[8] A series of conferences in France between 1870 and 1875 led to the signing of the Metre Convention and to the permanent establishment of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, abbreviated BIPM after the French name.
For several years before the Mendenhall order was actually issued, the Office of Weights and Measures was "practically forced" to use the metric standards because of their superior stability, and because they were better designed for carrying out precision comparisons.
[12] The Office found that the conversion tables in the 1866 law were satisfactory and used them to derive customary length and mass from the metric standards.
[1] Another motivation for the order was that later that year, in August 1893, an International Electrical Congress would be held in connection with the World's Fair in Chicago.
Associated with the Congress would be a "Chamber of Delegates", officially organized for the purpose of coming to an international agreement on units of electrical quantities.
[13]The definitions of 1893 remained unchanged for 66 years, but increasing precision in measurements gradually made the differences in the standards in use in English-speaking countries important.