or measures are stated therein in terms of the metric system: Provided, That the carat weight of two hundred milligrams, and its multiples and subdivisions, shall be the sole legal standard for the buying and selling of diamonds and other precious stones. The metric weights and measures received from the United States and now in the custody of the director of standards may be used as authorized standards, and shall in no case be removed from his custody except when necessary for their preservation or repair.

Sec. 2 (1887). Tables of measurements.-The following tables shall be recognized in the construction of contracts and in legal proceedings as establishing in terms of the metric system the equivalents of the other weights and measures expressed therein and may also be used for computing, determining and expressing in customary weights and measures the weights and measures of the metric system.3

Sec. 3 (a1919). Duties of director of standards and town treasurers.The duties of the director of standards and the duties and responsibilities of the treasurer of each town, with respect to the keeping, care, verification and use of the standard weights and measures of the metric system, shall be the same as those established by law with respect to other standard weights and measures.

Sec. 4. Sealing of metric weights and measures.-The director of standards may verify, adjust and seal all metric weights and measures brought to him for that purpose. The sealer of weights and measures in each town which has received the standard metric weights and measures shall verify, adjust and seal all metric weights and measures brought to him for that purpose from within the county in which such town is situated, and he shall receive a reasonable compensation therefor; but he shall claim no fees for any sealing, verification or adjustment for the performance of which he may otherwise receive compensation by salary paid by the town.

Sec. 5 (1877). Duties of persons using metric system.-Every person who uses weights or measures of the metric system for the purpose of selling any goods, wares, merchandise or other commodities shall have them adjusted, sealed and recorded by an authorized sealer of weights and measures, and shall thereafter be responsible for the correctness and exactness of the same; and every person who illegally or fraudulently uses the metric weights or measures shall be liable to the same penalty to which he would have been liable if he had used other weights and measures.

Gen. Laws, 1921, Vol. 1, ch. 94, p. 880.

Sec. 25 (a1920). Regulating the use of utensils for testing milk and cream. No bottle, pipette or other measuring glass or utensil shall be used by any inspector of milk, or by any person in any milk inspection laboratory, in determining, by the Babcock or other centrifugal machine, the composition of milk or cream for the purposes of inspection, or by any person in any place in determining, by the Babcock or other centrifugal machine, the composition or value of milk or cream as a basis for payment in buying or selling, until such measuring glass or utensil has been tested for accuracy and

Here follow the conversion tables as adopted by Congress. See United States Laws, p. 8.

verified by the director, or by his duly designated deputy. Each such bottle, pipette or other measuring glass or utensil shall be submitted to the said director by the owner or user thereof, to be tested for accuracy, before the same is used for such purposes. As a fee for making the test, the owner or user shall pay to the said director a sum not exceeding five cents for each bottle, pipette, or other measuring glass or utensil tested. Each measuring glass or utensil so tested and verified or found inaccurate shall be marked accordingly by the director or by his said deputy. No such measuring glass or utensil so marked inaccurate shall be used in determining the composition or value of milk or cream.

Sec. 26 (a1912). Inspection by the director of the Massachusetts Experiment Station; certificates for inspection to be issued by the director. Each Babcock or other centrifugal machine used by an inspector of milk or by a person in a milk inspection laboratory for determining the composition of milk or cream for purposes of inspection, or by a person in any place, for determining the composition or value of milk or cream as a basis for payment in buying or selling, shall be inspected at least once in each year by the director or by his inspector or deputy. The owner or user of any such centrifugal machine shall pay to the director as a fee for making each such annual inspection the actual cost thereof.

Each Babcock or other centrifugal machine used as aforesaid which, in the opinion of the director, his inspector or deputy is not in condition to give accurate results, may be condemned by him. No Babcock or other centrifugal machine so condemned shall be used for determining the composition or value of milk or cream as aforesaid, unless such machine is corrected to the satisfaction of the director, his inspector or deputy, and approved by him. Gen. Laws, 1921, Vol. 1, ch. 25, p. 96.

4

Sec. 13 (a1916). Inspectors, appointment, duties, etc.-The commission shall appoint an inspector and one or more assistant inspectors of gas and gas meters for such terms of office as it may deem proper. Such inspectors shall be sworn to the faithful performance of their official duties and they and the deputy inspectors provided for in the following section shall not be pecuniarily interested, directly or indirectly, in the manufacture or sale of gas, or gas meters, or of any other article or commodity used by gas companies or used for any purpose connected with the consumption of gas or with gas companies, and they shall not give certificates or written opinions to makers or vendors of any such articles or commodities.

Gen. Laws, 1921, Vol. 2, ch. 164, p. 1804.

Sec. 103 (a1914). Powers and duties of inspectors.-The inspector and assistant inspectors of gas and gas meters appointed under section thirteen of chapter twenty-five, subject to rules and regulations prescribed by the department, shall make the inspections of gas required by section one hundred and nine 5 and inspect, examine, ascertain and prove the accuracy of all meters which are to be used for measuring illuminating gas and which are to be furnished to, or for the use of,

The department of public utilities is under the supervision and control of a commission of five members. Sec. 109 relates to standard of purity.

any consumer or company, and shall seal, stamp or mark every such meter, if it be found correct, with some suitable device to be determined by the department and recorded in the office of the State secretary. A meter shall not be stamped correct if it varies more than two per cent from the standard. The department shall keep a correct record of all meters examined by said inspectors with their proof at the time of examination, which shall be open at all times for examination by the officers of any gas company in the Commonwealth. The inspectors shall also perform such other duties and make such reports of their doings as the department may require.

Sec. 104 (a1920). Fees for testing gas meters.-For examining, comparing and testing gas meters, with or without stamping them, the department may collect a fee of twenty-five cents for each meter delivering not more than a cubic foot of gas in four revolutions, vibrations or complete repetitions of its action, and for each meter so delivering more than a cubic foot, a fee of thirty cents, with twenty cents added for every additional cubic foot so delivered. For examining, comparing, testing or calibrating meter provers and test of photometer meters, with or without sealing or certifying to the same, the department may collect such fees as it may from time to time prescribe. The department shall designate one of its employees to receive all fees collected under this section and section one hundred and twenty, and he shall give bond to the State treasurer in the sum of five thousand dollars.

Sec. 108 (1916). Companies to provide calorimeter.-Every gas company or municipal lighting plant which distributes and sells to its consumers over fifteen million cubic feet of gas in a year shall, when required by the department, provide and maintain a suitable room not less than a quarter of a mile from the gas works with a calorimeter of a type and construction approved by the department, which shall be open at all reasonable times to the inspector and assistant inspectors of gas.

Sec. 111 (a1918). Unit of measure for sale of gas.-The unit of measure for the sale of gas by meter shall be the cubic foot, containing sixty-two and two thousand nine hundred and ninety-three ten thousandths pounds avoirdupois weight of air-free distilled water at sixty degrees Fahrenheit when weighed in dry air at the same temperature and at a barometric pressure of thirty inches of mercury.

Sec. 112 (a1914). Companies, etc., to provide meter provers.--Every gas company with a capital paid in of one hundred thousand dollars or more, and every other gas company, if required by the department, and all makers and vendors of meters shall set up at some convenient place upon their premises one or more meter provers of a size and type approved, tested and calibrated by the department, by means of which meters may be tested.

Sec. 113. Penalty for using meters not tested. A gas company providing a meter for measuring gas supplied to a customer which, if never before used, has not been duly sealed and stamped, or, if opened after being sealed and stamped, has not been again tested, sealed and stamped, shall be punished by a fine of five dollars for every such meter in use, payable to the city or town where the meter is situated.

Sec. 114. Testing gas meters in use.-Meters in use shall be tested by the inspector or by one of his assistants or by a deputy, on the request of the consumer or of the gas company, in the presence of the consumer if desired, and with sealed apparatus. If he finds that the meter is correct, the person requesting the inspection shall pay the fees for such inspection and the expense of removing the meter for the purpose of being tested, and the reinspection shall be stamped on the meter. If he finds that the meter is incorrect, the gas company shall pay such expenses and shall furnish a new meter without

charge to the consumer.

Sec. 115. Gas meters to register plainly.-Meters for measuring gas supplied to consumers shall register the quantity of gas passing through them in cubic feet so that the number of cubic feet of gas consumed may be easily ascertained by the consumer thereof. No meter shall be used which may confuse or deceive the consumer in ascertaining the price he pays per thousand cubic feet or the number of cubic feet consumed.

Sec. 117. Customer to be given meter reading.-When a gas or electric meter in a building owned or used by a customer of a gas or electric company is read by an employee or agent of such company, he shall, upon request, deliver to the person using the gas or electricity measured by the meter a written statement of the amount recorded by the meter at that time.

Sec. 118. Electric meters to register plainly.-Meters for measuring electricity for lighting purposes supplied to consumers shall register the quantity of electricity passing through them in kilowatt hours, so that the number of kilowatt hours consumed may easily be ascertained by the consumer.

Sec. 120. Testing electric meters in use. A customer of a corporation subject to this chapter, or such corporation, may apply to the department for an examination and test of any electric meter, demand indicator, so called, and any other device or appliance installed by such corporation upon a customer's premises and used by such corporation to determine the charge to the customer for its service. The department shall forthwith cause such examination and test as in its judgment is practicable and reasonable to be made by a competent and disinterested person, and shall furnish to the corporation and to the customer a certificate of the result and expense thereof. If, upon such examination and test, it appears that the appliance does not register correctly, the department may order the corporation to correct or remove such meter, demand indicator or other device or appliance and to substitute a correct meter, demand indicator or other device or appliance therefor. All fees for examinations and tests shall in the first instance be paid by the person or corporation making application therefor; but if the examination or test is made at the request of a customer, and the meter is found to be incorrect because too fast, the corporation shall pay such fees to the department, to be repaid by it to the applicant. A meter shall be deemed correct for the purposes of this section if it appears from such examination or test that it does not vary more than five per cent from the standard approved by the department. This section shall not authorize or prohibit differential prices for electricity supplied by any such company.

Sec. 121. Inspection of electric meters, expense and registration thereof. The person designated to make such examination and test may at any reasonable time enter upon the premises where the meter to be inspected is placed for the purpose of making the inspection. He shall receive such compensation for his services as the department may determine, together with his necessary travelling and other expenses, which shall be audited by the department and paid by the Commonwealth; but the total amount of compensation and expenses shall not exceed three thousand dollars in any year; and if the total amount of such compensation and expenses shall in any year exceed the amount of the fees received for such examinations and tests, the excess shall be assessed and recovered from the electric companies in the manner now provided for the assessment and recovery of the other expenses of the department. The department may establish such rules and regulations, fix such standards, prescribe such fees, and employ such means and methods in, and in connection with, such examinations and tests of electric meters as it deems most practicable, expedient and economical. The department may purchase such materials, apparatus, and standard measuring instruments for such examinations and tests as it deems

necessary.

Sec. 122. Penalty for use of incorrect electric meter, etc.-Whoever, being engaged in the sale of electricity, maintains upon the premises of a customer for the purpose of determining the charge to be made for electricity supplied to him a meter, demand indicator or other mechanical device or appliance which is found upon examination and test, as provided in section one hundred and twenty, to register incorrectly as against such customer, shall refund to him such an amount as, if not agreed upon, shall, upon application of the customer and after opportunity given to the vendor to be heard, be determined by the department.