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

434 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE (1946-51)
takably clear that the major emphasis should remain on its unique
assignment in the field of standards.'4
The amendment of the organic act of the Bureau was to be ac-
complished in 1950. With the cold war growing hot, the question of in-
dustrial research and of consumer standards had become academic. Fur-
thermore, the postwar bent of the Bureau had already been determined by its
new Director, Dr. Edward U. Condon.
EDWARD UHLER CONDON
On May 7, 1945, 4 months before the end of the war in the Pacific,
Dr. Briggs quietly celebrated his 71st birthday. A year beyond the com-
pulsory retirement age, he had served as Director since 1932 under five
Secretaries of Commerce, Roy D. Chapin, Daniel C. Roper, Harry L. Hopkins,
Jesse H. Jones, the first of the year, under Roosevelt's new Secre.
tary, Henry A. Wallace. Anxious to return to the comfort and quiet of his
old laboratory in West building, Dr. Briggs submitted his resignation to
Secretary
Two members of the Bureau, Dr. Eugene C. Crittenden and Dr. Hugh
L. Dryden, came under consideration by the Secretary's Visiting Committee
to the Bureau as Dr. Briggs' successor. Dr. Crittenden, at 65, was the
senior, with 36 years of service in the Bureau. But he felt his health was
not up to the task, and Dr. Briggs urged the candidacy of Dr. Dryden.
Secretary Wallace, however, did not have the advice of his Visiting Com.
mittee in selecting a successor.16 Moreover, he was strongly inclined to find
someone outside the Bureau for the post. He first met his new Director of the
Bureau at a conference of scientists in Chicago.
The successful test of the. atomic bomb at Alamogordo in July 1945
had almost at once aroused concern among scientists over the control of the
14 Letter, V. Bush to Gano Dunn, Nov. 21, 1945, attached to letter, Dunn, Nov. 23.
Dr. Briggs' first years of retirement were spent, at Secretary Wallace's request, com-
piling the report on NBS War Research (1949). Letter, Wallace to LJB, Oct. 11, 1945
(NARG 40, Box 112, file 67009; Pt. 1, 7—12). See also E. U. Condon, "Lyman James
Briggs (1874—1963)," Year Book, Am. Phil. Soc., 1963, pp. 117—121.
Interview with Dr. Briggs, Nov. 1, 1961
Dr. Briggs put his request for retirement on the agenda for the meeting of the Visiting
Committee on June 22, 1945, just prior to his notification to Secretary Wallace. The
chairman of the Visiting Committee subsequently accepted responsibility for the failure
of the Visiting Committee to submit promptly its nominations, in response to his re-
quest, for the Secretary's consideration. In turn, Secretary Wallace acknowledged that
he sent in his own nomination earlier than he had originally contemplated. Reports of
the Visiting Committee to the Secretary of Commerce, July 5, 1945, and Oct. 31, 1945
("Gen Corresp Files of the Director, 1945—1955," Box 6).