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While exploring a box of early 20th century index cards in the NIST archives, I stumbled upon two that starkly illustrated one of NIST's missions – legal metrology – and revealed a problem that persists today.
Consumer trust in quantity sizes often hinges on visual estimations and perceived container capacity, leaving ample room for deception.
Today, consumers are still familiar with this type of deceptive packaging. While modern companies often avoid outright legal fraud by disclosing the actual product quantity, they exploit the public’s sometimes-limited understanding of volumes like '50 ml' through misleading, and wasteful, packaging designs.
Legal metrology is the system of laws and regulations intended to ensure equity in trade and commerce. These old index cards remind us of the ongoing challenges to fair commerce which legal metrology exists to address.
The index card collection (Collection #016) in the NIST archives includes small photos with captions from circa 1915-1930 covering NIST research on topics including Electricity, Optics, Heat, Chemistry, Mechanics, Organic and Fibrous Materials, Metallurgy, and Mineral Products. Most of the photos picture research apparatus, but a small number include identified employees. This photo collection is not yet digitized, but contact library [at] nist.gov (library[at]nist[dot]gov) for physical access to this collection or for more information.