On October 25, 1791, Washington again appealed Congress:Ī uniformity of the weights and measures of the country is among the important objects submitted to you by the Constitution and if it can be derived from a standard at once invariable and universal, must be no less honorable to the public council than conducive to the public convenience.

In January 1790, President George Washington, in his first annual message to Congress, said, 'Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the United States is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to.' Washington ordered Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson to prepare a Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United States, later referred to informally as the Jefferson Report. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures'. Īrticle 1, section 8, of the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1789, granted these powers to the new Congress: 'The Congress shall have power. The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective states-fixing the standards of weights and measures throughout the United States. The Articles of Confederation, ratified by the colonies in 1781, provided: From 1901 to 1988, the agency was named the National Bureau of Standards. NIST's activities are organized into physical science laboratory programs that include nanoscale science and technology, engineering, information technology, neutron research, material measurement, and physical measurement.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. Locascio, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director of NIST

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