Metrology, Institute of

(full name, D. I. Mendeleev All-Union Research Institute of Metrology; VNIIM), located in Leningrad. Founded in 1893 as the Central Board of Weights and Measures to replace the Depot of Standard Weights and Measures, which had been in existence since 1842. The organizer and first director was D. I. Mendeleev. The fundamental charter covered research on metrology, the development and preservation of state standards, and the development of high-precision measurement methods and equipment, as well as testing equipment. From 1931 to 1934 it was called the All-Union Institute of Metrology and Standardization; it received its present name in 1934. In 1945 the name of D. I. Mendeleev was conferred on the institute, and in 1971 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

The Institute of Metrology has prepared a number of the regulations on weights and measures in effect in Russia and the USSR, has participated in the implementation of metrological reforms (1918–27), and has developed all domestic standards for the units of physical quantities. Most state standards (for reproducing the units of length, mass, electromotive force, electrical resistance, inductance, and so on) are kept and used at the institute. Its laboratories conduct research on general problems of metrology and measurements of the following kinds: mechanical, electrical, magnetic, heat and temperature, hydrodynamic, optical and light, physicochemical, and ionizing radiation. The institute includes state inspection laboratories for measurement equipment, a special design bureau, and the Etalon Experimental Plant. The institute has branches in Sverdlovsk and Tbilisi. Since 1894 it has published Trudy VNIIM (Transactions of VNIIM), which is a continuation of Vremennik Glavnoi palaty mer i vesov (Annals of the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures).