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

206 THE WAR YEARS (1917-19)
large-scale production, might be readied within 3 months if the work was
pushed, and Stratton, with Abbot's accord, assigned another $10,000 for its
construction. Goddard, meanwhile, had designed still other rocket weapons:
a launching device for firing a sequence of rockets, a rocket trench mortar,
and a "hand-supported recoilless gun"—prototyp.e of the bazooka—capable
of firing shells from a tube for distances of 400 to 700 yards.
Reports of the first tests of the rocket gun in July 1918 were good, but
Dr. Stratton's efforts to find scientists and technicians through the Smithson-
ian to assist Goddard with further development were unavailing. Other war-
time projects, with more immediate prospects of utilization, occupied every
trained man in sight.'15 Goddard's project was shelved.
Destined for the next war too 'was the automatic rifle invented by
John C. Garand. Originally submitted to Thomas Edison's Naval Consult-
ing Board, the model was referred to Army Ordnance who sent it' to the
Bureau "to look over" in the summer of 1918. As received, it was "exceed-
ingly crude and inoperative," Stratton said later, but its conception was
sound, it had been made by "an excellent mechanician," and Stratton him.
self took personal charge of its development. After more than 6 months
of work in the Bureau shops, the rifle was successfully fired. At that point
litigation over the patent rights arose and with the war over the War Depart-
ment lost interest. The Bureau returned the rifle to Mr. Garand"6 -
Day-to-day life at the Bureau during the war was hectic and dominated
by a sense of urgency, but the brevity of this country's involvement and
the distance from the battlefield prevented rise of the tensions that were to
mark life in the Second World War. Except for the hush-hush designing of
the Liberty engine, of Dr. Briggs' stable-zenith device for the Navy (to
synchronize the training of.big guns, independent of the pitch and roll of the
ship), and of some aspects of sound.ranging apparatus, the Bureau was
concerned with few classified projects. Apart from observing routine security
measures, the Bureau staff and visitors came and went with a minimum of
surveillance.
Although the Bureau had an officer of the day and a watch, the absence
of vigilance was illustrated in an unscheduled visit made by the President and
Mrs. Wilson, accompanied by Secretary Redfield, out Connecticut Avenue
one Sunday afternoon to see the novel all-metal airplane sent to the Bureau
for structural tests. The doors of West building where it sat were locked,
" Letter, C. G. Abbott to SWS, July 25, 1918, and attached correspondence (NBS Box 10,
IG). See Goddard's classic monograph on rockets, "A method of reaching extreme
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (Pubi. 2540), 71, 1—69 (1919) -
116 Memo, SWS to Secretary of Commerce, Mar. 25, 1921, and attached correspondence
(NBS Box 12, IN).