Technikatörténeti szemle 10. (1978)

A MÉRÉS ÉS A MÉRTÉKEK AZ EMBER MŰVELŐDÉSÉBEN című konferencián Budapesten, 1976. április 27–30-án elhangzott előadások II. - Rotter, F.: A hitelesítő szolgálat fejlődése Ausztriában az elmúlt 200 évben

F. ROTTER* 200 YEARS LEGAL METROLOGY IN AUSTRIA It was in 976, a thousand years ago, when the county of Austria was founded. This new county was ruled by the margraves of Babenberg. I think, the beginning of legal metrology was not very later than the foundation of Austria. In 1198 the municipal council of Vienna fined people with five pounds of money who used wrong weights and measures. In 1221 the first status for the city of Vienna was enacted by Austria's Herzog Leopold VI, the Glorious. This status states severe punishment against the use of wrong weights and measures. About the year 1250 the ,,Backerschupfen" became customary. If a baker's bread was found too light, the baker was put into a little cage, and baker and cage were dipped a few times into dirty water. About 1450 two yard-standards of iron were fixed on the wall of the St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. The small one has a length of 775,3 mm; it was the wool-yard. The large one is 897,8 mm long, and is the linen-yard. Presumably there was already a verification office in Vienna at that time. But we cannot consider everything that happened within the next 300 years in Austria in the field of legal metrology, it is quite a lot. Let us skip to the year 1740, when Maria Theresia became empress and ruled until 1780. Within those 40 years legal metrology in Austria was created in a modern sense. The laws and acts of this period were in force until 1876, when the metric system became obligatory. Maria Theresia, the daughter of Charles VI of Austria, followed her father in the rule of Austria, who had died without any male successor. But Austria was no real political system in the 18th century. It was a bundle of kingdoms, like Hungary and Bohemia, of archduchies, of duchies and of counties, which were all united by the person of the sovereign. Though Maria Theresia was queen, archduchess, marchioness and countess, she has never been a real empress. She was just the wife of the German emperor Franz I of Lothringen. Although a true sovereign, she ruled in the manner of a good housewife without any philosophy, and she had an excellent feeling for the necessities of today without forgetting the needs of to-morrow. This feeling enabled her to find suitable men for her staff. In the field of legal metrology this man was the Jesuit Father Dr. Joseph Franz, an excellent expert in the fields of mathematics, astronomy and experimental physics. * Bundesamt fur Eich- und ^ermessurigswesen, Wien.