fmd_752622 - Pile de poids de 8 onces n.d. France

POIDS SEMI-METRIQUES USUELS

1812-1839

A decree of February 12, 1812, supplemented by an order and a circular of March 28, authorized the use, in the retail trade, of weights presenting "the fractions or multiples most in use in commerce, and adapted to needs of the people”. For these weights, called "usual", the decimal division was therefore abandoned. These weights had to carry, "with their name, the indication of their value in decimal weights" (cf. Inventory of weights, National Museum of Techniques, CNAM, 1990).