ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

resentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to cause a complete set of all the weights and measures adopted as standards to be delivered to the governor of each State in the Union, for the use of agricultural colleges in the States, respectively, which have received a grant of lands from the United States, and also one set of the same for the use of the Smithsonian Institution: Provided, That the cost of each set shall not exceed two hundred dollars, and a sum sufficient to carry out the provisions of this resolution is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

26 Stat., ch. 667, p. 242.

Sec. 1 (1890). Repairs to standard weights and measures.-* hereafter such necessary repairs and adjustments shall be made to the standards furnished to the several States and Territories as may be requested by the governors thereof, and also to standard weights and measures that have been, or may hereafter be, supplied to United States customhouses and other offices of the United States, under act of Congress, when requested by the Secretary of the Treasury.

* *

28 Stat., ch. 301, p. 383.

*

*

*

Sec. 1 (1894). Replacing lost standard weights and measures.-The is * * Secretary of the Treasury * authorized and directed to furnish precise copies of standard weights and measures bearing the seal of the office of construction of standard weights and measures of the United States, and accompanied by a suitable certificate, to any State, Territory, or institution heretofore furnished with the same, upon application in writing by the governor in the case of a State or Territory, or by the official head in the case of an institution, setting forth that the copies of standards applied for are to replace similar ones heretofore furnished, in accordance with law, by the office of construction of standard weights and measures of the United States which have been lost or destroyed: Provided, That the applicant shall, before the said standards are delivered, first deposit with the Secretary of the Treasury the amount of money necessary to defray all expenses incurred by the office of construction of standard weights and measures in furnishing the same, which amount shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States to the credit of miscellaneous receipts, as soon as the weights or measures are delivered for transportation into the hands of such persons as are designated by the officers ordering the same.

* * *

U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Bulletin 26, Apr. 5, 1893; yard and pound to be derived from meter and kilogram.the Office of Weights and Measures, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, will in the future regard the International Prototype Metre and Kilogramme as fundamental standards, and the customary units, the yard and the pound, will be derived therefrom in accordance with the act of July 28, 1866.

R. S. 3569 (1866).

The metric system authorized.-It shall be lawful throughout the United States of America to employ the weights and measures of

Now the National Bureau of Standards.

the metric system; and no contract or dealing, or pleading 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.

R. S. 3570 (1866).

Authorized tables of weights and measures; equivalents established.The tables in the schedule hereto annexed shall be recognized in the construction of contracts, and in all legal proceedings, as establishing, in terms of the weights and measures now in use in the United States, the equivalents of the weights and measures expressed therein in terms of the metric system; and the tables may lawfully be used for computing, determining, and expressing in customary weights and measures the weights and measures of the metric system.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

28 Stat., ch. 131, p. 102.

* * *

Sec. 1 (1894). Legal units of electrical measure established. from and after the passage of this act the legal units of electrical measure in the United States shall be as follows:

Unit of resistance, ohm.-First. The unit of resistance shall be what is known as the international ohm, which is substantially equal to one thousand million units of resistance of the centimeter-gramsecond system of electromagnetic units, and represented by the resistance offered to an unvarying electric current by a column of mercury at the temperature of melting ice fourteen and four thousand five hundred and twenty-one ten-thousandths grams in mass, of a constant cross-sectional area, and of the length of one hundred and six and three-tenths centimeters.

Unit of current, ampere.-Second. The unit of current shall be what is known as the international ampere, which is one-tenth of the unit of current of the centimeter-gram-second system of electromagnetic units, and is the practical equivalent of the unvarying current, which, when passed through a solution of nitrate of silver in water in accordance with standard specifications, deposits silver at the rate of one thousand one hundred and eighteen millionths of a gram per second.

Unit of electromotive force, volt.-Third. The unit of electromotive force shall be what is known as the international volt, which is the electromotive force that, steadily applied to a conductor whose resistance is one international ohm, will produce a current of an international ampere, and is practically equivalent to one thousand fourteen-hundred-and-thirty-fourths of the electromotive force between the poles or electrodes of the voltaic cell known as Clark's cell, at a temperature of fifteen degrees centigrade, and prepared in the manner described in the standard specifications.

Unit of quantity, coulomb.-Fourth. The unit of quantity shall be what is known as the international coulomb, which is the quantity of electricity transferred by a current of one international ampere in one second.

Unit of capacity, farad.-Fifth. The unit of capacity shall be what is known as the international farad, which is the capacity of a condenser charged to a potential of one international volt by one international coulomb of electricity.

Unit of work, joule. Sixth. The unit of work shall be the joule, which is equal to ten million units of work in the centimeter-gramsecond system, and which is practically equivalent to the energy expended in one second by an international ampere in an international ohm.

Unit of power, watt.-Seventh. The unit of power shall be the watt, which is equal to ten million units of power in the centimeter-gramsecond system, and which is practically equivalent to the work done at the rate of one joule per second.

Unit of induction, henry.--Eighth. The unit of induction shall be the henry, which is the induction in a circuit when the electromotive force induced in this circuit is one international volt while the inducing current varies at the rate of one ampere per second.

Equivalent to

Sec. 2. Specification for practical use of units.-That it shall be the duty of the National Academy of Sciences to prescribe and publish, as soon as possible after the passage of this act, such specifications of details as shall be necessary for the practical application of the definitions of the ampere and volt hereinbefore given, and such specifications shall be the standard specifications herein mentioned.3 Metric Convention; International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

His Excellency the President of the United States of America, His Majesty the Emperor of Germany, His Majesty the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, His Majesty the King of the Belgians, His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, His Excellency the President of the Argentine Confederation, His Majesty the King of Denmark, His Majesty the King of Spain, His Excellency the President of the French Republic, His Majesty the King of Italy, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Peru, His Majesty the King of Portugal and the Argarves, His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway, His Excellency the President of the Swiss Confederation, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ottomans, and His Excellency the President of the Republic of Venezuela, desiring international uniformity and precision in standards of weight and measure, have resolved to conclude a convention to this effect, and have named as their plenipotentiaries the following: *

* *

Who, after having exhibited their full powers, which were found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles: Article 1. The high contracting parties engage to establish and maintain, at their common expense, a scientific and permanent international bureau of weights and measures, the location of which shall be at Paris.

Art. 2. The French Government shall take all the necessary measures to facilitate the purchase, or, if expedient, the construction, of a building which shall be especially devoted to this purpose, subject to the conditions stated in the regulations which are subjoined to this convention.

Art. 3. The operation of the international bureau shall be under the exclusive direction and supervision of an international committee of weights and measures, which latter shall be under the control of a general conference for weights and measures, to be composed of the delegates of all the contracting Governments.

Art. 4. The general conference for weights and measures shall be presided over by the president for the time being of the Paris Academy of Sciences.

Art. 5. The organization of the bureau, as well as the formation and the powers of the international committee, and of the general conference for weights and measures, are established by the regulations subjoined to this convention.

See Bulletin No. 2, Bureau of Standards, for detailed specifications herein provided for.

Metric convention (translation) signed at Paris, May 20, 1875; ratification advised by the Senate, May 15, 1878; ratified by the President, May 28, 1878; ratifications exchanged, August 2, 1878; proclaimed, September 27, 1878: As amended by the convention signed at Sevres, October 6, 1921; ratification advised by the Senate, January 5, 1923; ratified by the President, September 19, 1923; ratification of the United States, deposited with the Government of the French Republic, October 24, 1923; proclaimed, October 27, 1923.

Art. 6. The international bureau of weight and measures shall be charged with the following duties:

First. All comparisons and verifications of the new prototypes of the meter and kilogram.

Second. The custody of the international prototypes.

Third. The periodical comparison of the national standards with the international prototypes and with their test copies, as well as comparisons of the standard thermometers.

Fourth. The comparison of the prototypes with the fundamental standards of nonmetrical weights and measures used in different countries for scientific purposes.

Fifth. The sealing and comparison of geodesic measuring bars. Sixth. The comparison of standards and scales of precision, the verification of which may be requested by governments or by scientific societies, or even by constructors or men of science.

Art. 7. After the committee shall have proceeded with the work of coordinating the measures relative to electric units and when the general conference shall have so decided by a unanimous vote, the bureau will have charge of the establishment and keeping of the standards of the electric units and their test copies and also of comparing with those standards, the national or other standards of precision.

The bureau is also charged with the duty of making the determinations relative to physical constants, a more accurate knowledge of which may be useful in increasing precision and further insuring uniformity in the provinces to which the above-mentioned units belong (article 6 and first paragraph of article 7).

It is finally charged with the duty of coordinating similar determinations effected in other institutions.

Art. 8. The international prototypes and standards and also their test copies shall be deposited in the bureau; access to the deposit shall be solely reserved for the international committee.

Art. 9. The entire expense of the construction and outfit of the international bureau of weights and measures, together with the annual cost of its maintenance and the expenses of the committee, shall be defrayed by contributions from the contracting states, the amount of which shall be computed in proportion to the actual population of each.

Art. 10. The amounts representing the contributions of each of the contracting States shall be paid at the beginning of each year, through the ministry of foreign affairs of France, into the Caisse de dépôts et consignations at Paris, whence they may be drawn as occasion may require, upon the order of the director of the bureau. Art. 11. Those Governments which may take advantage of the privilege, open to every State, of acceding to this convention shall be required to pay a contribution, the amount of which shall be fixed by the committee on the basis established in article 9, and which shall be devoted to the improvement of the scientific apparatus of the bureau.

Art. 12. The high contracting parties reserve to themselves the power of introducing into the present convention, by common consent, any modifications the propriety of which may have been shown by experience.

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »