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

332 THE TIME OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION (1931-40)
(WPA) allotment of $100,000 in 1934, distributed over some 20 projects,
made possible long-deferred repairs to walks, walls, storm sewers, wiring,
and general enhancement of the buildings and grounds.98 Several of the
abler mechanics and technicians of the Bureau, let go earlier, found their
way into these projects and tarried there until they could be restored to the
Bureau payroll.
It was a time of petty economies. The most elementary tools and
supplies could not be obtained through customary supply channels, and Bu-
reau members vividly recall raiding junk heaps for usable parts, and send-
ing assistants with a dollar to Woolworth's downtown to buy pliers, friction
tape, wire, and the like. A small compensation in that period was Dr. Brigg's
successful effort to restore the word "National" in the original name of the
Bureau. For over 30 years, through an administrative whim, the agency
had been simply the "Bureau of Standards." It was "nationalized" again in
With salaries down and insecurity rife, it was a time of tight money.
Across the Nation car sales slumped and nightclubs closed. Theaters gave
away dishes and held bank nights. Hobbies of all sorts boomed. A craze
for crossword puzzles swept the country and contract bridge became a na-
tional pastime. The spirit of speculation found new outlets in card games
and the game of monopoly. And satisfying both the speculative and acquisi.
tive impulses at small cost, stamp collecting in the mid-thirties zoomed from
a hobby to big business, dignified by a President who was an ardent collector
himself, and made profitable by an enterprising Postmaster General, James
A. Farley.
The first slight upturn in the depression came in 1935 when the
Bureau reported "a distinct increase in * * * requests * * * from indus.
tries * * for scientific and technical data." At the same time, as building
activity by Federal and State agencies accelerated, tests and calibration for
Government agencies increased fully 15 percent over the highest previous
year in Bureau history. That year also brought a small increase in Bureau
appropriations, sufficient to rehire some 20 former staff members separated
2 years previously.'00 And the next year, 1936, the consolidation of funds
went into effect, greatly simplifying the Director's bookkeeping and his
sessions before Congress.101
Hearings * * 1936 (Dec. 27, 1934), p. 109; letter, LJB to Secretary of Commerce,
Feb. 20, 1936, sub: Emergency funds administered by the Bureau (NBS Box 394, FA).
The first group of laborers came under the Civilian Works Administration ($50,000) and
NRA ($20,500) in late 1933. Hearings * * * 1935 (Jan. 4, 1934), pp. 134, 137—39.
See ch. I, p. 47.
'°° NBS Annual Report 1935, p. 61. In 1936 half the 10 percent salary cut of 1932
was restored, the remainder in 1937.
Hearings * * * 1937 (Feb. 18, 1936), p. 127.