COMPARE, STANDARDIZE AND SETTLE AGREEMENT - ON SOME USUAL METROLOGICAL PROBLEMS

Historical and sociological studies have shown that precision measurem ent and metrology play an important social and scientific role. This p aper contrasts the dynamics of four metrological configurations. The f irst concerns an instrument for routine car repair. It displays the ne twork of institutions, conventions and procedures allowing for the con servation of legal metrological precision. Such resources are not yet available during the genesis of an instrument. Very often in scientifi c laboratories, instruments and their metrology are elaborated simulta neously. The three other case studies analyze this construction by loo king at ordinary metrological operations: the collective elaboration o f standards; the translation of scientific instruments in metrological laboratories; and the intercomparison of instruments. It appears that the diversity and heterogeneity of resources associated with metrolog ical networks result in different ways of articulating the natural and conventional character of precision measurement.