Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

92 !FOUNDJNG BUREAU OF SIANDARDS (1901-10)
requests for Strat-
ton feared for the Bureau: "Nothing .could cause the. institution to deteriorate
more quickly than to floo.d it with -routine testing. It must 4o .a certain
amount of original investigation to develop methods of meas-
uring or become second-rate institution."
Yet in addition to greater economy in Federal much
good was from the Government testing, as Stratton was well aware.
It supplying a much needed incentive to industry. The high rate of
rejection by the Bureau and the impartiality and justice of the tests thor.
ough-ly alarmed hundreds of firms goods -and materials to the
'Government. Supplying the Government was good business, and even
though the Bureau did not publish its findings by brand name, word got
a -Government contract found
he lost other contracts. Manufacturers began beating a path to the lab.
oratories on the hill for advice and help with their materials, measuring,
and testing apparatus, and methods of quality control.8°
"Scarcely a day passes," Dr. Stratton reported, "that some manu-
facturer does no.t 'visit the Bureau to learn how to measure or to secure
sta-ndards." -in many -insta-nces -the Bureau did not have the answers indus-
try sought, since no criteria existed for the products or materials in question.
'But with the -manufacturer's assistance, the Bureau would agree to under.
take the necessary research and establish the required standard. In this
manner -industry, a-nd Government agencies as well, were to provide the
kind of research -the Bureau -wanted to -do.
'The Bureau was quick to -see -the importance to the public as well as
-to '-industry of expanding its random commercial testing for the Government
into a large-scale research program that would cover as widely as possible
the range of materials and products of commerce. As early as 1905 the
Bureau reported that "numerous cases of dispute regarding the quality of
construction materials, such as iron, steel, brick, stone, cement, concrete,
etc., have been referred to the Bureau for a determination of the physical
proper-ties in question." 81 Virtually no data existed, for example, on the
tensile and compressive strength, specific gravity, and time of set of cement
and cement mortars, or on the thermal conductivity and effects of tempera-
ture upon the compression, expansion, and durability of concrete aggre-
Hearings * * * 1910 (Dec. 4, 1908), p. 177.
soAs Henry S. Carhart pointed out in Pop. Sci. Mo. 79, 209 (1911), the Government
purchased only about 1 percent of the incandescent lamps made, the other 99 percent
being sold to the general public, but Bureau testing elevated the quality for all.
"NBS Annual Report 1906, p. 15.