---
type: Organization
title: The Institute
description: Kelvarra's national measurement and standards body, founded by Maren
  Aldervane in Port Ilvess.
tags:
- kelvarra
- the-institute
- port-ilvess
- measurement
- standards
resource: raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md
aliases:
- AINM
- Aldervane Institute for Natural Measurement
- Maren's house
timestamp: '2026-07-16T15:09:31Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

# The Institute

The Institute — formally the Aldervane Institute for Natural Measurement (AINM)[^s11] — is the Republic of Kelvarra's measurement and standards body, founded by [Maren Aldervane](../persons/maren-aldervane.md) in [Port Ilvess](../misc/port-ilvess.md).[^s1] The Almanac describes it as "the Republic's scientific establishment and its quiet pride."[^s11]

## Founding

By Aldervane's own account, she founded the Institute in the spring of 1949: the Port Ilvess harbour board let her use the two driest rooms of the [Old Customs House](../misc/old-customs-house.md) on a handshake, and she carried her trunk of instruments up its stairs and screwed a brass plate to the door.[^s1] There was no ceremony — "a plate on a door, a barometer on a wall, and a woman with a kettle" — and for its first year the Institute was, in her words, "the whole of natural measurement in the [Republic of Kelvarra](../misc/republic-of-kelvarra.md)."[^s1]

> [!CONTRADICTION]
> Maren Aldervane's memoir states she founded the Institute in the spring of 1949[^s1], but the [Kelvarra Almanac (1998)](../objects/the-kelvarra-almanac-1998.md) gives the founding year as 1952[^s2].

By the Almanac's account, the Institute kept the Old Customs House for its first decades before it removed in 1988 to the purpose-built campus on Corran Hill above the town, where it remains.[^s12]

## Charter

That same summer, Aldervane wrote the Institute's founding charter herself, at her kitchen table. Beyond the ordinary provisions (a council, an audit, a winding-up clause), she added three of her own:[^s3]

- The Institute answers for its numbers to nobody but the numbers.
- Any islander may have a weight or a watch proved for the price of the tea drunk while waiting.[^s18]
- The Institute is permanently forbidden from patenting any instrument it makes — "a standard you may not freely copy is not a standard, it is a toll gate." Lawyers warned the clause would ruin the Institute.[^s3]

## Staff

[Tomas Ferrick](../persons/tomas-ferrick.md) joined the Institute in 1958 as a clockmaker; he built the clock in the harbour tower, described as "his answer to the tide tables."[^s4]

## Standards and the Aldervane Primer

By its own standard textbook, the *[Aldervane Primer of Natural Measurement](../objects/the-aldervane-primer-of-natural-measurement.md)*, the Institute is the standard first text of not just itself but of every school in the Republic.[^s6][^s13]

The Primer credits the Institute with pinning down Kelvarra's fundamental constants: the [speed of light](../concepts/speed-of-light.md), the [speed of sound](../concepts/speed-of-sound.md), and the [boiling point of water](../concepts/boiling-point-of-water.md).[^s7]

At the centre of the Institute's Corran Hill campus runs [the Meridian](../objects/the-meridian.md), a bronze bearing line every survey in the Republic references.[^s8] Every barometer the Institute owns or sells is proved against the KSB[^s17], "the oldest continuous calibration series in the Republic, unbroken since the founding generation"; the KSB's readings underpin Kelvarran weather science, and the tide work of the BTS relies on them at every station.[^s9] The Institute's own standard weights are of gold, headed by [the standard kilogram](../objects/the-standard-kilogram.md) kept under glass in its collection.[^s10]

## Geology

The Institute's geologists map the old volcanic flows of [Mount Sarn](../misc/mount-sarn.md) and keep an affectionate eye on the [saltglass](../objects/saltglass.md) shard beds there, said to grade their own fieldwork by the pocketfuls they bring home; a visiting naturalist reports having seen their specimen drawers at the Corran Hill campus.[^s19]

## National standards

By the Almanac's account, the Institute keeps the national standards of weight, length, and pressure; maintains the [Brann Tidal Survey](../projects/brann-tidal-survey.md)'s gauges at nine stations around the archipelago[^s13][^s16]; and its [Instrument Works](../organizations/instrument-works.md) supplies barometers and chronometers of a quality the mainland pays dearly for.[^s13] Kelvarra's weights and measures are metric, and have been kept, proved, and certified since mid-century by the Institute, now on Corran Hill, whose standards are the law of the Republic.[^s15]

## Later history

Aldervane retired from the directorship when the daily climb became too much, and has since watched the Institute grow "past my imagining of it."[^s5][^s14] By the Almanac's account, Dr Aldervane directed the Institute until her retirement and set her stamp on it so thoroughly that islanders still call it simply "Maren's house."[^s14]

## See also
- [Maren Aldervane](../persons/maren-aldervane.md)
- [Tomas Ferrick](../persons/tomas-ferrick.md)
- [Port Ilvess](../misc/port-ilvess.md)
- [Old Customs House](../misc/old-customs-house.md)
- [Republic of Kelvarra](../misc/republic-of-kelvarra.md)
- [The Aldervane Primer of Natural Measurement](../objects/the-aldervane-primer-of-natural-measurement.md)
- [The Meridian](../objects/the-meridian.md)
- [The Standard Kilogram](../objects/the-standard-kilogram.md)
- [The Kelvarra Almanac (1998)](../objects/the-kelvarra-almanac-1998.md)
- [Brann Tidal Survey](../projects/brann-tidal-survey.md)
- [Instrument Works](../organizations/instrument-works.md)
- [Mount Sarn](../misc/mount-sarn.md)
- [Saltglass](../objects/saltglass.md)

## Sources
[^s1]: [raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md](../../raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md), lines 26-31 — founding of the Institute, spring 1949 (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s2]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 46-47 — founding date given as 1952 (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s3]: [raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md](../../raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md), lines 33-40 — the founding charter (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s4]: [raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md](../../raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md), lines 42-47 — Tomas Ferrick joins and builds the harbour tower clock (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s5]: [raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md](../../raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md), lines 61-64 — retirement (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s6]: [raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md](../../raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md), lines 3-4 — the Primer as standard first text of the Institute and the Republic's schools (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s7]: [raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md](../../raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md), lines 9-11 — the Institute's purpose of pinning down constants (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s8]: [raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md](../../raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md), lines 54-57 — the Meridian's location and orientation (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s9]: [raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md](../../raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md), lines 62-66 — barometer calibration against the KSB and the BTS's tide work (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s10]: [raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md](../../raw/aldervane-primer-extract.md), lines 40-44 — gold standard weights and the standard kilogram (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s11]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 46-47 — the Institute's full name, AINM, and the Almanac's characterization of it (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s12]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 47-49 — the Old Customs House tenure and the 1988 move to the Corran Hill campus (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s13]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 49-52 — national standards, the BTS gauges, the Instrument Works, and the Primer's role in schools (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s14]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 53-54 — Aldervane's directorship until retirement and the "Maren's house" nickname (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s15]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 41-42 — metric weights and measures kept and certified by the Institute (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s16]: [raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md](../../raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md), lines 12-19 — the BTS's nine stations, corroborating the Institute's account (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s17]: [raw/instrument-works-catalogue-1992.md](../../raw/instrument-works-catalogue-1992.md), lines 35-36 — the Instrument Works catalogue corroborating barometers proved against the KSB before sale (ingested 2026-07-15)
[^s18]: [raw/instrument-works-catalogue-1992.md](../../raw/instrument-works-catalogue-1992.md), lines 42-44 — the Instrument Works catalogue corroborating free watch proving under the founding charter (ingested 2026-07-15)
[^s19]: [raw/saltglass-and-the-shore.md](../../raw/saltglass-and-the-shore.md), lines 41-44 — the Institute's geologists and their specimen drawers at Corran Hill (ingested 2026-07-16)
