London―"You're in luck!" says Stephen Downes. An unlikely looking treasure is making a rare foray into open air. Perched on the pan of a balance in the U.K.'s National Physical Laboratory is a squat cylinder of metal, some 4 centimeters tall, with a faint number 18 engraved on its dull gray side. This unprepossessing lump is so precious that it spends most of its life locked away in a bombproof subterranean vault. That's because "kilogram-18," as it is known, is the ultimate arbiter of every weighing scale in Britain. Like its clutch of siblings around the world (the U.S. equivalent, kilogram-20, is converted into pounds), number 18 is ruled over by a chunk of metal in Paris. Dubbed "Le Grand K," this is the granddaddy of weights the world over, the literal embodiment of the kilogram, and it has been removed from its heavily guarded chamber just three times in 120 years.
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机译：伦敦-“你真幸运！”斯蒂芬·唐斯（Stephen Downes）说。看起来不大可能的宝藏正在罕见地进入户外。英国国家物理实验室的天平底盘上放着一个矮矮的金属圆柱体，高约4厘米，灰暗的一面刻着淡淡的数字18。这种无用的肿块是如此珍贵，以至于它的大部分时间都被锁在一个防弹地下地下室中。这是因为众所周知，“公斤18”是英国每个秤的终极仲裁者。就像它在世界各地的兄弟姐妹一样（相当于20公斤的美国公斤换算为磅），巴黎的18号金属被一大块金属所统治。被称为“ Le Grand K”，这是举重的祖父，是公斤的字面意思，在120年中，它已从其严密的防护室中移出了三次。
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