Stephen Davis asked in USMA 15145:
>Apologies for yet more queries on this subject but, while corresponding with
>some people in the US over the Metric Martyr situation, I found that they
>were under the impression that there is little or no mandatory weights and
>measures legislation in the US, metric or otherwise!!
>
>Is this correct??
>
>Regards,
>
>Steve.
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
More or less, yes. The Constitution gave Congress the power "to fix the
standard of weights and measures."
In 1796 the House passed a bill "directing certain experiments to be made
to ascertain uniform standards of weights and measuress for the United
States".
On 1828 May 19 the House passed the first, and only, law of the United
States officially adopting standards for the customary system of weights
and measures.
In 1830 the Congress by unanimous consent directed the Secretary of the
Treasry to report to the Senate on the weights and measures used at the
principal custom Houses of the United States. In 1832 the Secretary of the
Treasury, Louis McLane, believed that his Department had sufficient
authority to correct the problem of various standards without further
legislatioin McLain instructed Ferdinand Hassler of the Coast Survey to
have constructed uniform standards of weights and measures. McLane,
without legislative sanction, adopted the yard, the avoirdupois pound and
the Winchester bushel.
On 1836 June 14 a joint reswolution was approved instructing the Secretary
of the Treasury to deliver to the Governor of each State a complete set of
weights and measures.
In 1856 the UK supplied the United States with new copies of the British
standards.
In 1866 an Act was passed without resisteance making it legal to use the
metric system for the transaction of any and all business in the country.
Tables specifying inch-pound system system equivalents of metric units were
included in the bill. (Was it here defined that 39.37 inches = 1 meter?
JBR)
In 1875 the United States was one of the 17 nations that signed the
*Convention du M�tre*. The *Convention* was ratified by President Hayes on
1878 September 27.
On 1890 January 2 President Harrison received a new standard kilogram and a
new standard meter from the *Bureau International des Poids et Mesures*.
In July two more duplicate standards were received.
In 1896 the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures reported that "the
Treasury Department by formal order has adopted the metric system as the
'fundamental standards' from which the measures of the customary system
shall bv derived".
The above indormation was extracted from "A History of the Metric
Controvery in the United States" NBS SP345-10 of 1971.
A conference of representatives of English-speaking nations in 1959 agreed
on the compromise value of the inch as 25.4 mm, which already was use by
ISO and Canada. A similar compromise value was agreed for the pound. The
Aerican definition of the pound was that 1 kg = 2,204 62 lb. which is that
1 lb. = 0,453 592 909 kg. The British pound was 0,453 592 43.
The compromise was that 1 lb. = 0.453 592 37 kg. I suspect that conditions
of weighing, (what metal is used for the standards, whether the weighing is
done in air or vacuum) may explain the apparent anomaly.
Joseph B. Reid
17 Glebe Road West
Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
