The standard of length which had generally been accepted as _the_ standard, was a brass scale 82 inches long, prepared by Troughton for the Coast Survey of the United States. The yard used was the 36 inches between the 27th and 63d inch of the scale. In 1856, however "Bronze No. 11" was presented to the United States by the British government. This is a duplicate of the No. 1 Bronze mentioned before, which is the legalized standard yard in England. It is standard length at 61.79 degrees F., and is the accepted standard in the United States. A bar of Low Moor iron, No. 57, was sent at the same time, and this is correct in length at 62.58 degrees F. The expansion of Bronze No. 11 is 0.000342 inch, and that of the iron bar is 0.000221 inch for each degree Fahrenheit. While the yard is the commonly accepted standard in this country, it is not the legal standard. In 1866 Congress passed a law making legal the meter, the first and only measure of length that has been legalized by our government. Copies of the meter and kilogram, taken from the original platinum bar at Paris, referred to before, were received in this country by the President and members of the Cabinet, on Jan. 2, 1890, and were deposited with the Coast Survey. By formal order of the Secretary of the Treasury, April 5, 1893, these were denominated the "Fundamental Standards." The International Bureau of Weights and Measures After the original meter was established, it was found that copies made by various countries differed to a greater or less extent from the original, and believing that a copy could be made from which other copies could be more readily made than from the end piece meter, and that better provision could be made for the preservation of the standard, France called a convention of representatives from various States using the system, to consider the matter. The United States representatives, or commissioners, were Messrs. Henry and Hildegard, who met with the general commission in 1870. The commissioners at once set at work to solve the problem presented to them, but the Franco-Prussian war put an end to their deliberations. The deliberations were resumed later, and May 20, 1875, representatives of the various countries signed a treaty providing for the establishment and maintenance, at the common expense of the contracting nations, of a "scientific and permanent international bureau of weights and measures, the location of which should be Paris, to be conducted by a general conference for weights and measures, to be composed of the delegates of all the contracting governments."