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The Convention of the Metre (Convention du Mètre) is a treaty that created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), an intergovernmental organization under the authority of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) and the supervision of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM). The BIPM acts in matters of world metrology, particularly concerning the demand for measurement standards of ever increasing accuracy, range and diversity, and the need to demonstrate equivalence between national measurement standards.
The Convention was signed in Paris in 1875 by representatives of seventeen nations. As well as founding the BIPM and laying down the way in which the activities of the BIPM should be financed and managed, the Metre Convention established a permanent organizational structure for member governments to act in common accord on all matters relating to units of measurement.
The Convention, modified slightly in 1921, remains the basis of international agreement on units of measurement. The BIPM now has fifty-five Member States, including all the major industrialized countries.
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