INTRODUCTION. Section VIII of Article I of the Constitution of the United States authorizes Congress to "fix the standard of weights and measures," but notwithstanding that the importance of the subject was repeatedly urged by Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, in their messages to Congress, no general legislation has ever been enacted in regard to the weights and measures now in common use. At the time of the American Revolution the weights and measures in common use were of English origin. Most of them had been procured from time to time by the colonies from Great Britain, and although it was well known that there were variations in those of the same denomination, it was not until 1830 that the matter received attention from Congress. At this time an investigation of the weights and measures in use in the various customhouses was ordered by a resolution of the Senate. As a result of this investigation the avoirdupois pound, the English yard, the wine gallon of 231 cubic inches, and bushel of 2150.42 cubic inches were adopted by the Treasury Department, and the construction of copies of the standards thus established was immediately undertaken in order to supply the customhouses with uniform weights and measures. In 1836 a joint resolution of Congress directed the Secretary of the Treasury to deliver to the governor of each State in the Union a complete set of all the weights and measures adopted as standards by that department, to the end that a uniform standard of weights and measures might be established throughout the United States. Nearly all of the States have been supplied with complete sets of standards in accordance with the resolution mentioned, and in many cases they have been adopted by legislative action as the standards of the State. The fundamental standards-the pound, yard, gallon, and bushel-are, therefore, with certain exceptions, uniform throughout the Union. The practice, however, in regard to the use of the two units last mentioned and their subdivisions differs materially. In some States the gallon of certain commodities is defined as a definite number of pounds. Twelve pounds of strained honey is a legal gallon in Nebraska; 61⁄2 pounds of kerosene in Kansas; 71⁄2 pounds of linseed in Ohio, and II pounds of sorghum molasses in Indiana. These legal weights do not accord with the true volume of 1 gallon of 231 cubic inches. In many of the States the legal bushel of certain commodities is specified in pounds. Special bushels have also been legally established in many States for particular products, such as the charcoal bushel, which in Connecticut is 2748 cubic inches, in Colorado 2500 cubic inches, and in Pennsylvania 2571 cubic inches. In Vermont "one bushel and three-quarters of a peck are deemed a bushel of charcoal, lime, or ashes." In some places 5 pecks constitute a bushel of "screened lump coal." A lime bushel in Minnesota is 2688 cubic inches. In Pennsylvania, however, it is equal to the Winchester bushel, although the coke bushel is 2648 cubic inches. The coke bushel in Missouri is 2680 cubic inches. Some States require, furthermore, "heaped measure," others "struck measure," the heap sometimes being required to be "as high as the article will admit," and elsewhere "as high as may be without special effort or design," and in still other cases, as in Connecticut, the heaped bushel is definitely fixed as 2564 cubic inches. The ton of coal is in some States fixed at 2000 pounds and in others at 2240 pounds. This diversity causes confusion in the commerce between the different States. That there is need for authoritative definition by weight is made evident by the fact that Congress has found it necessary to specify the number of pounds of certain commodities in a bushel. These values were adopted by Congress solely for use in the customs service, and do not supersede the State laws, from which they often differ. In the Philippine Islands, Porto Rico, and Guam the metric system of weights and measures is in general use, and it is the sole legalized system for these islands. The use of the metric system has been legal in the United States since 1866, and although it is in extensive use among technical and scientific men it is not in general use in commercial transactions. Nevertheless the legal status of the metric system is in some respects superior to that of our customary system of weights and measures, since Congress has legalized the metric system as a whole and specifically stated the relation of the various units to one another. On the other hand, the system of weights and measures in common use in the United States has never been specifically adopted by Congress nor are the relations of the various units to one another fixed except by custom. It is therefore not possible to give a list of the legal weights and measures of this country, such as may be found in foreign countries where the standards and their multiples and subdivisions are fixed by law. Congress has never even adopted material standards for our customary system of weights and measures, but has left this matter to the discretion of the Treasury Department. Until 1893 the British Imperial yard and pound were recognized by the Treasury Department as the standards of the United States, but on account of the inferior character of the copies of these standards in the possession of the department, it was decided that greater stability and higher accuracy would be obtained by accepting the international meter and kilogram as the fundamental standards of the United States. The yard was therefore defined as a certain fraction of the meter and the pounds as a certain fraction of the kilogram, the values adopted being those established by the act of 1866, namely, 1 yard=}}}} meter, and I pound avoirdupois=.... kilogram. This action does not in any way alter the values of our customary weights and measures, but simply fixes them in terms of standards that represent the highest development of metrology. If any further justification for this action were needed, it would be found in the fact that since it was taken the British Government has had constructed an iridio-platinum yard, similar in material and form to the International Meter. In view of the confusion resulting from the diverse and conflicting laws in regard to our customary weights and measures, as shown by this compilation, it would seem that some action tending to their improvement be taken, either by Congress or by the joint action of the States, and it is believed that the publication of the laws in this form will do much to emhpasize the existing discrepancies and the necessity for uniformity in standards and practices. In this compilation great care has been taken to include all the laws pertinent to weights and measures. The latest authorized codes and compiled statutes were consulted; or, in the absence of such authorized works, the latest generally accepted compiled statutes were taken. Legislation passed subsequently to these works was taken from the session laws on file in the Library of the Supreme Court of the United States. In searching for the laws relating to the subject in hand, numerous relevant statutes were found which were not indexed under the title "weights and measures;" and it frequently became necessary, on account of the sparseness of the indexing in the session laws, to scrutinize the entire index. A considerable portion of the weights and measures legislation found in the session laws repealed former statutes, either directly or by implication, and care had to be exercised to omit all repealed legislation, and to make all necessary corrections and appropriate explanations. In consulting a work of this kind, it is frequently desirable and important to know whether a particular law has been on the statute books for a number of years or whether it is comparatively new legislation; and while it is not within the scope of this work to give a complete history of the acts but rather to give the laws as they now exist, it has been deemed advisable, as far as practicable, to give the original date of enactment, and the date of any amendment. To do this involved a considerable amount of labor, it being necessary at times to refer to books not contained in the Supreme Court Library, recourse being had to the Library of Congress. The following method has been used in showing the dates: First. Where a date (or dates) appears above the entire reference from which the law is taken, it applies to all the sections contained under that reference; second, where a date appears immediately above a section number, it applies to that section and to those following until another date is given, or until a small zero mark appears immediately following the section number, thus, "Sec. 491°," which mark is used to indicate that the date of enactment of the particular section is not known; third, where no date appears above a reference or above any section number under that reference, the date is not known; fourth, where reference is made to the session laws, the year such laws were passed is always given in the reference, thus, "Sess. Laws, 1911, ch. —, p. -," and it is therefore unnecessary to duplicate the year by putting it above the reference. All dates are inclosed in parentheses. It has not been practicable in all cases, with the limited force available for the preparation of this work, to obtain the desired dates. For instance, in finding the date of passage of an act relating to thread in Rhode Island, constituting chapter 167, page 568, General Laws, 1909, no date of enactment is given, but reference is made to chapter 141, General Laws, 1896, which in turn gives no date, but refers to chapter 120 of the Public Statutes, 1882, and likewise no date is given here, but reference is made to chapter 108 of the General Statutes of 1872, where no date or reference is to be found. In order to find the date of passage of the act referred to, each volume of the session laws of Rhode Island prior to 1872 would have to be searched until the act was found. Obviously, to have done this in a large number of cases would have entailed an enormous amount of labor and time which would hardly have been justified in view of the purpose of the compilation. UNITED STATES Congress shall have the power * * * Το coin Money, (1787) regulate the Value thereof and of foreign Coin, and fix the Stand-sec. 8, par. s ard of Weights and Measures; Const. U. S., Art. I, National standard of weights and measures (1901) original act, ch. 872, 31 Stat., p. 1449 National Bureau Sec. 2 of The Office of Standard Weights and Measures shall hereafter be known as the National Bureau of Standards. That the functions of the bureau shall consist in the custody Establishment of the of the standards; the comparison of the standards used in scien- Standards tific investigations, engineering, manufacturing, commerce, and Custody of standards educational institutions with the standards adopted or recognized Comparisons by the Government; the construction, when necessary, of standards, their multiples and subdivisions; the testing and calibration of Construction of standard measuring apparatus; the solution of problems which Tests arise in connection with standards; the determination of physi standards cal constants and the properties of materials, when such data are Investigations For whom its funcmay be exer cised That the bureau shall exercise its functions for the Government of the United States; for any State or municipal government Sec. 3 within the United States; or for any scientific society, educa- tions tional institution, firm, corporation, or individual within the' United States engaged in manufacturing or other pursuits requiring the use of standards or standard measuring instruments. All requests for the services of the bureau shall be made in accordance with the rules and regulations herein established. Sec. 5. Director Powers and duties That the director shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. He shall have the general supervision of the bureau, its equipment, and the exercise of its functions. He shall make an annual report to the Secretary of the Treasury,' including an abstract of the work done during the year and a financial statement. He may issue, when necessary, bulletins for public distribution, containing such infor-Bulletins of informamation as may be of value to the public or facilitate the bureau in the exercise of its functions. 1 By the act of Congress establishing the Department of Commerce and Labor, the National Bureau of Standards was transferred to the new Department. The words "Commerce and Labor" should therefore be substituted for "Treasury" wherever occurring in the original act. 8578°-12-1 I tion |