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

438 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE (1946—51)
In the interim, Dr. Crittenden served as Acting Director and Dr.
Condon contented himself with brief visits to the Bureau to acquaint him-
self with its operations and activities. With only his Sundays free, he came
with his master key and toured the unpeopled laboratories looking at work
in progress, read the reports of current research left on his desk, and studied
reports on operational procedures at the Bureau.23
Late in January 1946, Dr. Condon appeared for the first time before
the House Appropriations Subcommittee for the annual hearing •on the
budget. Unaware of the deep affection of the committee members for Dr.
Briggs and their long-standing interest in the Bureau under his direction,
Dr. Condon brought up the subject of Bureau administration. The immedi-
ate order of business, Dr. Condon told the committee, was "to modernize
and systematize the entire administrative activity of the Bureau, which has
just grown up over the years without any special organization unit to co-
ordinate and supervise the work.24 Dr. Briggs and two division chiefs
acting as Assistant Directors had borne the responsibility not only for all
research at the Bureau but for the work of the 141 members of the adminis-
trative staff.25 It seemed to Dr. Condon an impossible task.
Dr. Condon asked for funds for three full-time Assistant Directors
to administer the professional and scientific functions of the Bureau, and
an Executive Director to supervise business management functions. These
four, he said, would "do what Dr. Briggs was doing 'before." As for the
Director of the Bureau, he should not have 13 division chiefs and 4 or 5
administrative heads reporting directly to him for decisions and policy de-
terminations. The greater part of his time should be devoted to "main-
peaceful and military. All Manhattan District facilities, including the Los Alamos
weapons laboratory, the isotope separation plants at Oak Ridge, and the plutonium piles
at Hanford, were turned over to the AEC. It became responsible for procuring ores
of the fissionable heavy metals, uranium and thorium, for converting them into concentrated
pure metal, for manufacturing weapons as well as radioactive isotopes, electric
power reactors for ship propulsion, and generators for electricity. The AEC was also
charged with conducting all research necessary to keep the United States ahead of the
world in atomic development. Finally, the act authorized free international exchange
of basic scientific information when an international arrangement and techniques of
inspection made that possible. See James R. Newman and Byron S. Miller, The Control
of Atomic Energy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 194.8).
23 Interview with Dr. Condon, Oct. 27, 1963.
Hearings * 1947 (Jan. 29, 1946), p. 183.
The assistants were Dr. Crittenden, chief of the electricity division, and Dr. Mc-
Allister, chief of codes and specifications. The latter retired in the spring of 1945 and
had not been replaced when Dr. Condon took over.