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

RESEARCH IN CRITICAL MATERIALS 423
tion through, and they wanted them fireproof, windproof, lightproof, mildew-
proof, gasproof, and even bulletproof.
Not only the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, but the War Production
Board, National Research Council, Board of Economic Warfare, and Office
of Price Administration, sought the aid of the Bureau's textile section
under William Appel in creating these fabrics.'60 Since few military fabrics
had to possess more than two or three special characteristics simultaneously,
the Bureau was able to help, providing much of the technical data that aided
in their production. Too difficult even for modern science were the bullet.
proof and edible fabrics allegedly sought, and a solution to their construction
was still not in sight as the war ended.
Among the many problems posed Scribner's paper section was a new
paper for war maps, requested by the Corps of Engineers. In some of the
swift-moving operations in the later stages of the war in Europe, deteriora-
tion of much.used maps became as troublesome as running off the edges of
the maps at hand. Not long before that, however, the problem had been
licked by production of a unique fiber.binding resin paper of great strength,
capable of withstanding treatment that quickly disintegrated ordinary map
papers. Maps printed on it remained serviceable even when soaked with
water or oil and after being trampled in mud and subsequently washed with
soap and water or gasoline. All agencies making war maps in this country
adopted the new paper as standard and quantities of it were sent to Great
Britain under Lend-Lease.16'
Few were the crises of supply faced in World War I that did not
have to be met again in 1940. A conspicuous exception was that of high
precision gage blocks, making possible mass production of interchangeable
parts. At least 10 manufacturers undertook to turn them out in quantity
for industry, and as a result of queries, the Bureau prepared a letter cir-
cular for manufacturers and gage users providing criteria for the acceptance
or rejection of gage blocks.'02 As early production difficulties were solved,
the Bureau thereafter had only the responsibility for calibrating the blocks.
Altogether, more than 76,000 gage blocks and accessories, both English and
metric, passed through the Bureau's hands for the gage manufacturers, the
armed services, war plants, and the Procurement Division. Of more than
24,000 certified in 1944 alone, 50 percent went to the U.S.S.R. by way of
Treasury's Lend-Lease.'63
OSRD interest in this Bureau research, particularly in tropic-proofing and light-proof-
ing of textiles, is briefly reported in W. A. Noyes, Jr., ed., Chemistry (OSRD: Science
in World War II, 1948), pp. 470—471.
NBS War Research, pp. 126—127; RP1751, "Experimental manufacture of paper
for war maps" (Weber and Shaw, 1946).
'62LC725 (1943).
103 MS Annual Report 1944, n.p.