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

TECHNOLOGICAL VS. BASIC RESEARCH 449
for the fundamental instrumentation they needed and could not Some
of the new industries, especially those based on electronics, required work
on measurements that had never been done before. And the Bureau had
to continue to supply basic information to many of the new small businesses
that could not afford research laboratories. The funds for this research,
on which the Bureau of the Budget had agreed, were approved, but not
without a struggle.59
Even before final approval, the Bureau began to free itself from con-
siderable industrial-type research, as well as direct research for industry, by
abandoning some of its former lines of investigations or shifting to more
basic aspects. Research in the rare sugars, for example, turned to wider
studies in carbohydrate chemistry and in radioactive carbohydrates. Much
of the basic work in plastics, leather, paper, rubber, and other organic ma-
terials became centered in the new science of high polymers. in optical
glass, production was sharply curtailed and research shifted to the theory and
constitution of glass in general. Because of the delay imposed by the Korean
war, it was 1957 before all production of optical glass ceased and the plant
was dismantled.6°
Still another Bureau activity, its member participation in the work of
the American Standards Association, diminished after 1948 when the as-
sociation was incorporated under the laws of New York State. As a result,
the Department of Commerce and other Federal agencies withdrew from
active participation in the administrative affairs of the association, although
members of the Bureau continued to serve on the council, boards, and tech-
nical committees of the association, as they do to the present day.61
Hearings * * * 1947, p. 203; Hearings * * * 1948, p. 290; Hearings * * * 1950,
p. 483.
In final justification of Bureau funds, Dr. Condon found, at the request of the sub-
committee, that the estimate of total appropriations for all Federal research and de-
velopment in the 1948 budget came to $730 million, of which $10 million, including construction,
equipment, and facilities, represented the Bureau's share (Hearings * * *
1948, pp. 299—300).
NBS Annual Report 1948, pp. 218, 230—231; Annual Report 1951, p. 36; NBS Consolidated
Report on Projects, fiscal year 1958, Project 0902—40—4408; interview with
Clarence H. Hahner, May 6, 1964.
NBS Report 6227, "American Standards Association, Inc." (1958), pp. 11—12 and app.
8. The propriety of NBS membership, on the premise that the Bureau was more consumer-directed
than ASA, was first raised in memo, Soliciter, Department of Commerce,
for Under Secretary of the Department, June 11, 194.3. NBS and Federal withdrawal
was also urged in memo, EUC for Secretary of Commerce Harriman, Oct. 16, 1946, based
on the doubtful legal grounds of the mixed membership and as misleading to the public
(correspondence in NARG 40, Secretary of Commerce, file 75388/18). The formal
resignation of the NBS and Department of Commerce from ASA was accepted in letter,
Secretary ASA to Secretary of Commerce, July 29, 1948 ("General Correspondence Files
of the Director, 1945—1955").