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

TOWARD A REDEFINITION OF BUREAU FUNCTIONS
measure completed or could be continued by non-Government agencies,
and elimination of all others, insofar as they left the basic functions of the
Bureau unimpaired. Those functions, vital to the industries of the Nation,
must be maintained on an effective basis at all costs.7'
The Business Advisory group particularly argued against the com-
mercial standards activities of the Bureau as not matters of scientifIc fact
and accuracy but matters of convenience. Every one of these activities had
created problems of one kind or another, now made acute by the enforced
economy.72 Similar conflicts 'had arisen in the Bureau's industrial research,
and the Business Advisory group therefore recommended that Bureau re-
search should be strictly limited to the development of fundamental stand-
ards for science, medicine, and industry.73
The Science Advisory Board, equally concerned about the reduced
funds of the Bureau and the necessity for some adjustment in its activities,
was both less drastic and more concrete in its recommendations. It urged
that official approval be given to a redefinition of Bureau functions it pro-
posed that would formalize current Bureau activities and,, of more import,
that direct appropriations be made to cover the testing work of the Bureau
for Federal agencies.74
71 Minutes of the joint meeting of the Visiting Committee of the Bureau of Standards
and the Committee on the Bureau of Standards of the Business Advisory and Planning
Council, Dec. 5, 1933 (NARG 40, Box 114, file 67009/5).
The report traced the progress of Bureau acquisition of these activities, from the work
on safety codes in the early century through building and housing codes, standards and
specifications for Federal and State purchasing agencies, and testing of materials pur-
chased by the Government. Closely allied were the trade standards and simplified
practices programs for industry.
Report of the Committee on the Bureau of Standards of the Business Advisory and
Planning Council, Dec. 9, 1933, pp. 15—16 (NARG 40, file 67009/5).
Science Advisory Board, Report, 1933—34, pp. 67—68. The proposed Bureau functions
(ibid., pp. 64—65), harmonizing those of the organic act with those subsequently
sanctioned by acts of Congress, were:
1. To maintain the national standards of measurement and conduct research necessary
for the development of such standards.
2. To calibrate and certify measuring instruments in terms of the national standards,
for the Federal Government and the various States (without charge), and for
scientific, engineering and industrial groups and individuals (at cost), in order
that accurate and uniform standards of measurement may be used throughout the
Nation.
3. To develop improved methods of measurement for use in industry, engineering, and
scientific research.
4. To determine physical constants and the properties of materials and physical sys-
tems "when such data are of great importance to scientific or manufacturing