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Mendenhall Order
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''. Standards before the order In October 1834, the United Kingdom Houses of Parliament were destroyed in a fire, and the British standards of length and mass were also destroyed. "When the new imperial standards to replace them were completed in 1855, two copies of the yard and one copy of the avoirdupois pound were presented to the United States". These were superior to the yard then in use, so one of them was adopted as the United States national standard yard. These yards were taken to Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Unit
The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial or Exchequer Standards of 1826) 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 imperial system developed from earlier English units as did the related but differing system of customary units of the United States. The imperial units replaced the Winchester Standards, which were in effect from 1588 to 1825. The system came into official use across the British Empire in 1826. By the late 20th century, most nations of the former empire had officially adopted the metric system as their main system of measurement, but imperial units are still used alongside metric units in the United Kingdom and in some other parts of the former empire, notably Canada. The modern UK legislation defining the imperial system of units is given in the Weights and Measures Act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Bureau Of Weights And Measures
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (french: Bureau international des poids et mesures, BIPM) is an intergovernmental organisation, through which its 59 member-states act together on measurement standards in four areas: chemistry, ionising radiation, physical metrology, and coordinated universal time. It is based in Saint-Cloud, Paris, France. The organisation has been referred to as IBWM (from its name in English) in older literature. Structure The BIPM is supervised by the International Committee for Weights and Measures (french: Comité international des poids et mesures, CIPM), a committee of eighteen members that meet normally in two sessions per year, which is in turn overseen by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (french: Conférence générale des poids et mesures, CGPM) that meets in Paris usually once every four years, consisting of delegates of the governments of the Member States and observers from the Associates of the CGPM. These organs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metrication In The United States
Metrication (or metrification) 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. U.S. customary units have been defined in terms of metric units since the 19th century, and the SI has been the "preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce" since 1975 according to United States law. However, conversion was not mandatory and many industries chose not to convert, and U.S. customary units remain in common use in many industries as well as in governmental use (for example, speed limits are still posted in miles per hour). Unlike other countries, there is no governmental or major social desire to implement further metrication. Although customary units are used more often than metric units in the U.S., the SI system is used extensively in some fields such as science, medicine, electronics, the military, automobile production and repair ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economic History Of The United States
The economic history of the United States is about characteristics of and important developments in the U.S. economy from colonial times to the present. The emphasis is on productivity and economic performance and how the economy was affected by new technologies, the change of size in economic sectors and the effects of legislation and government policy. Specialized business history is covered in American business history. Colonial economy The colonial economy was characterized by an abundance of land and natural resources and a severe scarcity of labor. This was the opposite of Europe and attracted immigrants despite the high death rate caused by New World diseases. From 1700 to 1774 the output of the thirteen colonies increased 12-fold, giving the colonies an economy about 30% the size of Britain's at the time of independence. Population growth was responsible for over three-quarters of the economic growth of the British American colonies. The free white population had th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metric System In The United States
Metrication (or metrification) 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. U.S. customary units have been defined in terms of metric units since the 19th century, and the SI has been the "preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce" since 1975 according to United States law. However, conversion was not mandatory and many industries chose not to convert, and U.S. customary units remain in common use in many industries as well as in governmental use (for example, speed limits are still posted in miles per hour). Unlike other countries, there is no governmental or major social desire to implement further metrication. Although customary units are used more often than metric units in the U.S., the SI system is used extensively in some fields such as science, medicine, electronics, the military, automobile production and repair, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foot (unit)
The foot ( 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. Historically the "foot" was a part of many local systems of units, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, French, and English systems. It varied in length from country to country, from city to city, and sometimes from trade to trade. Its length was usually between 250 mm and 335 mm and was generally, but not always, subdivided into 12 inches or 16 digits. The United States is the only industrialized nation that uses the international foot and the survey foot (a customary unit of length) in preference to the meter in its commercial, engin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Yard And Pound
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 and the avoirdupois pound as exactly . History In October 1834, the United Kingdom Houses of Parliament were destroyed in a fire. Among the items lost were the objects that defined the imperial standards of length and mass. New prototypes were subsequently created to replace the items lost in the fire, among them a new "yardstick" ruler in 1855, and with it a new formal definition of the yard. Two copies of the ruler were subsequently presented to the United States, which in turn adopted the measure for the United States national standard yard. In 1866, the U.S. Congress passed a law that allowed, but did not require, the use of the metric system in trade and commerce. Included in the law was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ... in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park (Chicago), Jackson Park, was a large water pool representing the voyage Columbus took to the New World. Chicago had won the right to host the fair over several other cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American Architecture of the United States, architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image. The layout of the Chicago Columbian E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Electrical Congress
The International Electrical Congress was a series of international meetings, from 1881 - 1904, in the then new field of applied electricity. The first meeting was initiated by the French government, including official national representatives, leading scientists, and others. Subsequent meetings also included official representatives, leading scientists, and others. Primary aims were to develop reliable standards, both in relation to electrical units and electrical apparatus. Historical background In 1881, both within and across countries, different electrical units were being used. There were at least 12 different units of electromotive force, 10 different units of electric current and 15 different units of resistance. A number of international Congresses were held, and sometimes referred to as International Electrical Congress, Electrical Conference, and similar variations. Secondary sources make different judgments about how to classify the Congresses. In this article, the Congr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metre Convention
The Metre Convention (french: link=no, Convention du Mètre), also known as the Treaty of the Metre, is an international treaty that was signed in Paris on 20 May 1875 by representatives of 17 nations (Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Ottoman Empire, United States of America, and Venezuela). The treaty created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), an intergovernmental organization under the authority of the General Conference on Weights and Measures ( CGPM) and the supervision of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM), that coordinates international metrology and the development of the metric system. As well as founding the BIPM and laying down the way in which the activities of the BIPM should be financed and managed, the Metre Convention established a permanent organizational structure for member governments to act in common accord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metric System
The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the Decimal, decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in French Revolution, France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the definition of the International System of Units (SI) in the mid-20th century, under the oversight of an international standards body. Adopting the metric system is known as ''metrication''. The historical evolution of metric systems has resulted in the recognition of several principles. Each of the fundamental dimensions of nature is expressed by a single base unit (measurement), base unit of measure. The definition of base units has increasingly been realisation (metrology), realised from natural principles, rather than by copies of physical artefacts. For quantities derived from the fundamental base units of the system, units SI derived unit, derived from the base units are used—e.g., the square metre is the derived unit for area, a qu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metric Act Of 1866
The Metric Act of 1866, also known as the Kasson Act, is a piece of United States legislation that legally protected use of the metric system in commerce from lawsuit, and provided an official conversion table from U.S. customary units. History Congressman John A. Kasson from Iowa, then Chairman of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures, proposed the act in his report of the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures: The metric system is already used in some arts and trades in this country, and is especially adapted to the wants of others. Some of its measures are already manufactured at Bangor, in Maine, to meet an existing demand at home and abroad. The manufacturers of the well-known Fairbanks scales state: “For many years we have had a large export demand for our scales with French weights, and the demand and sale is constantly increasing.” Its minute and exact divisions specially adapt it to the use of chemists, aphothecaries, the finer operations of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
