The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-11-06
HISTORY OF THE YARDsTICK.
The Trouble 1t Took to Devise and

NHN Ai'Nple IL LOOK 10 DEVISE anu
Replace the Standard
People who handle the yardsticl
have but little idea of the years of
study and experiments that were nee
essary to secure the standard yard
measure" observed an official of the
Coast Survey. Bird, faI nous scien-
tist made the first standard yard, in
1860, but the English government did
not legalize it until 1924. Ten years af-
terWard, when the House of Paria-
ment in London was destroyed by fire
the standard yard was lost and Eng
land was again without standard
yard of length. Sheepsbnks next made
standard yard, measure, which the
English government adopted, and so
that it could not be again destroyed by
fire, four authorized copies were made
of it. One of these was deposited in
the royal mint, another in the Royal
Society, another in the observatory at
Greenwich, and the fourth was i'm
bedded in the walls of the new House
of Parliament. The standard yard
i''Ne'ptiNo NilINil are wv lleu NY llC SbN-
eminent are copies of the original, one
of which is owned by the Coast Sur
vey. The United States Naval Obser-
vatory has one also. The delicacy of
its construction may be gathered by
the fact that change of temperature
of one-hundredth of degree Fahren-
heit has been found to produce a sem
sible effect on the length of the bar,
THE copies of the standard are
made of bronze for the reason that
bronze is less affected by the tempera-
ture than any other distinct or single
metal. Standard inch measures are to
be wound in many places, They are
so nicely made that they indicate one
tenth-thousandth part of an inch.
There is a machine in existence which
measures a millionth part of an inch.
The change of temperature caused by
simply touching any part of 1t by the
hand SenSibly affects it. The stand
ard yard measures are never used as
matter of act, but they are kept sim
ply because they are the standard, be-
cause for all practical purposes the
standard inch can be and is used
Though there are no serious conse-
be, mere comparison of the various
yardsticks and footrules in general use
will show that but few of them agree,
the difference between them varying
all the way from one thirty-second of
an inch to the foot down to one-hun-
dredth of an inch.
THE cost of the construction of the
original standard yard measure involv-
ed thelabor of Bird and his assistants
for nearly six years. Sheepsbanks was
eleven years in producing the accurate
copies which he made from Birds orig
inal measurements. Some years ago,
during Congressional investigation of
the Coast Survey, 1t came out that the
standard measure owned by the treas
ury department and kept at the Coast
Survey a times, was used as a stick to
keep the window sash up. That was
most outrageous calumny, as the charge
that went with it, that the standard
gallon mea sure was used now and then
to send out for beer for some of the
employees of the office. The Coast Sur
vey owns a set of standard measures
but they never been used as GROWERS,
assure you and never will be, as the
man who made the charges we'll know"
From the Washington Star.