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

THE CRUSADE FOR STANDARDIZATION 261
of grade and quality of certain of its products, such as clinical thermometers,
surgical gauze, fuel oils, textiles, and metal products, for greater consumer
acceptance. Manufacturers wanted labels to identify or guarantee commodi-
ties complying with the standards they had adopted, and consumers wanted
the information and protection thus provided. The labeling was approved
and by the early thirties over a hundred. trade associations were utilizing
labels to identify products that conformed to commercial standards.117
If there was substance to the idea that standardization would contrib-
ute to a new industrial revolution, as Secretary Hoover hoped, it was attenu-
ated by its voluntary nature. The reluctance of even a few members in a
trade group was sufficient to bar any consideration of joint agreement, and
as often as not carefully worked out programs suddenly collapsed at the
point of Moreover, despite unsparing publicity and the exertions
of such trade-wide organizations as the National Association for Purchasing
Agents, gaps in agreement and compliance spread.
The flaw in the standardization program appeared early, and of all
places at the Bureau itself. Ray Hudson, setting up the simplified practice
division at Commerce, requested Royal typewriters with elite type for his
staff. Dr. Burgess demurred, pointing out that more than 20 years before
the Bureau had settled on the L. C. Smith, for its superior construction, and
pica as the most legible type. This machine was standard throughout the
Bureau. Badgered for over a month by Hudson, Dr. Burgess at last gave
in and signed Hudson's purchase order. On an attached note he wrote:
"Your office is the only one in the Bureau of Standards that appears to insist
M105, "Certification plan significance and scope: its application to federal specifications
and commodity standards" (1930); NBS Annual Report 1931, p. 38. Commercial
standards run from CS1, "Clinical thermometers" (1928) through current numbers
above CS260.
Earlier proposals by industry to certify its products, particularly those for export, are
reported in NBS Box 21 (1909) ; NBS Annual Report 1915, p. 147; and Hearings * * *
1917 (Feb. 2, 1916), pp. 989—990.
Daizell, Gait, and Hudson, pp. 24—27.
So consuming had the Bureau's standardization work for the Government become by the
middle of the decade that a member of the Visiting Committee queried Burgess about
the real aims of the Bureau. Was its purpose supporting new and scientific
work, as the PTR was doing abroad, or "standardizing old products"? The VC report
to the Secretary of Commerce in 1926 expressed concern over the demands on the
Bureau for this standardization testing, saying it was crowding out work on basic stand-
ards and research, "especially the determination of constants and the discovery of new
laws and relations, which may be applied by scientific workers aüd more particularly by
industry." Letter, W. R. Whitney to GKB, Nov. 20, 1925, and report, VC to Secretary
of Commerce, Dec. 4, 1926 ("General Correspondence Files of the Director, 1945—1955,"
Box 6).