The General Conference on Weights and Measures (French: Conférence générale des poids et mesures - CGPM) is the senior of the three Inter-governmental organizations established in 1875 under the terms of the Metre Convention (French: Convention du Mètre) to represent the interests of member states. The treaty, which also set up two further bodies, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (French: Comité international des poids et mesures- CIPM) and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (French: Bureau international des poids et mesures - BIPM,) was drawn up to coordinate international metrology and to coordinate the development of the metric system.
The conference meets in Sèvres (south-west of Paris) every four to six years. Initially it was only concerned with the kilogram and the metre, but in 1921 the scope of the treaty was extended to accommodate all physical measurements and hence all aspects of the metric system. In 1960 the 11th CGPM approved the Système International d'Unités, usually known as "SI".
Read more about General Conference On Weights And Measures: Establishment, CGPM Meetings
Famous quotes containing the words general, conference, weights and/or measures:
“It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“For 350 years we have been taught that reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man. Football’s place is to add a patina of character, a deference to the rules and a respect for authority.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)
“... the prevalent custom of educating young women only for marriage, and not for the duties and responsibilities consequent on marriage—only for appendages and dead weights to husbands—of bringing them up without an occupation, profession, or employment, and thus leaving them dependent on anyone but themselves—is an enormous evil, and an unpardonable sin.”
—Harriot K. Hunt (1805–1875)
“To have the fear of God before our eyes, and, in our mutual dealings with each other, to govern our actions by the eternal measures of right and wrong:MThe first of these will comprehend the duties of religion;Mthe second, those of morality, which are so inseparably connected together, that you cannot divide these two tables ... without breaking and mutually destroying them both.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)