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I sent Alain Desrosieres Tom's message. Here is his answer : 
 
TO: Tom Stapleford 
 
Annie Cot sent me your question about the history of CPI.  It is a very 
interesting topic, with two sides 
 
1) economic theory, with for example the Irving Fisher book of 1922 
(The Making of Index Numbers) 
 
2) statistical practice in the NSIs 
You can look (if you don't know it already) at : Kendall M.G. : 
"Studies in the History of Probability and Statistics, XXI. The early 
history of index numbers". Review of the International Statistical 
Institute,Vol. 37, 1969.   There is a very good bibliography. 
 
You surely know the book : Duncan and Shelton, Revolution in US 
Govt Statistics, 1926-1976, (US dept of Commerce, 1978) in which there are  
many informations about the history of CPI. 
 
There would be a lot of things to see about these questions : uses of 
CPI (indexation of wages, national accounts, deflation of vaues by prices 
to have volumes, etc...)and technics : coverage, weightings, Paasche vs 
Laspeyre, etc.... 
 
For the collect of data, there are two parts : household budget 
surveys for the weightings, observations of prices. Both are interesting. 
 
If you read French, I can send you a paper I wrote about the history 
of household budget surveys. 
 
Alain Desrosičres 
       
 
Annie L. Cot 
 
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