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

RESEARCH FOR INDUSTRY 273
lishment of standard tests for color fastness, of textile specifications, and
standardization of textile products, from hosiery to cordage.'56
In textile research, as in many other fields, it was through research
associates, trained men from industry itself, that the Bureau rendered its most
direct assistance to industry. Every division had its associates, the largest
numbers in the metallurgy and building materials laboratories of the Bureau.
They were to be found alongside Bureau staff members in almost every
investigation into the manufacture of iron and steel, in the heat, optical,
mechanical laboratories of the metallurgy division and in its experimental
foundry, studying foundry sands, rail steel, high-speed tool steel, and the
spectrographic analysis of atomic composition in metals.'57
Investigations for the building and construction industry ranged
all over the Bureau, from the elevator safety code work of the electrical
division to fire-resistance studies in the heat division. Almost 100 projects
in the chemistry, mechanics and sound, structural engineering, and ceramic
divisions were on behalf of heavy construction or the homebuilding program
of the twenties. One device, made in the mechanics division for an investi-
gation of riveted joints in the construction of Navy ships, was to have wide
application. This was Tuckerman's optical strain gage, devised in 1923,
which gave consistent readings sensitive to two-millionths of an inch of
deformation. It proved as reliable in measuring strains in the duralumin
members in the framework of dirigibles, in concrete models of dams, or in
steel and cement models of building structures, as in ship construction.158
While industry was for the most part highly cooperative, particularly
where the Bureau dealt with problems of research or standardization beyond
the capabilities or resources of industry, it could be stubborn on occasion.
A case in point was the resistance to the idea of uniform screw threads. The
war had amply demonstrated the need for uniformity but the cost of retooling
and fear of competition prevented any real agreement. As the Bureau re-
ported in 1922: "The manufacturing world is not yet fully awake to the
advantages of this type of standardization." 159
Throughout the twenties the National Screw Thread Commission,
the American Engineering Standards Committee, and the Bureau continued
to urge standardization and unification of screw threads and adoption of a
consistent series of allowances and tolerances for greater efficiency in inter-
156 NBS Annual Report 1923, pp. 230—231. H. T. Wade, "Textile research laboratory,"
Sci. Am. Supp. 2, 153 (1920). Some 20 current problems of the cotton industry were
sent to the Bureau in letter, president, National Association of Cotton Manufacturers to
Director, NBS, Feb. 4, 1920 (NBS Box 15,1ST).
157 NBS Annual Report 1923, p. 262; LC197, "Work shops of science" (May 2, 1926).
168 NBS Annual Report 1923, p. 210; Annual Report 1928, p. 15.
"NBS Annual Report 1922, p. 42.