Evening star., 1928-05-23
WE|GHT-MEASURE
GROUP IN SESSION
Bureau Told Rejected Ger
man Clinical Thermometers
Are Sold in u. S.

| Defective clinical thermometers --
those fragile little sickroom instruments
on which often hang the question o
life or death--are being shipped intt
this country by German manufacturers
according to reports reaching the Blu.
reau OF Standards and disclosed there
today at the annual conference OF
weights and measures.
! The bureau understands" that many
| OF these German thermometers are
| finding their way to the American mar
ket after having been rejected as unfit
! Tor use in Germany by officials of tbs
| German government.
| This situation was brought to the at
| tention OF the conference by l. j. Fair.
child, chief Of the division of com
merclal standards. in stressing the de-
| sifaplilty OF legislation to control the
cilnlcal thermometer industry in Amer
lea. Bills to this effect have been in
Iroduceo IN Congress by Senator Cone
.and ana Representative Bloom, both of
New York.
100000 Sold Annually.
Approximately 1000 900 OF these deli
cate empefature-recording instruments
are sold annually in the United States
tairchild pointed out, and at present
there is no law requiring manufacture
ers to test their product before sending
them into hospitals and homes. Most
OF tne manufacturers voluntarily sub
mt their instruments to a test accord
ing 10 commercial standard eStab-
lished by the bureau, however.
Proper diagnosis of disease, and even
lie or death may depend on the ac-
curacy of clinical thermometer. Fair
child told the conference.
How unscrupulouS gas and electric
officials may defraud the consumers by
various artifices was related to the more
than 200 delegates this morning by w.
I. Henrichson. State meter inspector of
Texas. Cases where gas bills wer,
boosted by speeding up" meters fraud
ulentiy and by reducing the richness
OF the gas flowing through the meter
were cited.
J. H, Meek director. division of mar
kets State of Virginia. pleaded for leg
iSlation to control weights and meas
ures.
Taximeters Under Fire.
The lowly but vexatious tayimeter.
whose inexorable clicking makes pas
sengers sit up and take notice. is not
working solely In the interest of the
taxicab company. as many persons sus-
pect, according to report made TO
the conference yesterday afternoon by
Ralph w. Smith. inspector of weights
and measures of the Bureau OF Stand
ards.
Lengthy tests conducted by Smith
have shown that these meters generally
are playing no favorites, and this ap-
plies also TO the transmission type.
heretofore not formally approved.
The Bureau of Standards was asked
by the conference last year TO conduct
study TO determine whether the SPIN
ming OF the rear wheels OF q taxicab
on icy or wet streets would cause
enough overregistration OH a taximeter
to justify the weights ana measures Of
tcial in refusing to permit transmission
installations.
The bureau had two taxicabs and a
private car In Washington and taxi
cab In Boston equipped with two taxi
meters each. and has studied the regis
tration OF these duplicate instruments
in the course OF regular running and
under a variety OF special operating
conditions.
1t was found that under certain con-
ditions the front-wheel meters register
slightly more. and under other eondi-
tons the transmission meters give the
higher registration. These differences
are not large. however, as compared
with the allowable variations on meter
registration OF per cent. which toll
erance was adopted by the conference
on weights and measures several years
ago, and is now recommended by the
Bureau of Standards