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Roberts, Director</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body'> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>Issued May 1975</p> </div> </div>  <div class='flow' style=''> <a class='page full_page_lineated' id='PR2'></a> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body'>National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 420 <br/></p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body'> <p class='gtxt_body'>Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Spec. Publ. 420, 256 pages (May 1975) <br/></p> </div> <div class='gimg_body' style='width: 60%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;'> <img height="332" width="204" src="https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=nOG0SxxEu64C&output=text&pg=PR2&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&q=&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U2XjPK-NQrTyTv6Odg1dOAzW0R3qA&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=253,677,507,828" alt="[blocks in formation]" /></div> <div class='gtxt_body'> <p class='gtxt_body gtxt_lineated'> For sale by the Superintendent of Documents <br/>U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 <br/> Paper cover Price $3.00 <br/></p> <p class='gtxt_body gtxt_lineated'>Stock Number 003-003-01408 <br/> Catalog Number C13.10:420 <br/></p> </div> </div>  <div class='flow' style=''> <a class='page' id='PR3'></a> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-align:center;'>FOREWORD</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>The metric system was made legal by Congress in 1866, the United States of America signed the Treaty of the Metre in 1875, and we have been active in international coordination of measurements since that time. In science, in pharmacology, and increasingly in industry, the United States is making ever greater use of the International System of Units (SI).</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>In view of this ongoing conversion to the metric system, the celebration of both the Centennial of the Treaty and the first century of metrology at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) holds considerable interest for the American public. It therefore gives me great pleasure to make available this translation of the BIPM's official centennial volume.</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body'> <p class='gtxt_body'>Bichar Madute</p> <p class='gtxt_body'>Richard W. Roberts</p> <p class='gtxt_body'>Director, National Bureau of Standards</p> </div> </div>  <div class='flow' style=''> </div>  <div class='flow' style=''> <a class='page' id='PR5'></a> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body gtxt_lineated'>THE INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF WEIGHTS AND <br/> MEASURES AT THE TIME OF ITS CENTENNIAL <br/></p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body'> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>We have all heard of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; it is even one of the memories which have been part of us since our school days. And it is still more true in countries other than France, without doubt because there is added to the prestige of the "Standard Metre” and the "Standard Kilogram,” that of the metric system conceived by the Paris Academy of Sciences under the French Revolution.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>The International Bureau of Weights and Measures is situated on French ground, but it is independent of France: decisions concerning it rest with a Conference which assembles the delegates of 43 countries, furthermore, the 18 members of the Committee elected by the Conference, who constitute, with the Director of the Bureau, its operations directorate, must be scientific persons of entirely different nationalities. These 43 countries contribute, each its share, to the operating expenses of the BIPM, which was therefore since the beginning, and still is, truly international.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>That which characterizes the BIPM now, at the time of its centennial, is the blending of permanence, which comes from its mission, and of rapid renovation, as in the techniques used to accomplish this mission. Its permanent mission is to achieve uniformity of physical measurements throughout the world, at the highest level of precision; this uniformity, recognized as necessary as early as 1875, has become even more so since the advent of the rapid scientific and industrial progress which dominates our civilization. As for the level of precision, it raises itself today, by virtue of the discoveries in atomic physics, to a degree which would have been inconceivable 10 or 20 years earlier; the former standards of a mechanical nature tend to be replaced by standards of an atomic nature controlled by rigorous universal quantum laws. This is why the BIPM needs a staff of an ever higher scientific level; additionally, its technical equipment must be regularly updated. Thus, in the fields where it specializes narrowly, the BIPM keeps itself at the level of the best metrological laboratories in the world.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>The BIPM furnishes standards to countries needing them, compares the standards of countries which are sufficiently advanced to establish their own standards, and contributes to research looking forward to the still higher precision of the future; it serves as a neutral and impartial scientific arbiter when national sensitivities impede an international agreement. It is</p> </div> </div> </div> </div></div><a id="legacy-text-prev" style="font-size:80%;float:left;margin:2px 2px 2px 12px" href=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=nOG0SxxEu64C&pg=PP1&focus=viewport&output=text>« Previous</a><a id="legacy-text-next" style="font-size:80%;float:right;margin:2px 12px 2px 2px" href=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=nOG0SxxEu64C&pg=PR8&focus=viewport&output=text#c_top>Continue »</a></div></td></tr></table></div></div></div></div></div><script>(function() {var href = window.location.href;if (href.indexOf('?') !== -1) {var parameters = href.split('?')[1].split('&');for (var i = 0; i < parameters.length; i++) {var param = parameters[i].split('=');if (param[0] == 'focus') {var elem = document.getElementById(param[1]);if (elem) {elem.focus();}}}}})();</script>