Metre Convention and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures
Convención del Metro y Oficina Internacional de Pesas y Medidas
- Date
- 1875 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Credited to
- Seventeen signatory states
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A treaty signed on 20 May 1875 by seventeen countries that creates the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, based at Sèvres, to keep international prototypes and ensure uniformity of measurement. It is the institutional basis of world metrology.
The 17 signatories included Spain, the United States and Russia; the United Kingdom acceded in 1884. The Bureau functions today as the metrology laboratory serving the Member States.
What it led to
- the international prototypes of the metre and kilogram (1889)
- the General Conference on Weights and Measures and the International System
- international traceability of measurements