Evening star., 1912-11-03


Court of The housewife espe.
- AI cially has this i'm.
NPPeA' pressed upon her daily
Sometimes she may believe she is being
cheated. Short measure is her cry. The
measure is absolutely correct, the trades
man replies. And SO the matter stands
1t may be Intentional fraud, but it also
may be merely ignorance OF accurate
measurements. There is a court of last
appeal, however, higher than the trades
mans word, higher even than the word
Of the official representing the govern
ment Of the state wherein the occurrence
happened. That court is the national bu-
reau of standards in Washington.
To this institution falls the RESPONSE
bility Of defining a yard. 1t means more
than saying it contains thirty-six inches
for each one of those inches and each
part thereof must be exact to the last
possible degree. And, in like measure, to
it falls the responsibility Of defining al
other measures and standards.
Seven functions were prescribed in the
act creating the bureau, the first being
the custody of the standards. Then, too
1t is charged with the task of comparing
standards for the Estates, municipalities,
prising standards used in commerce, man
ufacturing and science, assuring to the
public accuracy at it's source, in the fac
tory and the works laboratory What
ever new standards may be necessary on
account Of scientific or technical progress
the bureau constructs. Also it standard
ICES measuring apparatus to be used as
an independent verifier. And in addition
to all this 1t is constantly conducting
scientific or technical experiments, to in
C11 a fnt "a of IT,,
that the public is usually the beneficiary
The term weights and measures has
a much broader definition today than il
did even a few years ago
New Modern Once the term meant
length, area, volume and
uiooAS0' weight. Since the intro
duction, however. Of power. electric cur
rent heat, light. irrigation, refrigera-
ton and services of other kinds as COM
modities for production and sale, the
scope has correspondinely broadened to
include measurements of velocity, pres
sure, energy, electricity, temperature and
illumination. Almost every industry has
its particular methods of measurement
and it's special measuring Instruments
Wnlle the bureau Oh SIdHudTuS Is
of all a government institution. working
for the government. the public is botf
directly and Indirectly benefited by its
work. In addition to its regular duty a.
an ordinary branch of Uncle Sans fed.
eral system. the bureau. as explained In
last Sundays Star. makes tests fol
private commercial firms or individuals
The bureau stands for accuracy II
measurements. the use OF which touches
every person in the United States every
day. ;,
All length standards are based upon the
international meter, which Is defined al
the distance, at the temperature or melt
ing Ice, between two fine lines on a bal
ternational bureau Of weights and meas
ures near Paris, France. Accurate pro-
totypes have been made, and a1tel
numerous comparisons with the interna'
tional meter and among themselves they
have been distributed among the govern
ments of the world. The bureau has ma
tional prototype No. q, from which are
derived all other standards of length
used in the United States.
The standard Of mass, commonly called
weight, is a certain cylinder Of. platinum
iridium known as
International the Internal o n a
Mass Standard zerSsd sesra at tae a,so inter ees.
national bureau Of weights and measures
in France. From this kilogram copies
have been made, having the same mass
material and FORM and after careful COM
prison to establish their value have been
distributed In the same manner as copies
of the international meter. The bureau
has copies numbered to 90. from which
all other points of mass. such as the
pound avoirdupois, pound troy, ETC., are
derived in this country.
In a single year the bureau made ap-
proximately $4,000 tests for the govern
ment at a value of about $4,000. OF that
number 5000 odd tests came under the
classification of capacity" while the
smallest number made, 1873. were of an
electrical nature. The bureau inspected
nearly 100000 incandescent lamps fol
other government departments, the fees
for which, If done for outside firms. would
have amounted to more than 5000. Gov
ernment tests in 1910, exclusive of those
connected with lamps. were 30 per cent
greater than for the preceding year, while
the tests for the public increased II per
cent.
Accuracy in the government measure
ments often has a large money value. An
example of this Is the work done by tne
bureau in connection with hydrometers
instruments used in ascertaining the
density or weight of liqu.-s. Each year
the bureau makes hundreds OF tests With
these instruments for the internal revenue
service. An elaborate series OF tests has
recently been completed, which resulted
in securing probably the best known
values for densities of mixtures OF aico-
hoI and water. The annual internal rev.
enue collections are about $15O.OO000O on
goods the values of which are measured
by means of that instrument.
Although fewest In number. the elec-
trical tests made in one year were among
the most important. Accurate measure
ment of the various electrical quanCtles
occurring in practice is of great CONNER
cial Importance. as well as scientinc ano
technical The bureau of standards Is
responsible for the maintenance of the
units In terms of which such measure
ments are made. In addition to this
work improved standards and measuring
apparatus have been developed.
~
The units to which electrical measure
ments are referred were adopted by the
London international electric
World al conference in 1908. The
fundamental units are. % the
UA1tS. international ohm. defined in
terms of the resistance OF a uniform col
umn Of mercury of specified dimensions.
and (9 the internationally established
unit of current defined by the rate at
which silver is deposited by an electrical
current in the silver voltameter. The
completion of specifications for the volta
meter. in order to assure the highest ac-
curacy, was left to an international COM
mittee, under the auspices of which CO.
operative work was carried on at the