Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

LAISSEZ-FAIRE STANDARDS 35
the State of Maryland in Hassler's Washington laboratory and continued to
work there after Bache took over.50 The brass in Hassler's yard scale, made
with "ingenious and novel methods" and containing a zinc of more than
usual purity, said Alexander, presented—
in several physical characters a marked difference from the ordi-
nary brass of commerce; it is softer, freer, more uniform in texture,
of a more agreeable color, and oxidates even with a pleasanter
aspect. This last particular was a point upon which the late
Superintendent, whose remarkable versatility of genius found
nothing too great or too small for attention, in a manner piqued
himself; and the bright eye of the aged philosopher gleamed
brighter as it watched the deepening of what he called his "oerugo
nobilis." * * * All these peculiarities would have made the em-
ployment of such metal, had it been possible, of great interest
and advantage: but it was only to be procured by a repetition of
the original process—a step manifestly disproportionate to the
end now in view. Under these circumstances, resort was had to
the article as more usually obtained.5'
Alexander's use of ordinary brass made comparison with the original
standard all but impossible because there was no "means of knowing posi-
tively the expansion of Mr. Hassler's brass." The 30 different yard-measures
that. Alexander constructed for the State of Maryland between. 1842 and 1845,
each with a "correction for excess of U.S. Standard," agreed with one an-
other within two parts in a ten-thousandth of an inch. Even though this
was "a quantity fully observable," Alexander nevertheless considered his
bars entirely satisfactory for "measuring the yards in common use that may
be applied to them." 52
Alexander appears to have been a careful craftsman, and he had
access to the best equipment available in this country, that in Hassler's
laboratory. It is doubtful whether many other State metrologists enjoyed
either advantage. Yet a comment he made on Hassler's mission at the be.
ginning of his report provides, unwittingly, a clue to the attitude of the age
toward weights and measures arid to the outcome of Hassler's efforts:
The Establishment of a system of Weights and Measures belongs not
merely to the domain of mechanical science, but enters also into
the regions of metaphysics and the higher generalizations of
history.
5°J. H. Alexander, Report on the Standards of Weights and Measures for the State of
Maryland and on the Construction of the Yard-Measures (Baltimore: John D. Toy,
1845), pp. 167, 183.
Ibid., pp. 178—179.
"Ibid., pp. 208—210.