NIST Handbook 44 was first published in 1949, having been preceded by similar handbooks of various designations and in several forms, beginning in 1918. NIST Handbook 44 is published in its entirety each year following the Annual Meeting of the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM). The Committee on Specifications and Tolerances of the NCWM developed the 2017 edition with the assistance of the Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This handbook includes amendments endorsed by the 101da National Conference on Weights and Measures during its Annual Meeting in 2016. The purpose of these technical requirements is to eliminate from use, weights and measures and weighing and measuring devices that give readings that are false, that are of such construction that they are faulty (that is, that are not reasonably permanent in their adjustment or will not repeat their indications correctly), or that facilitate the perpetration of fraud, without prejudice to apparatus that conforms as closely as practicable to the official standards.

This handbook is designed to be a working tool for the weights & measures official, the equip. mfr., installer, & repairman. It conforms to the concept of the primary use of metric measurements by citing metric units before inch-pound units where both units appear together, & placing separate sections containing requirements in metric units before corresponding sections containing requirements in inch-pound units. Covers: liquid-measuring devices, milk meters, water meters, mass flow meters, liquid measures, graduates, dry measures, odometers, taximeters, etc. Tables.

NIST Handbook 44 includes specifications, tolerances, and other technical requirements for weighing and measuring devices. These requirements are intended to encourage the design, installation, testing, and use of weighing and measuring devices that provide for accurate, repeatable measurements; facilitate clear and transparent transactions for buyer and seller; and do not facilitate fraud. NIST Handbook 44 is adopted by many state, local, and some federal weights and measures authorities to apply to commercial weighing and measuring equipment and associated equipment and for use in applications for law enforcement and the collection of statistical information by government agencies. NIST has a statutory responsibility for "cooperation with the states in securing uniformity of weights and measures laws and methods of inspection" and publishes this and other NIST Handbooks in partial fulfillment of this responsibility. NIST Handbook 44 was first published in 1949, having been preceded by similar handbooks of various designations and in several forms, beginning in 1918; the handbook is now typically published on an annual basis. This 2023 edition includes amendments made through the Committee on Specifications and Tolerances of the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) with technical guidance from the Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and input from weights and measures officials and industry representatives. These amendments were adopted by the NCWM at its 107th Annual Meeting in July 2022.