§8-16-5. Custody of state standards; duties of Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries as to standards.

(a) The state standards of weights and measures shall be kept by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries in a safe and suitable place in his office, from which they shall not be removed except for repairs.

(b) With respect to the state standards of weights and measures, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries shall have the following duties:

(1) He shall maintain such standards in good order.

(2) He shall replace such standards as are incorrect and purchase such additional standards as shall be necessary to complete and make up a complete standard of weights and measures.

(3) He shall purchase such apparatus as shall be found necessary to a proper prosecution of the work of the office, to be known as working standards.

(4) He shall compare such working standards with the state standards at such times as he shall deem necessary to prove the accuracy of the working standards; and

(5) He shall keep a record of all standards and other apparatus belonging to the state for the purposes of this chapter.

(6) The commissioner shall maintain traceability of the state standards to the national bureau of standards.

(c) Weights and measures that are traceable to the U.S. prototype standards supplied by the federal government, or approved as being satisfactory by the national bureau of standards, shall be the state primary standards of weights and measures, and shall be maintained in such calibration as prescribed by the national bureau of standards. All secondary standards may be prescribed by the commissioner and shall be verified upon their initial receipt, and as often thereafter as deemed necessary by the commissioner.

(Ag. Code 1927, §231; Code 1940, T. 2, §590; Acts 1979, No. 79-162, p. 268.)