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

346 THE TIME OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION (1931-40)
were determined by verbal agreement between Dr. Briggs and the committees
to the Bureau. Acting on an earlier House recommendation for "curtail-
ment by limitation of funds," Congress in 1933 made the deepest of its cuts, 54
percent, in its appropriation to the Bureau for "industrial research." It alone
affected more than 100 projects.143
Notable was the cut in the special fund for the "investigation of auto-
motive engines." Supporting some 40 projects in 1932, funds for that work a
year later were down by 30 percent. Among the investigations abandoned
was one on the measurement of the road performance of automobile engines,
undertaken at the request of interested Government agencies. The compara-
tive tests made by the Bureau, indicating marked superiority of one make the
new Ford V—B engine) over all others on the market, understandably dis-
pleased the rest of the industry, and termination of the study precluded
publication of the test results.144
Appropriation cuts, together with impounding of funds, came close
to putting an end to all Bureau participation in both the building and
housing and the standardization programs. With the initial reduction of 40
percent in standardization funds, Secretary of Commerce Roper, with Dr.
Briggs' concurrence, proposed to the American Standards Association that
it take over the major role in that program.145 The work on specifications,
simplified practices, trade standards, and building and safety codes was,
however, to the advantage to many industries, and at once, through their
Congressmen and trade groups, they protested the transfer to ASA, arguing
for the Bureau's impartiality and superior facilities.
As a compromise, Commerce agreed that the Bureau would cooperate
in ASA standardization "under the procedure of the association," continue
143 NBS Annual Report 1931, p. 37, reported 103 projects under this fund. Dr. Briggs
later said that funds for industrial research were finally cut by 88 percent. Hear-
ings * * $ 1935 (Jan.4, 1934),p. 132.
Obviously incomplete was the list in memo, C. J. Humphreys (of the radiometry labora-
tory) for LJB, July 31, 1933 (NBS Box 358, ID), which noted that besides discontinuance
of the specifications, simplified practices, building and housing, and trade standards
divisions, and the safety standards work, other projects dropped included soil corrosion,
telephone standards, preparation of levulose, testing of commercial aircraft engines, and
radio aids to air navigation.
144 See NBS Annual Report 1931, p. 43; Annual Report 1932, p. 34; interview with Dr.
Meggers, Mar. 13, 1962.
Letter, Secretary Roper to Senator A. Lonergan, July 7, 1933; letter, president, ASA
to H. S. Dennison, Nov. 2, 1933, and related correspondence in NBS Blue Folder Box
19, 669c, and NBS Box 356, AG. The proposal for complete transfer of the standardiza-
tion work was reported in Science, 78, 95 (1933).