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

CURTAILMENT BY LIMITATION OF FUNDS
the aurora borealis, and of sun-spot activity and its attendant magnetic
storms.163
The Second Polar Year, with more countries and more branches of
science involved, again centered its studies on meteorology, magnetism, and
aurora in the the Arctic, where their effects are strongest and most free from
the contamination of civilization. Among prominent new objectives of the
Year was the work planned in space phenomena, primarily the study of their
effects on radio transmission. Representing the United States were the
National Bureau of Standards, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Depart-
ment of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution, and the Naval
Research Laboratory.
The Year unfortunately fell during the worst phase of the worldwide
depression. The Bureau had planned to carry out extensive new measure-
ments of the heights and degree of ionization of the ionosphere layers at the
station set up at Fairbanks, Alaska. Instead, its participation was limited
to the preparation of certain computations for the expedition and construc-
tion of some of the automatic recording instruments used by members of the
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.164 More active participation and
extensive research awaited the International Geophysical Year of 1957—59.
The strides of radio and aeronautics in the 1920's made possible the
far-ranging exploration that created headlines all through the thirties.
Byrd's flight to the North Pole in 1926 was followed by his Antarctic expe-
ditions, sponsored by the National Geographic Society, in 1933 and 1934.
Through Dr. Briggs's chairmanship of the special advisory committee and
later the research committee of the society, the Bureau took part in the Ant-
arctic studies, as it did in almost every expedition of the society during that
decade, actively assisting in the preparation, providing special instrumenta-
tion, and in many instances sending staff members along on. the expeditions.
With Dr. Briggs, Dr. Tuckerman, and other Bureau members as-
sisting in instrumentation and computations, the National Geographic Society
in 1934 and 1935 sponsored two flights into the stratosphere in the largest
free balloons constructed up to that time. In the first ascension, the balloon
carried more than a ton of scientific instruments arranged by Dr. Briggs,
including special meteorographs, electric thermometers, and spectrographs
designed or constructed at the Bureau. Manned by two Army Air Corps
officers, the huge balloon reached the unprecedented height of 72,395 feet or
almost 14 miles. Instruments aboard the gondola recorded data on cosmic
radiation, sun and sky spectra, and the ozone layer, collected air samples and
information on the functioning of radio equipment at extreme altitudes, and
163 The two Polar Years are compared in J. Tuzo Wilson, I.G.Y.: The Year of the New
Moons (New York: Knopf, 1961), pp. 6—8.
Science, 76, 187 (1932); NBS Annual Report 1933, p. 48.
355