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

116 ELECTRICITY, RAILROADS, AND RADIO (1911-16)
about 1912, and 2 years later the first high-voltage studies.26 Other investi-
gations in Rosa's enterprising electrical division in that decade included
preparation over several years of a complete set of copper wire tables, for
the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; preliminary studies in color
photometry, a development of the gas flame standards work, later transferred
to the optics division; and photometric measurement of locomotive head.
lights, carried out at the request of several States preparing new regulations
for the railroads.27
Another kind of railroad problem came to the Bureau when the
Interstate Commerce Commission, aroused by mounting complaints, re-
quested that a study be made of railroad, elevator, grain-hopper, and other
large-capacity scales used in determining freight charges in interstate ship-
ments. Few States inspected scales, the Bureau found', and many railroads
maintained such scanty supervision over their freight scales that some were
little more than "guessing machines." As a result, railroad freight scales,
upon which more than $2 billion annually in revenues were determined, had
long been a source of bitter complaint and litigation. So high had feeling
run against the railroads, Dr. Stratton reported, that they were more than
willing to cooperate with the Bureau in order to "get right" with the public
again.28
In 1913, with an appropriation from Congress of $25,000 for 'the
investigation, the Bureau had a special railway scale test car built, hitched
it to a series of slow freights headed north, and began testing railroad scales
in the States of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. The
results matched the earlier experience with market weights and measures.
Allowing a fair tolerance for such scales, between 75 and 80 percent of the
track scales tested were candidates for outright rejection, some weighing
short by as much as 1,349 pounds with a load of 35,000 pounds and 2,459
pounds with loads of 70,000 pounds. Acquiring another test car, the
Bureau extended its investigation of scales into the Midwest and the South.29
The first high-voltage work began in a room in North building in 1911, when the
Bureau acquired 3 voltage transformers, none with a maximum voltage exceeding 2,300
volts. The Bureau's high-tension laboratory, adjoining East building and housing two
100,000-volt transformers, was completed in July 1914. Present-day surge generators
at the Bureau deliver 2 million volts. (See correspondence in NBS Blue Folder Box
80, and interviews with Dr. Silsbee.)
NBS Annual Report 1909, pp. 5, 7; Annual Report 1911, p. 8. For the extensive
correspondence on the copper wire tables program, 1910—14, see NBS Box 9, IER. Rosa's
range of interests is displayed in his article, "The work of the electrical division of the
Bureau of Standards," Science, 35, 8 (1912).
Hearings * * * 1914 (Nov. 26, 1912), pp. 305—306.
29NBS Annual Report 1912, p. 14, et seq.; Science, 37, 937 (1913); NBS C83, "Specifica-
tions for * * * railroad track scales" (1920; revised as C333, 1927). For correspond-
ence on the investigation, 1912—20, see NBS Box 20, IWS.