dupois pounds adopted were in practical accord with the similar standards of Great Britain.

The units of capacity, namely, the wine gallon of 231 cubic inches and the Winchester bushel of 2,150.42 cubic inches, were adopted because, as intimated, they represented more closely than any other English. standards the average of the capacity measures in use in the United States at the date of Hassler's investigation. The wine gallon was introduced as a wine measure into England in 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne, but it was abolished in 1824, when the new imperial gallon, containing 10-pounds of water, was made the standard. This last statement applies also to the bushel of 2,150.42 cubic inches. This bushel is the earliest English capacity measure of which we have any record, a copy of it made by order of Henry VII being still in existence. But this bushel had also been abolished in England, it having been superseded by the bushel of 8 imperial gallons. Therefore neither the gallon nor the bushel adopted by the United States Treasury Department was in accord with the legal capacity standards of England, but they were smaller by about 17 percent and 3 percent, respectively, and these differences exist at the present time. Not only did they differ from the new standards in Great Britain, but they also differed from the discarded English standards from which they were derived for the reason that Hassler selected the temperature of the maximum density of water as the temperature at which the United States measures were standard, whereas their English prototypes were standard at 62 °F. The numerical value in degrees Fahrenheit of the temperature at which water has its maximum density was determined by Hassler to be 39.83 °F; later and more precise determinations have shown this to be 39.2 °F.

Such, then, were the fundamental standards adopted by the Treasury Department on Hassler's recommendation; and the weights and measures for the customs service were constructed to conform to these. The construction of the weights and measures for this purpose was pushed with almost feverish haste, and so well satisfied was Congress with the progress made that the following resolution was passed and approved June 14, 1836:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he hereby is, directed to cause a complete set of all weights and measures adopted as standards and now either made or in progress of manufacture for the use of the several custom-houses, and for other purposes, to be delivered to the governor of each State in the Union, or such person as he may appoint, for the use of the States, respectively, to the end that a uniform standard of weights and measures may be established throughout the United States.

While the resolution does not specifically adopt the standards described above, its practical effect was to make them the standards for the United States, inasmuch as the weights and measures distributed to the States in accordance with the act were in almost every case adopted by the State legislatures soon after their receipt.

By 1838 the weights for the States were reported finished, and, during the following year, the weights for the customhouses were completed and delivered.11

The resolution of 1836 was supplemented by Congress by the act of July 7, 1838, an act having the original purpose "to provide for the support of the Military Academy of the United States for the year 1838." One of several amendments to this act, however, reads as follows:

That the Secretary of the Treasury cause to be made, under the superintendence of Mr. Hassler, one standard balance for each State, and that when completed he cause them to be delivered to the respective Governors for the use of the respective States.

It is interesting that under this authority balances in three capacities instead of one were built for the States, a large (capacity 50 pounds), a medium (capacity about 10 pounds), and a small (capacity 1 pound). A commentary on this departure from the specific terms of the statute is found in House Document No. 159, 28th Congress, 2d Session; this document comprises a report dated February 26, 1845, by A. D. Bache, Hassler's successor as Superintendent of Weights and Measures, on the progress made in the construction of standard weights, measures, and balances during the year 1844. Appended to Bache's report, as appendix A thereto, is a special report, dated January 4, 1844, made to the Secretary of the Treasury by Edward Hassler, a son of F. R. Hassler, who had served for some years as his father's assistant in the construction of weights, measures, and balances. In this special report Edward Hassler quotes that paragraph of the 1838 Act authorizing the furnishing to each State of "one standard balance," and then goes on to say:

The spirit of the above law is, that the States be furnished with means by which they will be enabled to determine any question that may arise, with such a degree of nicety as to be as valuable for all practical purposes as if absolutely exact.

This object cannot be secured by any single balance; consequently arises the necessity of seeking the best means of accomplishing the desired object. Experience has proved that it cannot be secured with sufficient accuracy by less thau three balances.

Consequently, I considered myself justified in carrying ont the spirit, and securing to the country the important and so-muchneeded object of the law.

11 H.R. Doc. 159, 28th Cong., 2d sess.

It is not clear from the records now available that each State received three balances, one of each capacity, but it is known that this was the case in some States, and it is presumed that the normal distribution was on the basis of three balances per State.

By 1850 practically all the States admitted to the Union had been supplied with complete sets of weights and measures, and, in addition, sets were presented to England, France, Japan, and Siam. As new States were admitted they were also supplied with sets of standards, the last of these sets being supplied to North Dakota in 1893. Two special sets of standards have since been prepared. One was presented to the State of Alaska in 1959 and the other presented to the State of Hawaii in 1960.

A list of the weights and measures comprising one of the original State sets is given below.

First. A set of standard weights composed of one each of the following:

of one of each of the following, with its gro glass cover.

1 gallon

2 gallon

1 liquid quart

1 pint 1⁄2 pint

Fourth. A brass standard half-bushel wit ground glass cover.

In order to carry out the provisions of the resolu of 1836 and the act of 1838 the Office of Weights Measures had been established under the directio the Superintendent of the Coast Survey. All standards adopted at the beginning of the work, subsequently, were in the charge of this Office, v the exception of the troy pound of the Mint, w remained at Philadelphia.

ment.

In October 1834, the British imperial yard and pound made in 1758, of which the Troughton s and the mint pound were supposed to be exact cop were destroyed by the burning of the Houses of Pa When the new imperial standards to rep them were completed in 1855 two copies of the and one copy of the avoirdupois pound were prese to the United States, arriving in this country in 1 One of these bars, namely, bronze yard No. 11, very soon after compared with the Troughton s the result showing that the accepted 36 inches of Troughton scale was 0.00087 inch longer than British imperial yard. 13 The second bar received f England was subsequently compared with the Trou ton scale and fully corroborated the result obta from the comparison with bronze No. 11. The yards, and especially bronze No. 11, were far supe to the Troughton scale as standards of length, consequently they were accepted by the Office Weights and Measures as the standards of the Un States, and all comparisons were afterwards refe to the imperial yard through these two standa They were twice taken to England and recompa with the imperial yard, once in 1876 and again in 1

The avoirdupois pound presented with the yards was also compared with the United St avoirdupois pound derived from the mint pound, result showing a very satisfactory agreement. advent of the new pound did not, therefore, dist the position of the troy pound of the Mint, or of avoirdupois pound derived from it. There is a re ence concerning this comparison of the pounds m by Alexander D. Bache, Superintendent of Weig and Measures, in a report dated December 30, 185

13 See Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the construction distribution of weights and measures in 1857. S. Ex. Doc. No. 27, 34th C 3d sess.