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

490 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE (1946-51)
The determination of physical constants and properties of materials
when such data are of great importance to scientific or manufactur-
ing interests and are not to be obtained of sufficient accuracy
elsewhere.
The development of methods for testing materials, mechanisms, and
structures, and the testing of materials, supplies, and equipment,
including items purchased for use of Government departments and
independent establishments.
Cooperation with other governmental agencies and with private
organizations in the establishment of standard practices, incorpo-
rated in codes and specifications.
Advisory service to Government agencies on scientific and technical
problems.
Invention and development of devices to serve special needs of the
Government.
The first two functions encompassed the original organic act and were vir-
tually identical with the statements of responsibilities. The next two con-
firmed the responsibilities acquired through the special appropriations that
Congress had made to the Bureau over the years. The last two functions rep-
resented Bureau responsibilities accrued under transferred funds from other
Federal agencies, as established by acts of 1920 and 1932 (see app. C) and,
affirming its advisory capacity, gave a firm legal basis to what had become
the dominant direction of the Bureau.
Spelled out in the amendment were 19 specific activities of the Bureau
which the Secretary of Commerce was authorized to undertake in carrying
out these functions.'72
Public Law 619 was approved on July 22, 1950, 4 months before the
Korean incident became a full-fledged conflict and put the Nation on a war-
time footing once again. In the national emergency, the Federal Govern-
ment reopened its synthetic rubber plants that had been on a standby basis,
and ordered stepped UI) production at the Bureau of optical glass for use
in large optical elements. Proximity faze and guided missile development
was at once greatly intensified, as were other defense projects at the Bureau,
including some scheduled for termination.'73
Anticipating the acceleration in scientific research, a program of re-
search in basic instrumentation was initiated, in cooperation with the Depart-
The complete amendment appears in app. C. See also "Bureau of Standards Func-
tions," Ft. Rept. 2349, to accompany S. 2201, 81st Cong., 2d sess. [July 22, 19501; NBS
BuMemo 50—7, Apr. 24, 1950; BuOrd 51—12, Aug. 11, 1950.
NBS Annual Report 1951, pp. 2, 8, 9, 59, 84.