In the 1960s, the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) decided to make another distribution of standard weights and measures and standard measuring devices to the states using federal monies. Unlike the standards distributed in the Nineteenth Century by the Office of Weights and Measures which were made in-house, most of the state reference standards disbursed at this time were constructed by private companies using NBS specifications and prototypes and then adjusted and calibrated at NBS. Each state that received the standards had to meet requirements that it provide a suitable building for housing a metrology laboratory and that it provide trained metrologists to perform calibrations. NIST assisted them in meeting these conditions by providing architectural guidance for the construction of the laboratories as well as training for state laboratory personnel.
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