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The French kilogram is used to set the weight of all other kilograms.
For 128,000US dollars anyone can come to Paris and set their weights in
accordance with the French. This has recently become unnecessary because
the International Committee of Weights and Measures travels to France
twice a year, pays the fees, and makes its calibrated kilograms
available to the nations of the world. The United States and Britain
share a kilogram. This kilogram is in almost constant travel between
Washington and London. Flying this weight back and forth across the
Atlantic is done for diplomatic rather than sceintific reasons. Most
international corporations set their weights in accordance with the
Frankfurt or Tokyo kilograms. These two weights are within a hundred
billionths of a gram of each other and are set in relation to the Denver
kilogram. The Denver kilogram is maintained by the US Air Force in
western Colorado. This kilogram is continually monitored on an atomic
scale that is calibrated in accordance with the California gram. The
California gram is made of gold and was originally used in San Francisco
to settle the disputes of the forty-niners during the gold-rush years.