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

RESEARCH IN CRiTICAL MATERIALS 415
properties of the steel, became one of the most important jobs done in 1942
and 194.3.138 A significant contribution was the finding made by a Bureau
group headed by Thomas G. Digges under NDRC contract, that boron, avail-
able in unlimited quantity, might be substituted for a part of the chrome
ores commonly used in making hard steel.139
The anticipated shortage of chromium-nickel stainless steel launched
an investigation under W. H. Mutchier for a substitute for the firewalls
between the engine and cockpit of planes. Low-carbon sheet steel with
either a thin stainless-steel coating or aluminum coating was found most
satisfactory, withstanding high-temperature flames for periods up to 15 min-
utes without failing. Another acceptable substitute was steel coated with a
special heat-resistant vitreous enamel, in place of stainless steel, in the exhaust
manifolds on airplane engines and landing
Bureau specialists in metallic erosion and corrosion, in protective
coatings, and electroplating were on constant call by industry and the services.
Over 5,000 industrial or service items were submitted for solution of coating
problems or determination of the effectiveness of metallic or organic (i.e.,
emulsion or wax) coatings applied against high humidity or salt water. They
included food cans, almost all munitions, helmet parts, lifeboat, aircraft navi-
gation, and field equipment, electrical instruments, proximity fuzes, and var-
ious firing mechanisms. Even so small an item as the match came to the
Bureau for a coating. With the protection devised for their use in the tropics,
the matches withstood 5 days' exposure to 95 percent relative humidity or,
equally well, immersion in water for 5 hours.14'
Under William Blum, the electrodeposition section saved tons of
precious copper and nickel in the manufacture of printing plates for the Gov-
ernment Printing Office when it showed that these metals could be replaced
by iron deposited from suitable plating baths. The section also made im-
provements in the properties of chromium plating of gun barrels that in the
case of machine guns increased the life of the barrel by 30 times over steel
barrels. Substitution of steel for brass in cartridge cases, it was found, re-
quired coating the cases with electroplated zinc. A baked phenolic varnish
also worked well. Other items made serviceable by electroplating with
138 Nelson, p. 351.
130 Report, NBS to Secretary of Commerce, Mar. 10, 1943 (NBS Box 482, PRM);
RP1705, "Spectrographic determination of boron in steel" (Corliss and Scribner, 1946);
Suits, Harrison and Jordan, eds., Applied Physics, Electronics, Optics, Metallurgy, pp.
359—360; NBS War Research, pp. 142—144.
140 MS Annual Report 1943; NBS War Research, p. 149.
Division V report, January 1943 (NBS Box 488, PRM).