- 

 ard of length and adopt the international 

 metre as the final standard of reference, for 

 only in this way could work of high precision 

 then being done in the United States (this 

 included not only the operations of the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey and other bureaus of the 

 government but practically all research work 

 done at colleges and universities or by inde- 

 pendent scientific workers) be "tied up" with 

 that done in Europe, for even in England the 

 metric system was and still is in univereal use 

 among scientific men. 



In recognition of the really great import- 

 ance of the event, it was arranged to have the 

 seals (which had -been put upon the eontainei-s 

 of these standards before they left Paris) 

 Ijroken by the President of the United States. 



This was done in the cabinet room of the 

 executive mansion on the second of January, 

 1890, in the presence, also, of the Secretary 

 of State and the Secretary of the Treasury, 

 together with a number of invited guests, 

 representatives of engineering and scientific 

 societies and others especially interested in the 

 science of metrology. 



Thus Metre No. 27 and Kilogi-amme No. 20 

 were formally adopted as the national proto- 

 type metre and kilogramme. 



In connection with the World's Pair in Chi- 

 cago in 1893 there was held an International 

 Electric Congress, associated with which was a 

 "Chamber of Delegates" officially organized 

 for the purpose of coming to an international 

 agreement upon the definitions of unite for 

 electrical measure. 



In view of the probable success of this move- 

 ment and of the certainty that such defini- 

 tions would be built upon a metric foundation, 

 it was deemed wise to have definite recognition 

 of these national prototypes as the fundament- 

 al standards of reference in all metrological 

 operations in which the United States Govern- 

 ment was concerned. 



This was accomplished by the preparation 

 and publication of Bulletin No. 26 of the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, which became authori- 



