History of the Legal Metrology Service
The Legal Metrology Service was established by the
Metrology Act of 1996, and replaced the former Weights and Measures Service.
Background
Metrology – the science of measurement – has existed in one form or another almost since the dawn of human history.
It originated at local level, using rudimentary standards such as the span of the hand or the length of the arm. By the start of the thirteenth century, the idea of regulating weights and measures by law had begun to take root.
Timeline – key dates
- 1215 - The Magna Carta proclaimed: ‘There shall be but one measure throughout the Realm…'.
- 1351 - Weights and measures began to be compared against set standards.
- 1433 - Goods began to be stamped with the correct weights and measures.
- 1878 - Various laws were consolidated in the Weights and Measures Act.
- 1897 - The use of the metric system was legalized for trade use.
- 1904 – A law was passed requiring type approval of weights and measures and weighing and measuring instruments.
- 1922 - The Weights and Measure Service came under the control of the newly founded Irish Free State.
- 1928 - General regulations were introduced in Ireland laying down the tolerable errors allowed for different types of measuring instruments.
- Pre-1980 - For decades, the role of enforcing weights and measures regulations was the responsibility of two local authorities, Dublin and Dun Laoghaire, and in the rest of the state, the Gardaí, who employed a special grade of Garda sergeant called ‘an ex-officio inspector of weights and measures’.
- 1980 - The Packaged Goods (Quantity Control) Act, 1980, was adopted. At this point, a new force of inspectors dealing specifically with the contents of pre-packaged goods began to work directly out of the Department of Industry and Commerce.