By virtue of the Metric Convention signed at Paris, May 20, 1875, the States of Germany, Argentine Republic, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, United States, France, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia. Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, and Venezuela, engaged to found and sustain, at common expense, an International Bureau of Weights and Measures, of which the seat should be at Sevres, near Paris. It is furthermore stipulated in that Convention, that the Bureau should perform its labors under the surveillance of an international committee, itself subject to a general Conference of weights and measures composed of all the delegates from the contracting States. This convention became operative from the first of January, 1876.