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Weights & Measures at Melbourne Observatory
Image: Metric mass measures (c. 1865), Troughton & Simms
Source: Museum Victoria
From its inception the Melbourne Observatory had sets of standard weights and measures, which had been tested in Britain against the Imperial standards. These included the primary standard yard and pound for the Colony of Victoria. Other standards of weight and measure in the colony could be compared to these primary standards.
The measures were kept in the basement to reduce the effects of changes in temperature, but even so, special calculations had to be made to allow for the expansion and contraction of the metal in the standard yard. The standard yard was set up in a machine fitted with microscopes, so that exact comparisons could be made of two measures. In 1876 a permanent chain standard was erected in the Observatory grounds, to enable the ready testing of surveyor's and engineer's chain lengths.
A Weights & Measures Act was passed in Victoria in 1862, establishing local inspectors throughout the colony. By the 1870s, each local council and shire in Victoria held a set of standards that were used to test the scales, weights and measures used by factories and shops. Every ten years the councils' standards would themselves need to be rechecked against the Victorian standards.
This checking was done by the Victorian Customs Department in the 19th century, but with the transfer of responsibility for customs to the Federal Government in 1901, the weights and measures function was retained by the Victorian Government and shifted to the Melbourne Observatory. In 1904, a new building was erected at the south end of the Great Melbourne Telescope House, and the weights and measures and testing equipment installed on slate and granite benches. Because the large room had large whirling apparatus for testing air meters, it was always known as the Whirling Room.
When the Melbourne Observatory closed in 1944, the Weights and Measures Branch was formed to continue this area of the Observatory's work, and this branch remained at the Observatory site until 1995.
References:
Proctor, S.J. (1983). Weights and Measures in Victoria: A History and Survey, Glen Waverley: S.J. Proctor.
Items per page: 10 50 (showing 1 - 10) 370 items
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Glass Positive - Star Cluster, Melbourne Observatory, 1891
Test photo presumably taken with the newly erected Astrograph telescope at Melbourne Observatory.
From: South Yarra, Australia Images: 0 -
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Standard Length - Yard, A.D. Potter, London, 1864
Standard brass yard, made by A.D. Potter, London, expressly for the Melbourne Observatory, 1864. Used at Melbourne Observatory as the secondary standard yard for Victoria.
From: London, United Kingdom Images: 0 -
Standard Length - Yard, Troughton & Simms, Primary Standard, Victoria, 1855
Standard yard made by Troughton & Simms, London, 1855. Parliamentary copy No. 34 of the British standard yard of 1854. Bronze bar in wooden case. The yard is measured between fine lines ...
From: London, United Kingdom Images: 4 -
Digital Image - View of Melbourne Observatory, circa 1900
Image of Melbourne Observatiory, reproduced on a postcard, circa 1900. It depicts the main building, with the Astrograph House on the right.
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Technical Report - Count Von Zeppelin's Dirigible Air Ship, 1901
A summary technical report on the first rigid airship built at Lake Constance by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. It is an extract from the Smithsonian Report for 1899, pp563-565. This cop ...
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Technical Report - Major B. Baden-Powell, Progress With Air Ships, 1904
A short summary of work on airship design up to 1903 by Major Baden F.S. Baden-Powell (1860-1937) of the Scots Guards. This copy was originally received by the Melbourne Observatory and ...
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Technical Report - S.P. Langley, Stories of Experiments in Mechanical Flight, 1898
A short summary of work on the design of heavier than air flying machines up to 1897 by Samuel Pierpont Langley. This copy was originally received by the Melbourne Observatory and held ...
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Technical Report - The Langley Aerodrome, 1901
A summary of work on the design of the Aerodrome, a heavier than air flying machine built by Samuel Pierpont Langley. This copy was originally received by the Melbourne Observatory and ...
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Technical Paper - E.C. Huffaker & S.P. Langley, On Soaring Flight, 1898
Summary of experiments in non-powered flight by E.C Huffaker with an introduction by Samuel Pierpont Langley. This copy was originally received by the Melbourne Observatory and held as ...
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Technical Report - Graham Bell's Tetrahedral Kites, 1904
Summary report with four photographic illustrations of Alexander Graham Bell's experimental kites. It is an extract from the Smithsonian Report for 1903, pp183-185. The copy was origina ...
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