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

STANDARDS FOR PUBLIC UTILITIES 123
ing existing between the leaders of the financial and industrial world, on the
one hand, and the great body of the American people, on the other."
Dr. Stratton, however, did not feel that these scattered investigations
by the Bureau in a few of the public utilities were enough. Standards of
service and safety applied to all the utilities, he told Redfield, the new Secre-
tary of Commerce, and could best be provided by making the Bureau the
central "place of reference and * * * clearing house for scientific and tech-
nical matters pertaining to the public utilities.""
The Secretary agreed, and with his support Stratton proposed to
Congress a large-scale study covering the public interest in all utilities, in-
cluding gas, water, light and power, telephone, and street railways. It would
include "the study of public relations questions, the preparation of specifica-
tions regarding the quality of service, methods of testing and inspection em-
ployed by municipalities and commissions, safety rules for use by the utility
companies to safeguard their employees and the public, and the collection
and distribution of information by published papers and through
correspondence."
With little debate, Congress in 1914 appropriated a special fund of
$25,000 for the investigation of public utility standards. (By 1920 the
annual appropriation exceeded $100,000 and continued at that level into
the 1930's.) To allay the misapprehensions and continuing hostility of
the utilities, the Bureau in articles, talks, and through friendly editors
assured industry that its work was "not inquisitorial * * * but is thoroughly
scientific, being handled by impartial engineers concerned only in the study
of economic problems." 46
With its congressional appropriation and, by inference, the directive
to proceed, the Bureau began the preparation of a circular (4 years
after that.for the gas. industry) on-uniform standards for electric service.
Thirty-three States and the District of Columbia, in many cases with the
help of the Bureau, had already enacted laws regulating electrical service
to some degree or another; evidence, said the Bureau circular, that "it is
now generally recognized that the supply of electrical service is a natural
monopoly and should be regulated." The standards proposed, the circular
Senator Root, quoted in Rosa's article, "The function of research in the regulation of
natural monopolies," Science, 37, 579 (1913).
"See letter, SWS to Director, Department of Public Works, Philadelphia, Dec. 9, 1913
(NBS Box 4, AGC).
"NBS Annual Report 1915, p. 60; SWS letter of Mar. 10, 1914, inserted in Hear-
ings * * * 1915 (Jan. 27, 1914), pp. 977—980.
"Herbert T. Wade, "The NBS and standards for public utilities," Eng. Mag. 49, 240
(1915). Wade was science and technology editor for the New International Encyclo-
pedia and author of many books and articles on weights and measures, the metric sys-
tern, electricity, and popular science.