March 27, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



459 



for each set. This law was complied 

 with as best it could be under the limitation 

 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. We touched 

 it at every turn in our commercial relations 

 and scientific investigations. Uniformity 

 in weights and measures throughout the 

 the world was urged not only by scientists, 

 but by sagacious business men, seeking to 

 keep pace with the rapidly-growing tenden- 

 cies to closer commercial and business rela- 

 tions among the nations resulting from the 

 improved facilities of communication and 

 transportation which had largely removed 

 the barriers of space and distance. Hence 

 in 1866 Congress, with the approval of the 

 President, placed on the statute books the 

 following law: 



AN ACT to authorize the use of the metric system 

 of weights and measures. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and Houne of Bcpresenta- 

 tives of the United States of America in Congress as- 

 sembled, That from and after the passage of this Act it 

 shall be lawful throughout the United States of 

 America to employ the weights and measures of the 

 metric system, and no contract or dealing, or plead- 

 ing 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 recognized in the 

 construction of contracts, and in all leading proceed- 

 ings, as establishing, in terms of the weights and 

 measures now in use in the United States, the equiv- 

 alents of the weights and measures expressed therein 

 in terms of the metric system ; and said tables may 

 be lawfully used for computing, determining and ex- 

 pressing, in customary weights and measures, the 

 weights and measures of the metric system. 



To make this law of practical use the fol- 

 lowing 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 sys- 

 tem. 



Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Bepresenta- 

 tives of the United States of America in Congress assem- 

 bled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is 

 hereby authorized and directed to furnish to each 

 State) to be delivered to the Governor thereof, one 

 set of standard weights and measures of the metric 

 system for the use of the States respectively. 



By inadvertence and without important 

 legal significance the resolutions providing 

 for furnishing the standards became a law 

 before the act authorizing the use of the 

 system. In the same year Congress put it 

 in the power of the Post-OflSce Department 

 to make extensive use of metric weights in 

 its operations. The law of that year was 

 restated and reenacted in 1872 and now 

 stands in the Revised Statutes in the fol- 

 lowing terms : 



The Postmaster-General shall furnish to 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 of 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 subsequent 

 renewals is now in force between the United 

 States and fifty other nations, uses only 

 metric weights and terms, and to-day the 

 mail matter transported between this coun- 

 try and other nations, even between the 

 United States and England, is weighed 

 and paid for entirely in terms of metric 

 weights. 



Here legislation on the subject of weights 

 and measures rests till 1893. In the mean- 

 time 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 different 

 countries differed among themselves, and 

 indicated that even the standards in the 

 archives of France could be constructed 

 with greater precision and accuracy and 



