fifty-one provided, however, that the officers provided therein to be chosen by the city council, may be chosen during the present municipal year. 4. Each town sealer to have com- 16. County and town treasurers shall keep sets of weights, measures and balances. How the same shall be made. Standards shall be furnished by commonwealth. 17. 18. County, city and town treasurers shall provide places for keeping the same. 19. Shall have care of same, keep them in repair, and replace them when lost, &c. 20. Penalty for neglect. 6. Sealer of weights and meas- 21. 23. 24. Town and city standards shall be sealed once in ten years. Penalty. Sealers accountable to towns for preservation of standards. Penalty for neglect of sealers. Vibrating steel-yards allowed to be used, if sealed. 25. Provisions respecting measures for salt and grain. 9. Description of same. 10. Of seals to be used. 11. Treasurer to appoint deputy, 26. and to make duplicates of "Hundred weight" to be con. strued the net hundred. standards for his use. 27. 12. Fee for scaling. 13. Sealers to give notice annually, Public weighers to weigh according to the preceding section. STATUTES. sealers of measures. 1. The Revised Statutes, chapter 15, section 38, pro- Appointment of vide that the selectmen of each town shall, in the month of weights and March or April annually, appoint, unless the inhabitants R. S. 15, § 38. themselves, at their annual meeting, shall choose the same, one sealer of weights and measures; and any other number which the inhabitants shall at their annual meeting, vote to have appointed. R. S. 30, § 12. 2. The Revised Statutes, chapter 30, section 12, pro- Same subject. vide, that one or more suitable persons shall be annually appointed in each town, in the manner provided in the fifteenth chapter, to be sealers of weights and measures for such town. Ibid, § 13. 3. The thirteenth section of the same chapter provides, How removable. that the selectmen may remove from office any sealer of weights and measures in their town, and may fill all vacancies occasioned by such removal or otherwise. 1 er to have com standards. 4. The fourteenth section of the same chapter provided, Each town sealthat, when any town shall vote to have more than one plete sets of sealer of weights and measures, the treasurer of the town Ibid, § 14. shall, at the expense thereof, procure and preserve the necessary additional seals, weights and measures specified in said chapter; so that each sealer in such town may have complete sets of the same. town treasurers Ibid, § 5, 8. 5. The fifth section provided, that the county treasurers County and shall keep a seal for sealing town standards, and preserve to keep seals. the same and the eighth section provided, that every town treasurer shall keep a seal, for sealing the weights and measures of the inhabitants of the town. 6. By the statute of 1817, c. 50, it was provided, that sealer of it shall be the duty of the sealer of weights and measures, measures shall 1 Similar provisions to those stated in sections 1-4 in the text, were contained in stat. 1799, c. 60, which although afterwards repealed by the Revised Statutes, was in force at the time of the passage of the statute of 1821, c. 110, (City Charter.) By § 13 of the last mentioned statute, all the powers theretofore vested in the selectmen of the town of Boston, were vested in the mayor and aldermen. See § xx, p. 13, ante. weights and keep a house or office, where weights, meas ures, &c., shall be sent to be sealed. 1817, 50, 1. 1821, 110, 1. Sealer shall go to houses, stores, and shops, of such as neglect to bring in weights, meas shall seal the same. 1817, 50, $2. 1821, 110, 1. within and for the town1 of Boston, to be provided with a house, or office, and to which all persons using scale beams, steelyards, weights or measures within the town of Boston, in trade, for the purpose of buying or selling any article, shall be required, after notice thereof shall have been given in two or more of the newspapers published within the said town to send annually their scale beams, steelyards, weights and measures, for the purpose of having the same tried, proved and sealed. 2 7. It was also provided by the same act, that the said sealer is authorized and required, to go to the houses, stores and shops of all such merchants, innholders, traders, retailures, &c., and ers, and of all other persons living or residing within the said town of Boston, using beams, steelyards, weights or measures, for the purpose of buying and selling, as shall neglect to bring or send the same to the house or office of the sealer aforesaid and there, at the said houses, stores and shops, on having entered the same with the assent of the occupant thereof, to try, prove and seal the same, or to send the same to his said house or office, to be tried, proved and sealed, and shall be entitled to demand and receive there expenses. Penalty for refusal to have Double fees, and for, double the fees he would be entitled to demand and receive for the same, if such beams, steelyards, weights and measures, had been sent to his said house or office; with all expenses attending the removal and transportation of the same; and if any such person or persons shall weights, meas- refuse to have his, her or their beams, steelyards, weights or measures, so tried, proved and sealed, the same not having been tried, proved and sealed, within one year preceding such refusal, he, she or they shall forfeit and pay ten dollars for each offence; the one moiety to the use of the said town of Boston, the other moiety of the same to the sealer. ures, &c., sealed. 1 See I, p. 2, ante. 2 This section referred, for the manner of sealing, and fees to be demanded, to stat. 1799, c. 60, which was repealed by the Revised Statutes. Its provisions, with several modifications, were incorporated in R. S. c. 30, and several additional statutes upon the subject have been passed. See the subsequent sections. Whether §§ 6 and 7 in the text were not in effect repealed by the Revised Statutes, c. 30,―quære. same without ing same. And if any such person or persons shall use any beam, Penalty for using steelyard, weight or measure, which shall not conform to sealing. the public standard, the same not having been tried, proved and sealed, within one year preceding such use of the same, he, she or they shall forfeit and pay ten dollars for each offence; the one moiety to the use of said town of Boston, and the other moiety of the same to the informer. And if Penalty for alterany such person or persons shall alter any beam, steelyard, weight or measure, after the same shall have been tried, proved and sealed, so as that the same shall, by such alteration be made not to conform to the public standard, and shall fraudulently make use of the same, he, she or they shall forfeit and pay fifty dollars for each offence, the one moiety to the use of the said town of Boston, and the other moiety of the same to the informer. weights, meas ances. 8. The several avoirdupois and troy weights and bal- Standard ances, procured from the government of the United States ures, and balfor this commonwealth, by the commissioners appointed for 1847, 242, § 1. that purpose in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, and also all weights, measures, and balances, that have since been received from the said government, for the purpose of being used as standards, shall hereafter be used as the sole authorized public standard of weights and measures of this commonwealth, and shall be in the To be in care care and custody of the treasurer of the commonwealth. and custody of treasurer of commonwealth. same. 9. The said balances, weights, and measures shall be Description of preserved by the treasurer and used as public standards, Ibid, § 2. and are as follows, namely: one half bushel, one wine gallon, one wine quart, one wine pint, one wine half-pint, one yard measure; also, a set of avoirdupois weights consisting of fifty, twenty-five, twenty, ten, five, four, three, two, one pounds, and from eight ounces down to one dram; also, one set of troy weights, from five thousand pennyweights down to half a grain, and from one pound down to the ten-thousandth part of an ounce; and three sets of balances. used. 10. The seals, used by the various sealers of weights of seals to be and measures, shall hereafter be as follows, to wit: by the Ibid, $ 3. treasurer of the commonwealth and his deputy, the letters C. M.; by the county treasurers, the initial and final let Treasurer to ap- R. S. 30, § 4. Fee for sealing. 1847, 242, $4. Sealers, to give notice, annually, weights, &c. Ibid, $5. R. S. 30, § 16. ters of their respective counties, followed by the letters Co.; by town and city sealers, the name of their respective towns and cities, or such intelligible abbreviation thereof as the selectmen of the towns, or the mayor and aldermen of cities, may prescribe. 11. The treasurer of the commonwealth shall keep the authorized public standard weights and measures in the state treasury; and he shall cause duplicates thereof to be made, which shall be kept by a deputy to be appointed by him; the said deputy shall be under oath, and shall give bonds for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office: and the said duplicates may be used by the said deputy for sealing weights and measures, in like manner, as the standards kept in the state treasury may be used by the treasurer, for the like purpose. 12. Each sealer of weights and measures, including the state deputy and county treasurer, shall receive a fee of three cents for every weight, measure, scale, beam or balance, by him sealed, except platform-balances; and a reasonable compensation for all repairs, alterations, and adjustments thereof, which may be necessary for him to make. 13. Every sealer of weights and measures shall, in the and to seal all month of May, annually, give public notice, by advertising in some newspaper, or posting up notifications in different parts of the town, stating the time and place when and where he will attend such of the inhabitants, as live within the limits described in the respective notifications, for every inhabitant of his town or city who uses weights and measures for the purpose of buying or selling, and for public weighers who have the same, to bring in their measures, weights, balances, scales, and beams, to be examined, adjusted, and sealed; and he shall forthwith adjust and seal all weights and measures brought to him for that purpose. And he shall deface and destroy all such as cannot be brought to the just standard. And every person who shall presume to sell by any other weights, measures, scales, beams, or balances, than those which have been sealed as before provided, or as provided in the following section, shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding twenty dollars. Penalty for sell ing by weights, measures, &c., not sealed. |