OCR Text |
Show METAL OF THE STANDARDS. Nature Furnishes No .Mineral Suitable for the Purpose. There are no products of Iranian skill on which a greater degree of care is ex-. ex-. ponded than the standards of weight and measure in use among the civilized nations of the globe. Tsvo things in particular have to be considered accuracy accu-racy and durability. Nature does not furnish any single metal, or mineral, which exactly anssvers the requirements require-ments for a standard of measure or weight that shall be, as nearly as possible, possi-ble, unalterable. The best substance yet produced for this piu-pose is an alloy of ninety per cent, of platinum with ten per cent, of iridium. This is called iridio-platinum, and it is the substance of which the new metric standards prepared by the international committee of weights and .measures are composed, i It is hard, it is less affected by heat than any pure metal, it is practically non-oxidizable, or not subject to rust, and it can be finely engraved. In fact the lines on the standard -meters are hardly visible to the naked eye, yet they are smooth, even, sharp and accurate. accu-rate. '-' : ,,. . If our civilization should ever be lost, and relics of it should be discovered in some brighter age in the remote future, there is nothing- which would beat higher testimony to it's character than these standard measures of iridio-platinum for the production and preservation preserva-tion of which the science of our day has done its very best. |