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STANDARDS DEPARTMENT

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 772 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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STANDARDS See also:DEPARTMENT , a department of the See also:English See also:Board of See also:Trade, having the custody of the imperial standards of weights and See also:measures. As far back as can be traced, the See also:standard weights and measures, the See also:primary See also:instruments for determining the justness of all other weights and measures used in the See also:United See also:Kingdom, were kept at the See also:exchequer, and the duties See also:relating to these standards were imposed upon the chamberlains of the exchequer. The See also:office of chamberlains was abolished in 1826, under the operation of 23 Geo. III. c. 82, passed in 1783, but the custody of the standards and any duties connected therewith remained attached to an officer in the exchequer (q.v.) until that department was abolished in 1866. Meanwhile, in pursuance of recommendations of Standard Commissions of 1841 and 1854 and a See also:House of See also:Commons See also:Committee of 1862, the Standards of Weights, Measures and Coinage See also:Act x866 was passed. This act created a See also:special department of the Board of Trade, called the " Standard Weights and Measures Department," and a See also:head of that department styled the" See also:Warden of the Standards." His See also:duty was ,to conduct comparisons, verifications and operations with reference to the standards in aid of scientific See also:research and otherwise. The first—indeed, the only real holder—of the office was See also:Henry See also:Williams Chisholm (1809-1901), previously See also:chief clerk of the old exchequer, under whose direction the department was organized; and before his retirement in 1877 it embraced not merely the re-verification of the imperial standards, but the making of See also:local standards for local authorities, the re-verification of standards and instruments for all parts of the United Kingdom and colonies, for See also:foreign countries which did not possess standardizing departments, the verification of manufacturers' standards and instruments, See also:gas-measuring standards, apparatus for determining the flash=point of See also:petroleum, &c. The Weights and Measures Act of 1878 See also:left out all reference to the See also:title and office of warden of the standards, and this opportunity was taken, in the words of the then permanent secretary of the Board of Trade, T. H. (afterwards See also:Lord) See also:Farrer, to make the office " more strictly a department of the Board of Trade." It was put in See also:charge of an officer (Mr H. J.

Chaney) termed " See also:

Superintendent of Weights and Measures," but on his See also:death in 1906 an See also:attempt was made partially to restore dignity and importance to the office by the See also:appointment of See also:Major P. A. See also:MacMahon, F.R.S., with the title of " See also:Deputy Warden of the Standards."' There are Standards departments under the charge of experienced scientists in See also:Berlin, St See also:Petersburg, See also:Paris, See also:Vienna, Eotne See also:Madrid, See also:Lisbon, See also:Brussels, See also:Bucharest and See also:Constantinople and at See also:Ottawa, See also:Melbourne and See also:Sidney. The United States See also:Bureau of Standards is in the department of See also:Commerce and Labor. It was established in Igor and is under the charge of a director. Its See also:work follows that of the English department and embraces also research in the domain of physics, extending from See also:chemistry on the one See also:side to See also:engineering on the other. It also tests and investigates standards and methods of constructing measuring-instruments for scientific See also:societies, educational institutions, manufacturers and others.

End of Article: STANDARDS DEPARTMENT

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