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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 65. 



preserved with greater safeguards against 

 possible variation from influence of the ele- 

 ments or other forces. Hence France in- 

 vited the other nations to join in an intei-- 

 national commission for the purpose of con- 

 structing a new meter as an international 

 standard of length. This country accepted 

 the invitation and was represented in the 

 commission, which met in 1870 and con- 

 tinued its labors from time to time till they 

 were finally consummated in the conclusion 

 of a metric convention signed on May 20, 

 1875, by the representatives of the follow- 

 ing nations, viz.: The United States, Ger- 

 many, 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 per- 

 manent international bureau of weights and 

 measures, the location of which shall be 

 Paris," to be conducted by " a general con- 

 ference for weights and measures, to be 

 composed of the delegates of all the con- 

 tracting governments." Beyond the con- 

 struction and custody of the international 

 standards and the distribution to the sev- 

 eral 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 dissem- 

 ination and improvement of the metrical 

 system." This convention was duly rati- 

 fied by the Senate, and since that time the 

 United States has been regularly repre- 

 sented in the International Conference and 

 has paid its proper proportion of the cost 

 of maintaining the International Bureau of 

 AVeights and Measures. Bv 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, Eou- 

 mania in 1882, Great Britain in 1884, 

 Japan in 1885 and Mexico in 1891. 



Ifew standards were prepared with ex- 

 treme care and accuracy, and duplicate cop- 

 ies 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 stand- 

 ards of weights and measures in the Coast 

 Survey building. 



By formal order of the Secretary of the 

 Treasury of April 5, 1893, the meter and 

 kilogram thus received and kept were 

 recognized as ' fundamental standards' from 

 which the customary units of the j^ard and 

 pound should be thereafter derived in ac- 

 cordance with the law of July 28, 1866. 



Meantime Congress by act of March 3, 

 1893, established a standard scale for meas- 

 urement 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 meas- 

 ure ' was passed by the Fifty-third Con- 

 gress and approved July 12, 1894. It is 

 based on the metrical system exclusively. 



From this resume of our 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 our 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 



