Catalogue description Records of the Standards, Weights and Measures Departments

The Standard Weights, Measures and Coinage Act 1866 transferred the custody of the imperial standards and the related duties from the Treasury and the Comptroller General of the Exchequer to the Board of Trade by 29 & 30 Vic. cap. 82. A Standard Weights and Measures Office had been formed to perform these functions, to verify secondary and local standards in all parts of the British Empire, to advise other governments using the same standards and the following of research into metric standards. It was given control over gas measuring standards by the Sale of Gas Act 1859 and succeeding acts.

The office received custody of the standard trial plates under sections 16-17 of the Coinage Act 1870 and the succeeding act of 1891. It also had duties concerning byelaws on the sale of coal under the Weights and Measures Act 1889 and the hallmarking of plate. Acts of 1904 and 1926 extended its control over the sale of goods and the Petroleum Acts from 1881 gave it supervision of petrol testing. Control over gas and petrol standards passed to the Ministry of Fuel and Power in 1942.

Inspectors of Weights and Measures were appointed under the Weights and Measures Act 1878 and subsequent acts and the office was responsible for the examination of candidates for these posts. From 1907 onwards, under powers conferred by the act of 1904, the Board of Trade required the submission of annual reports from the inspectors.

Originally a subdepartment of the board's Commercial Department, the office, or Standards Department as it became known, passed in 1872 to the Harbour Department, in 1896 to the Railway Department, in 1918 to the Public Utilities and Harbours Department, in 1920 to the Industries and Manufactures Department, in 1928 to the General Department and in 1936 again to the Industries and Manufactures Department. In 1957, the Standard Weights and Measures Department was part of the Industries and Manufactures (M) Division 2. There it remained until January 1968 when it passed into the Economic (General) 2 Division (G.2), which replaced the IM 2 Division.

In October 1969, when a further reorganisation took place, the Standards Weights and Measures Department passed to the General and Industrial Division, which replaced the G.2 Division. By 1970, the functions of the Standard Weights and Measures Department included the administration of weights and measures administration; all matters relating to weights, measures and measuring appliances; sale of food and non-food commodities by weight measure or number; and weights and measures examinations.

When the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was formed in 1970, the Standard Weights and Measures Department merged with the Standards Division of the Ministry of Technology (MINTECH) to form the new department's Standards, Weights and Measures Division.

In 1894 electrical standards were made by the board and custody of these was entrusted to an Electrical Standards Laboratory, which had been established by the board in 1890. In 1919 this laboratory was absorbed into the National Physical Laboratory and in January 1920 ownership and custody of the electrical standards was transferred to the Ministry of Transport.