Metrological Service

a network of governmental and metrological bodies whose tasks include the provision of uniformity of measurements and standardization of measurement equipment in a country.

A metrological service standardizes the units of physical quantities and reproduces them by means of state standards, transfers the dimensions of the units to all measurement equipment used in the country, provides for governmental testing of new models of measurement equipment, inspects equipment already in use (through periodic tests and examinations), organizes a governmental system of standard reference data (collects and publishes official data on physical constants and on the properties of substances and materials), makes metrological examinations of standards, promulgates regulations and design documentation, supervises the maintenance of standards and product quality, and participates in the work of the international metrological organizations.

In the USSR the metrological service is headed by the State Committee on Standards of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and its bodies are directly subordinate to the committee. Within the ministries and departments there are departmental metrological services, which receive general procedural guidance from Gosstandart (State Standard Administration) of the USSR.

The scientific aspect of a metrological service is provided by metrologicalinstitutes, which keep standards and conduct research on problems of metrology. As of 1974 there were eleven metrological institutes and branches in the USSR. The oldest of them is the D. I. Mendeleev All-Union Research Institute of Metrology. The solution of practical problems in the metrological service is entrusted to the republic and oblast laboratories for state inspection of standards and measurement technology.

The Metrological Service of the USSR is governed by a set of standards and regulations of the state system for providing uniformity of measurements.