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

426 WORLD WAR II RESEARCH (1941-45)
met.169 With the consolidation of the Normandy peninsula, the word "re-
conversion" was heard for the first time. The supply lines were full and
could be maintained with some slacking in production, even though the
strategic planning staff foresaw the war against Japan lasting into 1947.
When V—i Day came on August 14, 1945, 3 months and 6 days after
victory in Europe, American industry had produced 86,000 tanks, 296,000
planes, 4,800 merchant ships, and 71,000 ships for the Navy. In August and
September of 1945 the Army sent out 30,000 telegrams canceling defense
contracts and reconversion began.17° Two months later. in November 1945,
the Bureau began its own reconversion—in organization, staff, and pro-
gram—to research in the postwar world.
109 Nelson, p. 395. Besides new magnesium and synthetic rubber industries, between
1939 and 1945 aluminum production was tripled, machine tool capacity increased seven-
fold, electrical output rose one and a half times its prewar rate, and more iron and steel
were produced than in the entire prewar world. The total plant production in the
Nation almost doubled. Freidel, America in the 20th Century, p. 400.
'T0Kenney, The Crucial Years, 1940—1945, p. 100.
The standard avoirdupois pound of
Queen Elizabeth I, which is believed to
have originally weighed about 7,002
troy grains. It was used as a British
standard from 1588 to 1825.