July 3, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



The first act of Congress relating to tlie 

 establishment of standards of weight and 

 measure was that of May 19, 1828, in 

 which a certain brass troy-pound weight 

 which had been procured in London for the 

 use of the mint at Philadelphia was de- 

 clared to be the standard troy pound. This 

 standard is well known to all metrologists. 

 It was made by Capt. Kater in 1827, being 

 a copy of the imperial troy pound taken 

 from the House of Commons for that pur- 

 pose. It is of brass, approximately pear- 

 shaped, and its adjustment was accom- 

 plished by the addition of fine wires 

 placed in a cavity in the upper part of the 

 weight. Owing to this peculiarity of con- 

 struction, it is impossible to know its den- 

 sity, and it has only historical value as a 

 standard. 



The next legislationiti by Congress was in 

 the form of a resolution adopted in June, 

 1836, directing the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury to cause a complete set of all standards 

 adopted by the Treasury Department for 

 use in the custom houses and for other pur- 

 poses, to be delivered to the Governor of 

 each State of the Union. This was a use- 

 ful measure, calculated and intended to 

 give effect to the recommendation of Adams 

 fifteen years earlier. It resulted in a toler- 

 ably complete unformity of standards of 

 length and mass throughout the Union. 



A quarter of a century now passed with- 

 out further ISTational legislation on the sub- 

 ject. In the meantime, and especially towards 

 the latter part of this period, the attention of 

 many intelligent people in different parts of 

 the country had been drawn to the great 

 superiority of the Metric System of weights 

 and measures, which had gone into exten- 

 sive use in Europe, Mexico, Central and 

 South America, and the enormous burden 

 borne by English-speaking people in main- 

 taining the customary standards had begun 

 to make itself evident. As early as 1859, 

 the legislature of New Hampshire urged 



upon Congress the necessity for reform and 

 the adoption of a decimal system. Maine 

 followed in 1860 and Connecticut in 1861. 

 In his first annual report as Secretary of 

 the Treasury, Mr, Chase, in December, 

 1861, again brought the subject to the at- 

 tention of Congress, and, as already stated^ 

 at his request the ISTational Academy ap- 

 pointed its Committee for the consideration 

 of the subject in 1863. 



Although matters of greater moment oc- 

 cupied the time of Congress'and filled the 

 public mind during the five j^ears following 

 that of 1860, much progress was made to- 

 wards a rational system of metrology, es- 

 pecially through the active interest of a 

 few individuals and societies. For the 

 final culmination of this agitation in the 

 passage of the Metric Law of 1866, we are 

 unquestionably indebted to Mr. John A. 

 Kasson more than to any other one man. 

 In 1861 Mr. Kasson was appointed First 

 Assistant Postmaster-General by President 

 Lincoln. In this office he became aware of 

 the great embarrassment in the administra- 

 tion of international postal laws arising out 

 of a lack of uniformity of units of weight 

 and currency. Seeking relief therefrom, he 

 originated and represented the United States 

 in the International Postal Conference 

 held in^Paris in 1863, on the invitation of 

 Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, which was, 

 in fact, the forerunner of the International 

 Postal Union, organized a little more than _ 

 ten years later. One of the recommenda- 

 tions of the conference of 1863 was that the 

 Metric System of weights be adopted for 

 postal purposes. Mr. Kasson resigned the 

 office which he held in the Postoffice Depart- 

 ment in order to take his seat in Congress 

 in December, 1863. Here his opportunities 

 for advancing the interests of metrological 

 reform were greatly enlaj'ged. Having 

 been appointed to serve on the Committee 

 of Ways and Means and finding that that 

 committee had within its jurisdiction the 



