ABSTRACT
The surrogate laboratories project began with the premise that a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) certified calibration could be performed by the user in the user’s laboratory. With this goal in mind, a very informal low-budget project was undertaken to expose the technical difficulties that lay in the way. Taking into account the effects of temperature and humidity would require additional support. It was decided to supply the participants with a computer, software, thermometer, barometer, humidity sensor, mass standards, documentation, and other items. The participant was required to provide a laboratory, the mass comparator, and a skilled operator. Sufficient information for setting up the hardware and initiating the software control of the measurement process was provided in written documentation. In hardware content, the package remained unchanged in function other than the discontinued use of the active soaking plate with the temperature controller.
