Both J. R. Brown & Sharpe and Mr. Darling had had their standards compared with those at Washington prior to the formation of the partnership. Standards of a still higher degree of accuracy were prepared about 1877, and the following is quoted from a letter to J. E. Hilgard, of the Coast Survey Office, Washington, regarding the metric standard in use by the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company at that time: Taking 39.370 as the standard, there is only 0.00023 in. in the meter difference in our comparison, which perhaps is as close as may be expected. We shall now consider your comparison of our steel bar with the standard at Washington as correct, and in our comparisons with it shall be able to detect errors as small as 0.000025 in. Still later and more accurate standards were made by Oscar J. Beale in 1893.[191] [191] _American Machinist_, Vol. XXXVI, p. 1025. The early business of J. R. Brown & Sharpe connected them closely with the various standards then in use for measuring wire, sheet metal, and the like. Mr. Sharpe was impressed with the irregularity and confusion of these various gauges, so that after he became Mr. Brown’s partner, he interested himself in the establishment of a more systematic standard for wire gauges. In 1855 he corresponded with various people in regard to gauges for clock springs. By January of 1856 the wire gauge with a regular progression of sizes had been conceived, and a month later a table of sizes was made. The new system was laid before the Waterbury Brass Association by Mr. Sharpe, and in November of that year fifty gauges were sent to William Brown, president of the Association, for inspection by the members to show them the uniformity in size which could be maintained in making a number of gauges. The Association passed resolutions adopting this standard, and in February, 1857, eight of the leading American manufacturers signed these resolutions. The new gauge, introduced to the public through a circular sent out in March of that year, became the standard, since known as the American Wire Gauge. The subject of accurate gearing came up in connection with the clock business then conducted by J. R. Brown & Sharpe. There were also calls for gears to be cut which were beyond the capacity of the machine they then had for such work. This led to the design and building of a precision gear cutter, not only to produce accurate gears, but also to drill index plates and do circular graduating.