Troughton scale

Last updated June 16, 2022

The Troughton scale is a measurement scale that de facto served as the first national standard of length in the United States, from 1832 until 1856.

Physical description

The measurement scale spans 82 inches and is subdivided to tenths of inches. It is marked on a silver inlay in a brass bar; the bar itself is about 86 inches long.^[1]^: 31

History

The scale was prepared for the Office of Coast Survey by Troughton of London and was brought to the United States in 1815^[2]^{: 33, 50, 69, 122} by F. R. Hassler, who a year later became first Superintendent of the Survey of the Coast^[2]^: 1, 33 and, in 1832, first Superintendent of Weights and Measures.^[2]^: 1, 114

At the time, the United States Government was principally financed by duties on imports and exports (the federal income tax did not become a permanent feature of the US system until 1913). The appropriate import and export taxes on commercial items were determined at customhouses maintained by the federal government at various ports of entry. A reliable and uniform system of weights and measure was necessary for this system to work, as well as for settling commercial disputes.^[2]^{: 77, 123}

In 1830, the US Senate requested the Secretary of the Treasury to ‘cause a comparison to be made of the standards of weight and measure now used at the principal custom houses in the United States, and report to the Senate at the next session of Congress.’^[3] To carry out this mandate, the Treasury Secretary appointed Hassler, who found^[4]^: 1 that (as was suspected) large discrepancies existed among the weights and measures in use at the principal customhouses at different US ports.^[5]^: 370

The Treasury Department immediately started constructing new necessary weights and measures for the customs service. For this purpose, the Treasury Department had to choose standards, and the standard yard adopted was the 36 inches comprised between the 27th and the 63rd inches of the Troughton scale. This 36-inch space was supposed to be identical with the English standard at 62 °F, though it had never been directly compared with that standard. The original English standard, in turn, was made in 1758, but was then damaged beyond the point of usability in the great fire of 1834.^[5]^: 369–70

In 1856, the US received two copies of the new British standard yard after Britain completed the manufacture of new imperial standards to replace those lost in 1834. As standards of length, the new yards, especially bronze No. 11, were far superior to the Troughton scale. They were therefore accepted by the Office of Weights and Measures (a predecessor of NIST) as length standards of the United States.^[5]^: 369–70

Later developments

The new standards were twice taken to England and recompared with the imperial yard, in 1876 and in 1888. Measurable discrepancies were found ‘which could not reasonably be said to be entirely due to changes in No. 11. Suspicion as to the constancy of the length of the British standard was therefore aroused.'^[5]^: 381

In 1890, as a signatory of the Metre Convention, the US received two copies of the International Prototype Metre, the construction of which represented the most advanced ideas of standards of the time. Therefore it seemed that US measures would have greater stability and higher accuracy by accepting the international meter as fundamental standard, with the yard defined in terms of the meter. This was formalized in 1893 by the Mendenhall Order,^[5]^: 379–81 with the conversion in accordance with the Metric Act of 1866 (as 1 meter = 39.37 inches,^[6]^: 340 which corresponds to 1 inch = 2.5400051… centimeters). This value was adjusted in 1959 to its present value of 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters (or, 1 yard = 0.9144 meters), exactly.^[7]^[8]

Location

As of 1965,^[update]^[1]^: 33 the Troughton scale was stored in a case next to the Standards Vault at what was then the National Bureau of Standards (and is today NIST) in Washington, D.C.

Related Research Articles

The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong, which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, 1⁄640 of a square mile, 4,840 square yards, or 43,560 square feet, and approximately 4,047 m², or about 40% of a hectare. Based upon the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, an acre may be declared as exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres. The acre is sometimes abbreviated ac, but is usually spelled out as the word "acre".

The inch is a unit of length in the British imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. It is equal to 1/36 yard or 1/12 of a foot. Derived from the Roman uncia ("twelfth"), the word inch is also sometimes used to translate similar units in other measurement systems, usually understood as deriving from the width of the human thumb.

The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed through a series of Weights and Measures Acts and amendments.

The metre or meter is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). The SI unit symbol is m.

The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and US customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English feet, or 1,760 yards. The statute mile was standardised between the British Commonwealth and the United States by an international agreement in 1959, when it was formally redefined with respect to SI units as exactly 1,609.344 metres.

Metrication Conversion to the metric system of measurement

Metrication or metrification is the act or process of converting to the metric system of measurement. All over the world, nations have transitioned from their local and traditional units of measurement to the metric system. This process began in France during the 1790s, and continues more than two centuries later—with the modern SI system—as the metric system has not been fully adopted in all countries and sectors.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a physical sciences laboratory and non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce. Its mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into laboratory programs that include nanoscale science and technology, engineering, information technology, neutron research, material measurement, and physical measurement. From 1901 to 1988, the agency was named the National Bureau of Standards.

The International System of Units, known by the international abbreviation SI in all languages and sometimes pleonastically as the SI system, is the modern form of the metric system and based on the metre as the unit of length and either the kilogram as the unit of mass or the kilogram-force as the unit of force.</ref> and the world's most widely used system of measurement. Established and maintained by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), it is the only system of measurement with an official status in nearly every country in the world, employed in science, technology, industry, and everyday commerce.

United States customary units form a system of measurement units commonly used in the United States and U.S. territories since being standardized and adopted in 1832. The United States customary system developed from English units which were in use in the British Empire before the U.S. became an independent country. The United Kingdom's system of measures was overhauled in 1824 to create the imperial system, which was officially adopted in 1826, changing the definitions of some of its units. Subsequently, while many U.S. units are essentially similar to their imperial counterparts, there are significant differences between the systems.

The yard is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.9144 meter. A distance of 1,760 yards is equal to 1 mile.

In measurement technology and metrology, calibration is the comparison of measurement values delivered by a device under test with those of a calibration standard of known accuracy. Such a standard could be another measurement device of known accuracy, a device generating the quantity to be measured such as a voltage, a sound tone, or a physical artifact, such as a meter ruler.

The foot (pl. feet), standard symbol: ft, is a unit of length in the British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. The prime symbol, ′, is a customarily used alternative symbol. Since the International Yard and Pound Agreement of 1959, one foot is defined as 0.3048 meters exactly. In both customary and imperial units, one foot comprises 12 inches and one yard comprises three feet.

A unit of length refers to any arbitrarily chosen and accepted reference standard for measurement of length. The most common units in modern use are the metric units, used in every country globally. In the United States the U.S. customary units are also in use. British Imperial units are still used for some purposes in the United Kingdom and some other countries. The metric system is sub-divided into SI and non-SI units.

Metrication is the process of introducing the International System of Units, also known as SI units or the metric system, to replace a jurisdiction's traditional measuring units. Although U.S. customary units have been defined in terms of metric units since the 19th century, the United States is one of only three countries that, as of 2022, have not officially adopted the metric system as the primary means of weights and measurements.

The Mendenhall Order marked a decision to change the fundamental standards of length and mass of the United States from the customary standards based on those of England to metric standards. It was issued on April 5, 1893, by Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, with the approval of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, John Griffin Carlisle. The order was issued as the Survey's Bulletin No. 26 – Fundamental Standards of Length and Mass.

The link, sometimes called a Gunter’s link, is a unit of length formerly used in many English-speaking countries. In US customary units modern definition, the link is exactly 66⁄100 of a US survey foot, or exactly 7.92 inches or approximately 20.12 cm.

Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler Swiss-American surveyor (1770-1845)

Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler was a Swiss-American surveyor who is considered the forefather of both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for his achievements as the first Superintendent of the U.S. Survey of the Coast and the first U.S. Superintendent of Weights and Measures.

In common usage, the mass of an object is often referred to as its weight, though these are in fact different concepts and quantities. In scientific contexts, mass is the amount of "matter" in an object, whereas weight is the force exerted on an object by gravity. In other words, an object with a mass of 1.0 kilogram weighs approximately 9.81 newtons on the surface of the Earth, which is its mass multiplied by the gravitational field strength. The object's weight is less on Mars, where gravity is weaker, and more on Saturn, and very small in space when far from any significant source of gravity, but it always has the same mass.

The international yard and pound are two units of measurement that were the subject of an agreement among representatives of six nations signed on 1 July 1959; the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The agreement defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 meters and the (avoirdupois) pound as exactly 0.45359237 kilograms.

Imperial and US customary measurement systems English (pre 1824), Imperial (post 1824) and US Customary (post 1776) units of measure

The imperial and US customary measurement systems are both derived from an earlier English system of measurement which in turn can be traced back to Ancient Roman units of measurement, and Carolingian and Saxon units of measure.

References

1 2 Lenzen, Victor F. (1965). "The Contributions of Charles S. Peirce to Metrology" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 109 (1): 29–46. ISSN 0003-049X. JSTOR 985776. Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
1 2 3 4 Hassler, Harriet; Burroughs, Charles A., eds. (March 2007). Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler (1770-1843): A Twenty Year Retrospective, 1987-2007 (NIST Special Publication 1068) (PDF). National Institute of Standards and Technology. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2020.
↑ United States Senate Journal. 19: 342. May 29, 1830. Archived from the original on May 18, 2020.
↑ Hassler, Ferdinand Rudolph (1832). Comparison of Weights and Measures of Length and Capacity, Reported to the Senate of the United States by the Treasury Department in 1832, and Made by Ferd. Rod. Hassler (Report). Duff Green. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
1 2 3 4 5 Fischer, Louis A. (1905). History of standard weights and measures of the United States (PDF) (Report). National Bureau of Standards. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 June 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
↑ “An Act to authorize the Use of the Metric System of Weights and Measures.” 14 Stat. 339 (Chapter 301), July 28, 1866. Archived on May 17, 2020.
↑ "Refinement of values for the yard and the pound" (PDF), Federal Register , vol. 24, p. 5348 (24 FR 5348), 1959, archived (PDF) from the original on 17 May 2020, retrieved 17 May 2020
↑ "Deprecation of the United States (U.S.) Survey Foot", Federal Register , vol. 84, p. 55562 (84 FR 55562), 2019, archived (PDF) from the original on 18 May 2020, retrieved 17 May 2020