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Show METAL OF THE STANDARDS, XatuiF. Km-niBhes No .'iVuieral Snitublo for llie Po.n.'o ie. There are no products of human skill on which a greater degree of care is expended ex-pended than the standards of weight and measure, in use among the- civilized nations of the globe. Two livings in particular have to be considered accuracy accu-racy and durability. .Nature does not furnish any single metal, or mineral, which exactly aii.v.vers 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 purpose is an alloy of ninety per cent, of platinum with ten percent, of iridium. This is called iridio-platiuutu, and it is the substance of .which the new metric standards prepared by the international committee of weitrhts and measures are composed. It is hard, it is less affected by heat than any pure melal. it is practically non-oxidizable, or not subject to nisi, and it can be finely engraved. In fact the lines on the standard meter.s 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 briohter age-in the i-einote future, there is nothino' which would hem higher testimony to i(s character than these s-tandard measure:-, of iridio plat-inuin plat-inuin for the prode-dion ami preservation preserva-tion of which 1 he seicnee of our day bar done it s very best. |