Picture Piece: The Kilogram
Same but different: the many ur-kilos
The French kilogram is used to set the weight of all other kilograms. For 128,000 US dollars anyone can come to Paris and set their weights in accordance with the French. This has recently become unnecessary because the International Committee of Weights and Measures travels to France twice a year, pays the fees, and makes its calibrated kilograms available to the nations of the world. The United States and Britain share a kilogram. This kilogram is in almost constant travel between Washington and London. Flying this weight back and forth across the Atlantic is done for diplomatic rather than scientific reasons. Most international corporations set their weights in accordance with the Frankfurt or Tokyo kilograms. These two weights are within a hundred billionths of a gram of each other and are set in relation to the Denver kilogram. The Denver kilogram is maintained by the US Air Force in western Colorado. This kilogram is continually monitored on an atomic scale that is calibrated in accordance with the California gram. The California gram is made of gold and was originally used in San Francisco to settle the disputes of the forty-niners during the gold-rush years.
Charles Ray
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